We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Benton Elliot is back as Head Coach for the Chinook Lions Swim Team. Elliot swam for the Lions for years before taking the whistle last summer to coach the team.
Harlem Swim Team Head Coach Andrew Rasmussen relays the lap count to his swimmer at the Harlem Swim Meet earlier this year. Rasmussen, 19, is in his fourth year as Head Coach of the Harlem swimmers.
They say the Montana Federation is one big family, a tight-knit group that supports one another each week in helping ensure the kids, teams, coaches, parents and friends get to experience the summer in the most enjoyable way. Well if one needs to look for an example of this 'family' taking a look at the Head Coaches for the Chinook Lions and Harlem Swim teams is a great place to start.
Chinook is under the tutelage of Head Coach Benton Elliot while Harlem is being led by Andrew Rasmussen. Both were highly successful while swimming and both took home plenty of hardware during their time in the pool. Both are Class of 2021 graduates and while competing against each other had many epic photo finishes, especially in the 100 Meter Freestyle race.
Andrew is now in his fourth year as head Coach of the Harlem swimmers after taking over the reigns at the age of 15 when a coach couldn't be found. Andrew didn't stop swimming, in fact he did both, swim and coach up until this summer. "When I was 15, It was hard, I was overwhelmed. There was so much to do and I had to learn a lot while still swimming myself," said Rasmussen. "Now it's not much of an issue and I can just go with it.
Rasmussen has his kids in the pool Monday through Thursday with the older kids practicing twice a day and the ten and under age groups going just once. Friday he likes to give his swimmers a travel day, some time to get prepared for the meets on Saturday and Sunday.
The summer swim schedule is non stop and if you don't schedule time away from the pool it is possible to be swimming every day of the summer season. Both Rasmussen and Elliot were active in high school athletics as well and their years of swimming in the pool as member of the team have surely helped them prepare for their current roll, but it's still a heck of a commitment.
Elliot has 36 kids out this season and getting quality practice time with a group that size takes time. The Chinook Lions practice schedule is hectic to say the least. At 7:30 in the morning the 13-19 year old swimmers are in the pool. Immidiately following that group at 8:45 are the 9-12 year olds. The eight and under kids get started at 10:00 with the little lions going at 11:00.
The pool is then opened to the public for open swimming but the coach still has another practice left. 5:00-6:00 pm all swimmers return for an evening practice minus the younger kids. "Almost every Saturday and Sunday we will have meets," said Elliot. "The last couple weeks in practice we have been doing a different stroke every day. This week we are going to do the same thing, but shorten how much time we spend on the strokes and start to add more conditioning."
Elliot wants to make sure his swimmers are prepared each time they start a race, "In the next few weeks the practice will start to get harder and harder for the kids. Fridays we always spend the practice doing dives and turns. I think this is one of the most overlooked parts of swimming, you can easily win or lose races on your dives and turns."
Elliot is confident in his ability to coach the team, "I swam for 13 years before I became a coach, the transition was weird but I now realize how much time/effort goes into being a coach that I feel like some people don't realize. There's definitely times when I'm coaching that I wish I could go back to swimming. When I went into scheduling practices I knew what helped me out the most when I swam. I also thought it would be crucial for the kids to know all the strokes."
"I haven't asked past coaches for much advice when it came to scheduling the practices, but when I knew a kid was doing something wrong in the water, but I couldn't quite tell what, I was never afraid to ask for their opinion. I've tried to compare football or basketball to swimming, but it's just so different. In football and basketball you inspire kids to work hard by giving them playing time or not giving them playing time. But in swimming it's an individual sport and you'll be able to compete on the weekends whether you show to practice and work hard or not. So I found that encouraging them goes way farther than anything else."
Coaching should always be rewarding in some aspect, "My favorite part of coaching is just seeing the kids get better and being excited whenever they cut time," concluded Elliot.
