Mike Kobeler, head coach of Nitro
Nitro Swimming in Austin, Texas, one of the largest USA Swimming clubs in the country, has all of their swimmers back in the water as of Monday. This comes after the state of Texas began to ease coronavirus restrictions.
According to head coach Mike Koleber, the “kids and parents are ecstatic,” and that the team staff has been holding workouts all day and into the night to get as many swimmers in the pool as possible with no more than 2 per lane.
Nitro Swimming owns 2 of its own indoor 50 meter pools in the Austin areas of Bee Cave and Cedar Park. They also train swimmers in the winter months out of a satellite location in the Steiner Ranch community, a swim school in Fort Wayne, and are working on a 3rd 50-meter pool in the Austin area.
All this to say: Nitro has a lot of water to work with.
The team’s top swimmers were in the water on May 11, with other groups joining them on May 18.
Texas allowed pools to reopen at 25% capacity beginning on May 8th, though Austin officials have been more cautious in their reopening.
As of April, Nitro had 2,216 registered athlete members, including 991 year-round athletes and 1,226 flex athletes. The club has no current National Team or Junior National Team members among its representations, but several former Nitro swimmers who have moved on to big-time college and/or pro careers could use this as an opportunity to return to the water.
On the eve of the program’s big reopening, Kobeler sent out a poem he wrote in the style of the holiday classic ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’ (better known as ‘The Night Before Christmas’):
‘Twas the night before Nitro,
And all through the pool;
For 2 months all’s been closed,
Yes even the schools.
But during this time
Behind the dim scene,
Nitro Staff all were busy,
And wow did they clean!
First up was the deck,
How they scrubbed and they washed.
Next up were the toilets,
Now they sparkle when flushed.
All drains, air returns,
and vents were removed.
They too were cleaned brightly,
Yes each little groove.
And paint, oh the paint
New coats everywhere!
For sure you will notice,
And some just might stare!
So much was accomplished
Checked off on our list;
But know in your hearts,
You all have been missed!
As we take to the water
And climb to new heights,
Happy Swimming to All
And to all a good Night!
Nitro proud! Go Nitro!
Visible Improvement. Delivered with Passion & Joy. Every Day. -Nitro Mission Statement
#NitroNation #StayFocused #NewBeginning
Awesome! Texas rocks, California sucks!
Jesus
Austin, Texas is basically California.
*with humidity
So glad to be coaching again! The kids are so happy to be swimming. And we are taking tons of safety precautions.
Fantastic! Do it right. Help set the example. Show the way out from under this nightmare!
Glad to hear it. Good for them. They run a great program and are fun to compete against. Great coaches / people on that staff.
Texas rocks!! Personal responsibility is always the way to go!!
Sure. That’s fine. All we can do is the best we can. Regulation only can do so much and in many cases, over regulation does more harm than good. Let’s not act like we haven’t had swimmers who were sick at a big meet and competed. And for those 18-under, according to CDC numbers, this is less deadly than the flu by orders of magnitude.
Thank you for voluntarily sacrificing your livelihood and the livelihood of others at this time. You can’t ask for better test subjects.
>according to CDC numbers, this is less deadly than the flu by orders of magnitude.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
For
Those 18-under. Read it again and then dispute it.
You do realize that those 18 and under get infected at the same rate as older adults, and then go home to infect parents and grandparents? Today, South Korea opened 66 schools near Seoul and closed them 2 hours later after finding infected students.
Did you see the recent speech from the chief scientist of the WHO that children are rarely the first one in their house to catch it? Children are not thought to be spreaders and don’t catch it severely when they catch it from the adults in their house.
https://news.yahoo.com/who-chief-children-coronavirus-schools-111020285.html
22 countries already have schools open. Facts, not fear, psychodad. What’s your next argument?
This remark is not to criticize Nitro for re-opening. I support that. Our oldest son has been practicing for a week and half in another club. Knowing Nitro coaches and Mike, they will do everything possible to keep everyone safe.
I am happy for Nitro too. I have an ex swimmer at WHAC and they aren’t moving as quickly.
All I’m asking is you actually use data and facts and not media driven fear narrative. That’s our only way out of this mess.
USA is way behind the curve on this thing and we need to stop the overreacting now.
Be well psychodad.
I was going to go there and train until I read no jr nat or nat swimmers. I’d rather not train!!!!!
That means national TEAM or jr National TEAM. There are like 150 of those in the whole country. They have plenty of qualifiers for jr nationals and nationals.
Until Mike and Nitro fix their SD and Performance groups training schedules, this will continue to be the case. I am not talking about the current training schedule but their normal one. It’s terrible. So many early mornings and others until 9:15 at night. It’s awful. No elite athletes should train that way. Do better Nitro and you might rediscover your past successes. But until you prioritize your fast senior swimmers and give them proper training slots, more mediocrity is the forecast.
That’s a real rough take, given the circumstances. I think right now, everyone’s trying to do what they can. Sure aren’t going to have the 10 & unders training at 9:15PM.
I mean, what time do you think HS kids are going to bed these days with no school? Maybe 1AM? 2AM? 9:15 is practically pre-dinner.
I agree with Braden. At least it’s something. Also, while they don’t have the dominating performances they used to at national level, they haven’t exactly slowed down in the 14&U group.
Performances at TAGS are anything but mediocre and didn’t they just hire Dave Thomas? Pretty sure that group is only going to get significantly stronger.
PONYPUNCH said he was talking about their non-coronavirus training schedule, meaning the schedule they have while high schoolers are attending school at normal times.
i agree with Braden. if i was a parent, and my kid had the opportunity to do what they love most and what would undoubtedly be the ticket to their future when they’ve been denied it for weeks at any time of day, you better believe i’d let them
I was just joking btw… considering that quip was included in the article… I didn’t mean to start some drama. I don’t know anything about Texas clubs
I’ve had 8-10pm practice for a winter before, wasn’t great but you get used to it pretty quick. Not the end of the world, and any pool time is a blessing right now.
During the school year our senior group has been training until 9:00pm for three of its weekly practices for at least the past 15 years my kids have been swimming. My kids prefer that to the after school and earlier practices they have twice a week. Our club doesn’t offer two-a-days for much of the year, but when they do it follows the 9:00pm days so is a short turnaround. Pool time is limited and hard to find everywhere. Who would you suggest take that evening time slot?
Texas rocks!
Texas going big! Love it.