Hansen Addresses Media
October 08, 2007 | Men's Swimming & Diving
Ninth-year Wisconsin head swimming coach Eric Hansen addressed the media on Monday and commented on the 2007-08 season. The Badgers host two back-to-back meets Thursday and Friday at the Natatorium against Big Ten opponent Iowa and UW-Milwaukee.
To watch the video of this interview please click id=1229"> --> here .
The full transcript of Hansen's remarks is below.
Opening Comment: We're just coming off our first dual meet up in Green Bay. Both teams were successful in our debut at 1 and 0. I 'm really pleased with the group of freshmen; we have 22 freshmen on our team, which is a large task in terms of learning and teaching, but I'm really, really excited about the group we have.
The other thing that's new to our program is Daniel Kowalski. He's one of our new assistants from Australia and has an incredible resume, and he's already had an impact on our program.
This Thursday and Friday, we open our Big Ten season against the University of Iowa at 5 p.m. on Thursday. Then on Friday, we will have UW-Milwaukee to round out our game schedule. It's an exciting year for us. It's a bit unknown, but like I said earlier, I really enjoy the work ethic of the kids I have.
It's a great team; It's a tight team. And at the end of the season, we 'll start preparing for the Olympic Trials, which will take place the last week in June and finish July 5th in Omaha, Nebraska. So there's a buzz to this season. We 're excited for it and look forward to the opportunities ahead.
QUESTION #1: What's your greatest challenge with the number of freshmen that you have, Eric'
HANSEN: You know, I'm happy to say that just time and repetition. We kind of having a saying `it's going to take 1,000 reps before we get it right'. And it's not really, it's not a chemistry thing, which is nice. I've see that before when you bring in so many freshman, but more or less, it's just giving them what they need in order to progress.
QUESTION #2: What are your expectations this year, Eric, for your squad' Obviously, the program seems to be on an upswing, but what's your expectation again considering its youth'
HANSEN: I think our expectations are first and foremost, to get back into the top 20 (in the NCAAs) on both sides. From there, it 's kind of an unknown. We're not going to worry about that. We worry about our day-to-day operations, and how each kid does business, and how each kid learns, and make sure they get what they need.
And we have some young talent that I think is going to be heard from by the end of the year, and we also have some phenomenal upperclassmen. Jackie Vavrek, for example, on the women's side, just missed the Big Ten record and she really thinks we can final the Olympic Trials. So in terms of the NCAA season, we're looking to get back into the top 20 on both sides and then see how far we can climb from there.
QUESTION #3: Eric, how many people do you have besides Jackie that might be looking at Olympic Trials, a possibility for the summer '
HANSEN: We're hoping to qualify anywhere between 12 and 20 individuals that we'll take from our program to Omaha to participate in (the Olympic Trials), which is a great number. Quite honestly, in 2004, at the U.S. Olympic Trials, I think was the greatest meet since I've been here in this program. And it's not just because Carly (Piper) made the Olympic Team and did what she did. It's that we took 11 kids to the Olympic Trials, and eight of them all made it past the initial first round into semis and finals. So we kind of had a dream meet there. And I think we learned a lot from that, and, you know, we're going to continue to move in that direction.
QUESTION #4: How do you feel about having only these two home meets' Is that something you're just going to live with '
HANSEN: Yeah, we're going to live with it. As a staff, we talked a lot at the beginning of this season about being better about not worrying about the things we can't control. We seek out the best competition. And the administration has offered us a budget to be able to do that. So we do, we go down and see the University of Arizona each year and usually get in Arizona State or even Penn State, and travel to swim there. But we try to get to the competition that we need to get to, and it would be great to have more home meets, but we'll cycle through that and try to bump it up as we go here.
