Swim Hard - Party Hard!!!
Prior to the New England Short Course Championships, I had a chance to chat with Frank McQuiqqan who is one of the leaders of this merry band of swimmers. His thoughts on the status of Rhode Island Swimming, SwimRI's tremendous growth and success, and how to have a little fun in the process, are below.
Frank, can you speak about SwimRI’s genesis and its current composition of teams?
I think it would be best to start with a couple of basics. SwimRI is made up of several groups. Each has its’ own story and many swimmers train with more than one group.
SwimRI is composed of several groups in the Rhode Island area. The three main workout groups (by way of numbers) involved with Swim RI are: The one I am most involved with, the East Providence Masters that train at EP High School, the South County Y Masters, which are run by Fred Bartlett and the newest of the workout groups, the Seekonk Geezers run by Jackie Hirsty. In addition there are other swimmers who primarily train with the Barrington Y and Kent County Y masters as well as small groups at both CCRI and Brown. How did we come together? The short version is that many of our swimmers train with two or more groups and when it came time for NEM Championship meets, we did not want to force people to choose teams.
So would you say that the "core group" of Rhode Island swimmers has been around for a while?
It might be good to point out that the EP group is so flexible because we have no real costs. I work for free as my part of my volunteer work. Swimmers pay either $2 per workout or $1 per workout depending on whether we chip in to help the High School by team gear each year. The rest of the money goes to charity or social events (beer). I guess the core group started around 1983 and it might be best to say the group “just happened”. Ken Reall and I were swimming together at East Providence High School, where he was the aquatic director, and a few people started to join us. Ken left EP to run the aquatic programs at CCRI and I took over writing the workouts. About the same time I was doing a lot of triathlons ( 6-8 a year) and was being approached by a lot of triathletes because I was usually a bit older then them and beating them out of the water by quite a bit. (In those days not a lot of good swimmers did tri’s. By the mid-90’s I was at least 4 minutes faster for the mile and lucky to make the top 10% out of the water. ) With the addition of these athletes we wound up with a group rather than “a bunch of swimmers”. The name EP Masters just kind of happened. Once we had about 15 swimmers the number doubled in just a few short months. I was also getting a lot of referrals from Brown and Providence College. We also starting doing some fun dual meets with High School and age group teams that turned out to be long term recruiting. Over the years I have helped start or have run masters workouts at CCRI, Pawtucket Y, Newman Y and others. My goal was and still is to get programs running as we are often full at East Providence and our time (5:30 pm) does not fit everyone's schedule.
Since we have East Providence only 2 days a week, most of us trained someplace else, just getting in with 3-4 people and making the workouts up as they went along. Others just took the spare workouts from EP with them (they are on spreadsheets and printed.) Most swimmers trained 1 or 2 times a week at EP and a few more times a week at Brown, CCRI, McDermott (Warwick city pool) or a local YMCA. Others also trained at Barrington Y with yourself (Steve Joe, Jim Harrington, Eric Hecker and the list goes on), Kent County Y (which has had a few masters coaches) and South County with Fred Bartlett. [Editor's Note: I coached Masters Swimming at Barrington YMCA back in the mid-90's].
When they held the first two NEM workout group competitions in 1998 and 1999 they were at Brown. Most of the Providence area YMCA Masters also trained at EP so they swam with us. We placed first both years and at that time, Brown and So. County Y had small teams. A few people swimming a Brown were also training with us and a group of them were using my Tues/Thursdays workouts on Wednesday/Friday at Brown.
When would you say the biggest "change" occurred?
I guess the biggest changes occurred when Jackie Hirsty started the morning workouts at Seekonk. We now had two sizable workout groups in the Providence Area and when it came to NEM championships we had the dilemma of people who trained at both having to choose. Since so many were swimming at both places, combining the two workout groups was an easy choice. We decided we needed a new name and came up with SwimRI. This year the So. County Y group decided to join us. We have had close ties to them for over 10 years as we have had swimmers train at both EP and So. County. In addition, Freddie Bartlett and myself are very involved with Save the Bay. Freddie organizes a lot of open water swims in southern RI every summer.
