MHS swimmers having fun again
Under Rose's leadership, athletes enjoy successful season
By Thomas Gase tgase@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers COOLING OFF- From left, Moorpark High swimmers Chris Beattie, Michael Lorch, Morgan Baker, Tucker Zimmerman, Nathan Calvert, Chris Barnes and Alanah Bird all qualified for this week's CIF-Southern Section Prelims at Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach.

Moorpark High swimmers compete in events such as the 50 freestyle, 100 IM and 200 breast stroke, but the program as a whole has done a complete 180 this year.

After struggling the past few seasons, MHS hired Conejo Simi Aquatics Youth League (CSA) coach Garrett Rose in January to help turn the program around.

With many team members having a chance to do well in the CIF-Southern Section Swimming Championships this weekend, Rose is impressed with how far the team has come in 2007.

"It's been a huge success for us this year," Rose said. "My job was to get the swimmers in a mind-frame of taking high school swimming very seriously, and the kids have put in a great effort and have gone the whole nine yards.

"This isn't just a P.E. class anymore that you came to if you didn't make another sport. A lot of the kids have broken personal records, and as a whole I think the team has done even better than I expected they would."

Senior Tucker Zimmerman said Rose came in to coach at just the right time in his swimming career.

"I think everyone was more motivated to swim this year," Zimmerman said. "It felt awesome to finally be surrounded by people who shared the same views as me with swimming and cared as much about it."

Leading the Musketeers this season has been the 200 and 400meter relay team consisting of junior Michael Lorch and seniors Nathan Calvert, Chris Beattie and Zimmerman. Senior Chris Barnes serves as an alternate.

Beattie, who's headed to Cal Lutheran in the fall, said he's loved this season's swim team at Moorpark.

"It was a real change of pace this year," Beattie said. "We were a little uneasy at first about having this new guy come in and coach us, but it didn't take long for us to realize he was a good coach."

Besides being part of the relay team, Beattie also swims the 50 and 100 freestyle events. Rose said Beattie has been a leader for the Musketeers.

"He's a leader not only in the pool but out of the pool for us," Rose said. "Not only is he a great swimmer, but he also helps the coaches get everything coordinated, which has been great for me."

Another reason MHS has seen improvements is the swimming of Zimmerman. Besides the relay team, Zimmerman competes in the 200 freestyle.

"He is exceptional in the freestyle events and is one of the best technical swimmers I have ever seen," Rose said. "This year he has learned to swim fast, and by that I mean he is swimming an entire race smart."

On the girls' side, the Musketeers' future looks bright with freshman Alanah Bird leading the way. Bird swims in many events but is hoping to do the most damage in the 100 breast stroke and 200 IM at CIF on Saturday.

"I've always loved the 100 breast stroke because it always seemed to be really challenging," Bird said. "I've gotten a time of 1:09.07, but I'm hoping to get a time of under 1:04 before I'm finished at Moorpark."

Bird said she enjoyed swimming this year more than she thought she would, as she had to struggle while coming back from a left shoulder injury.

"I had tendonitis in my left shoulder, so the first couple of weeks I had to miss, and the first couple of times I swam it was really hard," Bird said. "Eventually I got over the injury, and I was able to improve on my sets."

Junior Morgan Baker has also been a big factor in Moorpark's success.

Although Rose has been one of the main reasons for the turnaround of the Musketeer program, he insists a lot of the credit has to go to his assistant coach Peter Fulks, who had previously worked with him at CSA.

"Pete is a very technical person, especially when it comes to strokes and training," Rose said. "There is a good balance in coaching on this team with what he does and what I do."

Fulks, who once swam for CLU, is glad to help.

"I'll never forget the look on the swimmers' faces the first day of practice," Fulks said with a laugh. "They were so shocked and weren't used to having things run they way we ran them.

"They were used to having someone that also coached water polo or some other sport coach them," he said. "Garrett and I are strictly swimming coaches, and it didn't take a long time for the kids to figure that out."

Although Rose said the team has come a long way, there's still room for improvement.

"It's been a fun season, and the kids seem more educated about swimming now," Rose said. "A lot of them are now going out for club teams because they enjoy the sport so much, and that's something I take a lot of pride in.

"That being said, we still need to continue to build here at Moorpark. We need more people involved and more people swimming in order to continue the path we are on."

The CIFSS Division II Swimming Championships will take place Saturday in Long Beach.