Perhaps best-known right now as the voice of televised swimming, Olympic gold medalist and International Swimming Hall of Fame member Rowdy Gaines is now set to impact the sport in a new way. The 55-year-old Gaines announced over the weekend that he has been named Vice President of Aquatics for the Central Florida YMCA, overseeing 30 different facilities in the Orlando area.
Gaines gives plenty more details in the three-and-a-half minute video above, but one notable theme is that Gaines intends to model the Central Florida program after David Marsh‘s SwimMAC Carolina club, perhaps forming another “super-club” in the Orlando area.
After spending the weekend covering the men’s NCAA Championships for ESPN3, Gaines expressed excitement to get involved with the sport in a new way than through the press box he’s manned for every major televised competition the past decade. Check out the full video for more thoughts from Gaines moving forward, plus the major goals for his new club system.
As a parent of 2 swimmers and going from a small team into a larger one – I can say to those who are throwing around negative comments about the Bullets or any other large team with multiple sites, don’t judge until you know full details about said teams. My kids wear their Bullets gear proudly and love being a part of this team. We have been on other teams and Bullets strive very hard to make everyone feel like they are apart of the team, regardless of abilities. There are always opportunities for every swimmer to compete and train. The team philosophy from the day 1 has always been ONE TEAM. The coaches, swimmers and parents ALL support this… Read more »
Before my small old team ever merged with Bullets, I always thought that these were the closest friends and coaches I’ll ever have for a one site team. Of course, I was wrong. Our old team merged with the Academy Bullets and I can tell you that this was the best decision in my swimming career so far. As practices began with the new coach for our site, it was a huge step for all my friends and myself. Our site coach, Jeremy, educated us not only in swimming but individually seeing why we are made of. As an elite swimmer, I’ve drastically improved my swimming not only because of Jeremy, but because of my friends all over the Bullets… Read more »
The Academy Bullets Swim Club is the closest swim team in Illinois. You are all speaking to the swimmers themselves. No matter what you say, my best friends and I will stick up for our team because we cannot stand the ignorance of all of the outsiders. I invite you to follow any of us on social media to see how much we correspond and tell us, then, that we do not even know one another.
One time someone on the Academy Bullets punched me…it was awesome
Isn’t a coaches greatest accomplishment about coaching swimming seeing your swimmers rise from a 10 and under to competing at the national level, or high school level? How can you do that at a team like Academy’s? Especially when swimmers who were taught to swim at a different club team then move to Bullets? There is not as much of a swimmer to coach relationship that a swimmer can receive at a smaller club team. As a coach I don’t know how you can feel like you are accomplishing anything while coaching at a team like Academy Bullets. How can you watch your swimmers grow with new locations being added, swimmers and coaches moving in an out, and so many… Read more »
Yep, I have no idea what I’m talking about. I’ve only been coaching in IL and IN for 10 years and before that, swimming in IL LSC for 20 years. I’ve watch numerous clubs grow in the LSC but what ACAD is doing doesn’t make sense to me. How can you call it the same team when they are hundreds of miles apart with different head coaches and philosophies at each site yet they come together at big meets as one team. They celebrate state championships as a team when sadly it’s really 5-8 different teams that won with the money all funneling into one man’s bank account. Don’t see how that’s good for the kids or the sport.
So because my team is the largest in Illinois and has multiple sites hundreds of miles apart, we suddenly aren’t considered one team? Explain to me how for some reason we all come together every Saturday for a team practice, go out to breakfast with each other regularly, hang out on weekends because we choose to be with our teammates, and even have training trips as a TEAM to all of our sites because we obviously barely know each other at all. I’ve spent one season with this team and I have never felt more apart of anything in my whole lifetime. I’m rather sorry that you have the unfortunate ability to not process that people from different sites, hundreds… Read more »
Thank you coach T, you certainly have done something positive for the Bullets, you’ve actually brought us even closer together trying to prove our relationships and all.
More athletes in the program increase the odds you will develop elite swimmers. How many of the top 10 teams from Jr Nats, Nationals even Y Nationals come from programs with 200 or less kids on the team? A program that touches 400, 500 or up to 1,000 kids are going to find athletes. The “big box swim clubs” will drive the team points, but don’t forget about the value a one site program brings to an athletes development.
Highlander Aquatics, strangely enough they’re from Orlando!
I stand corrected, don’t forget the lesson/feeder program Highlander runs also in your athlete totals.
We have loved being a part of Bill Christensen’s North Texas Nadadores which is a one site team. The men, especially, have done well at national meets. They were third at the 2012 Winter Juniors and top ten at the 2013 Winter Juniors. Not bad for a team of about 250 swimmers!
Couple of comments. Was in Orlando for the first time about two weeks ago. Watched a meet at one YMCA facility, worked out at another YMCA facility. Both were really nice. YMCA is apparently a very big deal in Florida in a way that it isn’t in California. Rowdy will be stepping in to an outstanding infrastructure.
As for the “best for the athletes” question. Will have to think about that some more. But, our club has just started down this path, operating out of two pools. One of the benefits was when it came to attending Winter Jrs, a bigger group of kids got to attend as one. This allowed them both to have a more sizeable cheering… Read more »