Upper Arlington hopes to dethrone St. Xavier
Upper Arlington boys swimming coach Mike de Bear is fond — to an extent — of pointing out that the Golden Bears have been the state's top publicschool team each of the past two seasons, finishing second in the Division I state meet both years to Cincinnati St. Xavier.
In his 12th season, de Bear's team will try to dethrone the 13-time defending champion Bombers and snap a 34year string of first-place finishers from private schools dating back to the Bears' most recent title in 1987.
St. Xavier has won 22 of the last 23 championships, a streak broken only by St. Charles in 2008.
“That white whale is still out there,” de Bear said. “We had a great meet last year and St. X just had a little bit too much depth. We just have to control the controllables, worrying less about overall place than doing well. Some years, you achieve a great goal and you're not happy. Other years, you might (place) seventh or eighth and you're ecstatic.
“We could be right up there again. Trophies and winning are fun. That's why we do this.”
UA returns several key contributors. Louisville commit Grant Gooding was the 100-meter breaststroke runnerup and third in the 200 individual medley at state last year. Classmate Grant Kennedy, who committed to Pittsburgh earlier this month, was on the fifthplace 400 free relay team, eighth-place 200 medley relay team and was 17th in the 100-meter backstroke.
“I don't think anyone should count us out just yet. I think we can be really good,” said Joe Miller, a sprinter. “We carry with us the tradition of excellence and the responsibility of keeping that going.”
Miller and classmate Clark Pabst lauded a new training method that sees swimmers split into specialty groups on given days of the week.
“It's been really helpful in improving my stroke and my underwaters and conditioning overall,” said Pabst, who focuses on the 100 back and 200 IM. “It's about training smarter and not harder. We're trying to cut down on garbage yards and work things specifically and hard, building that base for later in the season.”
Given that the boys team has no seniors among its 28 swimmers, more responsibility than usual will fall on the juniors concerning leadership. De Bear did not rule out younger swimmers emerging in key roles, however.
“I'm big on not forcing leadership. That's a mistake I made as a younger coach,” de Bear said. “Leaders, in this sport especially, come about organically and in their own way.” dpurpura@thisweeknews.com @Thisweekdave