Swimming in Austin keeps getting more-and-more interesting. The Longhorn Aquatics program, which has its greatest national notoriety as the club representation of the University of Texas’ pro swimmers, opened its second site in March of 2013 in the Austin suburb of Pflugerville.
The satellite location, which trains out of the 8-lane 25-meter Gilleland Pool, has received heavy enough demand that they have hired Scott Gainey as the new site’s program director and co-coach, alongside Pflugerville site lead and Olympic gold medalist Doug Russell (aka the man who beat Mark Spitz in the 100 fly at the 1968 Olympics).
Both Gainey and Russell came to Longhorn after defecting from intra-city rivals Nitro Swimming.Gainey also has previous stops at Irvine NovAquatics and as the head coach of the Empire Aquatic Club in California.
That said, although Nitro lost some important coaches last few months, I have to say I am happy with young coaches coach Mike (the owner) hired for the Cedar Park location recently. Lots of good energy and coaching going on these days.
Coach Scott is a great coach and big loss for Nitro. I knew he was gone ever since he was replaced as head coach for TAGS 1 group after some stupid parents complained of too low mileage. Our daughter was lucky to have him coach her for last 4-5 months in another group.