Seton Hall University
ACHA M2 • CSCHC
Date: April 15, 2024
Would Recommend
Tags
I had a great 4 years in a swimming sense. I improved, had okay years, and had bad years. It is part of the sport. but I genuinely believe I could have done better with a different head coach. For example, I had made a mistake senior year. A mistake that could have been moved on from quickly if Derek had the mental and emotional capacity to forgive someone of their mistakes. Instead I was met with rudeness, death stares when I walked past derek (I had a friend notice and inform me). I would ask a simple question, and he would yell the response back to me. There is no room for learning from your mistakes, you must be perfect at all times. Along with this, the lack of transparency is worrying. Itineraries are sent a day or two before a travel trip, if you question what is being done it is usually met with "because I said so" or "Because this is the right way", and worst of all, if there are any swimmer suggestions, they are met as though it is an insult. In any sport, once an athlete cannot communicate openly with a coach, the relationship is pointless. Looking at the results also, it seems like administration does not care for this program. It is sad to see a coach destroying a program with an administration that doesn't care. He will try to clean up his act from not showing up this year, but will return to his normal immature behavior come the fall. He did not show up to practices this year due to child care responsibilities that should have been taken care of out of work. It is not clear how much administration knows about this. This is all before the lack of swim knowledge and recruiting he does, which can speak for itself when you look at results.