How many teams make up SwimRI when it comes together at meets?
I guess when you come down to it there are only three “teams” making up SwimRI: South County Y, East Providence and Seekonk. If you walk into the pools at CCRI, McDermott in Warwick, Kent County Y, Barrington Y, Brown, URI, RIC or Bally’s in East Providence, you are likely to see a few members of SwimRI training.
What limitations or problems have you encountered in Rhode Island swimming?
I get at least one call a week from someone looking to swim with us. I talk to them about their swim level and the best time for them to workout and usually refer them to Jackie, Fred, John McBride at Roger Williams (they do not participate with us) or Ian Muir who runs the McDermott Pool workouts. I could likely fill up a couple more workouts in the Providence area if there was another pool. I have helped start several workout groups such at the Pawtucket Y and the Newman Y, but unfortunately, when I tried to turn them over to someone else, they didn't work out. Like I told you, coaching is volunteer work for me and I can’t really put more time into swimming than I already do. In fact my own swimming has gone into the toilet lately as I spend too much time on deck.
Can you comment on any increases in SwimRI/USMS memberships and why you think that may be?
I think there are several main reasons right now:
NEM Workout Group Competition - I don’t think anything has done as much to bring people in as this. Face it, it is a gimmick to increase enthusiasm and participation and it works great. The EP group would attend the New England’s with 20-30 swimmers every year, but it was totally an individual experience. With “team scoring” it becomes a bigger experience that culminates in the relays. Relays before “team scoring” were not much to speak of with minor participation, now people sign up for the meet just so they can swim relays.
The best deal in town- The EP practices are cheap because the coach works for free (get what you pay for). Without a commitment I get a lot of people who try it out and about half will stick with it for a while.
The Seekonk workout fills a major void—Jackie has done a fantastic job of organizing this and getting access to a great facility. This is an AM workout that compliments our evening workouts at EP. It is not a cheap as mine (hey what is?) but it is still a great deal and the pool is much better. By the way, we use the same workout format at both places
Freddie Bartlett – Freddie has done a spectacular job promoting swimming in Southern RI. He kind of took over masters swimming in that area after the URI masters folded up (the Crowders, Peter Solomon and Stuart Cromarty.) His organized open water swims and triathlon coaching have attracted many to Masters. He is a promoter and a motivator.
A combination of word of mouth, friends and “aging”—The EP Masters started in the early 80’s and most younger swimmers thought of it as old people doing sidestroke if they new about it at all. Along came Kristen Henson, Lynn Tedesco, Matt Connery, Homer Lane and later Stuart Cromarty. We would to dual meets or train with age-group or high school kids and make a good impression. Local coaches would often join our group and later refer their swimmers to us. Mark Johnston at Brown, Rich Burrows, Matt Connery, Ken Real and Kevin Salisbury. That got us lots of former PC, Brown, Little Rhody, Bay View and EBAC swimmers. You know a lot of them too. [Yes, I do] Of course Homer Lane was an influence on his nephew Mike.
What are some of the greatest successes of SwimRI? (Save the Bay, Brown championship meets, etc)
The real success lies within each of the individual groups. I guess participation is the biggest. For the EP group, Save the Bay is a major event. I work at Citizens Bank, the primary sponsor of the event. In the last 10 years that I have been involved, participation has grown from 100 to 400. Freddie Bartlett is also involved running clinics and open water training swims. He recruits a sizable number for the event. Other than that I guess it’s the parties and the socializing. Some of the socializing has been rather serious resulting in things like marriage and babies.
Last question Frank, though I am inclined to ask about the babies... What do you see in the future for SwimRI?
I guess the real question is the future of Masters Swimming in the RI area, and frankly, I don’t see any major increases unless we can get more organized workouts going. I really don’t have the time to be more involved and I doubt Jackie does either. As far as Freddie is concerned, I don’t know. He is always going and I am not sure he sleeps. Maybe that is why they call him “Frantic Fred”.
Thanks for your time Frank.
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