Coach hopes success will breed success
Jan. 29, 2008 - Regina Leader-Post
By Tim Switzer
Andrew Malawski and his bronze medal might be just what the University of Regina Cougars swimming program needed.
Malawski, who turned 21 on Monday, won the bronze medal Friday in the 50-metre breaststroke at the Canada West championships in Edmonton. It was the first medal won by a U of R swimmer at the conference championships since Jan-Michael Pelechytik and Brent Hankewich combined for several Top 3 finishes in 2004.
Since then, the U of R, has had several decent swimmers, but none that could compete with the powerhouse teams like the University of Calgary of University of British Columbia. Over the years, several swimmers have left Saskatchewan for the high-profile pastures at the U of C and UBC.
"The better the kids at the U of R do, the more it gets out there that this program has quality in it," said Cougars head coach Jeff Toth. "Hopefully they will know that if they stay, they can still swim fast."
Hankewich and his brother Chad, both Saskatoon products and former members of the Cougars swim team, won medals for the Dinos over the weekend.
Calgary also got medals from rookie swimmers Sam Acton, a Regina native, and Colin Miazga, who hails from Saskatoon.
In addition to those swimmers, Regina also missed out on the services of Brett Richter, who joined the UBC Thunderbirds in the offseason, and Max Moore, who joined the Dinos. Both were among the Top 10 swimmers in several events at the conference championships.
"Saskatchewan has done a real good job for the U of C," said Toth. "The three boys (Richter, Moore and Acton) that left (last year) took scholarships elsewhere and good for them. It was probably a good decision at the time for them."
Toth, who runs the Cougars program in conjunction with the Regina Optimist Dolphins, explains some of this year's out migration of high-level swimmers by the fact that long-time head coach Jasen Pratt left Regina to join the Calgary Cascades last spring.
But now that Toth has a year as head coach under his belt, he hopes more Saskatchewan athletes will be interested in staying home.
He also noted that between the performances of Malawski, Linda Duarte, Erika Brown, Mya Demhcuk and Maggi Pettit, the Cougars had 14 second swims (that is swimmers in an A or B finals), more than ever before.
"Our quality is there," said Toth. "Plus the University of Regina offers some of the best scholarships going. There's no reason not to come here."
Those small successes, Toth hopes, will lead to an expansion of the Cougars program.
"The U of R has always been very happy with this program because we're not a needy program," said Toth. "We're not asking very much on the administration side so maybe they think this is something worth exploring. They've been very supportive up to this point. There's nothing more the university can do at this point, but as we move into the future, I'd like to think, if we're going to start building this program, we start building it. One of the major issues is we do not have a proper training pool on campus.
"Eventually I'd like to see a varsity program on campus and a club program at the Lawson (Aquatic Centre)."