University of Southern Indiana
NCAA DII • OVC
Date: November 23, 2025
Would Recommend
Tags
I'm easily motivated and enthusiastic about swimming and have always been till now. I'm a good student, a and enjoy challenges, a bit of an overachiever you could say. Coach Kainer totally sells his recruits on the idea they are joining this up and coming, fully resourced, high end and highly competitive D1 (just what student athletes like to hear!) program and he is giving you the opportunity and exclusivity to join at the ground level and be a part of something amazing. I'm a bit ashamed to admit it , but I completely fell for his hype and can only say to other student athletes who are talking with him, its just that, ALL TALK. What I got was a complete 180 once I joined Coach Kainer's program. After only one season with this coach, competitive swimming really lost or lacked all the things I loved about it. I knew college and competing in a new environment, new people, would all be a learning curve but most, if not all, of the resources I was told I would have access to were never present and never manifested. Coach Cam penalized swimmers that prioritized classes over his constantly changing practice schedule. I endured it first hand being an engineering major. He had a very passive aggressive response of demoting relay positions instead even if you had better times than teammates. The team's 'culture' was more of a culture shock where the rumor mill ran rampid, tumultuous intersquad relationships were the norm and Coach Cam did nothing to keep it to a minimum. It was harder competing against my own teammates on a daily basis to get acknowledgment from him rather than other schools. Fundamentals like technique, focus work, underwaters and stations hardly even happened and garbage yardage and sets like 200 Tuesdays were more than just Tuesdays (even if you were a sprinter who swam only 50s and 100s). He made me feel uncomfortable at times watching his interactions with his female swimmers and commonly heard him first-hand make inappropriate or derogatory comments about them with respect to weight, personal hygiene and even promiscuity. Team bonding was non-existent and when we were required to get together and support other sports within USI, the same people always got to leave early or were excused and I personally was penalized more than once and not allow to swim at a meet or travel when I was unable to get off work to attend something he made mandatory at the last minute. My parents on a number of occasions tried to get more involved and donate and not even a check could get an email, a thank you or text message response. I kept my head down and put up points thinking my swimming would earn his respect and solidify my place among teammates and it never did. I really hoped to have the type of student-athlete experience where I could make amazing memories and tell my kids stories about the awesome experiences having this opportunity gave me that they could some day look forward to but, this coach is definitely not D1 quality even if it is a 'newer' program with growing pains and establishing itself. I would NEVER trust this coach with my own child after what I experienced. The only amazing thing about it all has been his inability to fulfill promises and disappoint. For the longest time, he honestly had make believing that I was the only reason I was not having a good experience. Being a D1, NCAA, SEC etc student-athlete is idealized these days and there's a huge allure to saying you're part of such a program. Please take the time to look at the stats and experiences this coach had himself as a student athlete and it will be clear what he has to offer, NOTHING. You can throw out all kinds of statistics and pics of kids having amazing swims and crushing it on social media to make a program like this look even more appealing and sound great but its like putting lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig.