Last year the BSM Girls Swim and Dive team was coached by Ryan Miksch. However, due to his newborn baby, he decided to take a step back this year. Now, the team is welcoming a new coach: Nate Stone. He’s been coaching alongside returning assistant coach Katie Schmidt and new assistant coach Alena Paulson.
Stone has been adapting well to working with the team, although this role has been a lot more work than he expected it to be. Stone mentioned that scheduling pool times has been a lot of work since they share the pool with other school districts. The captains this year have been helpful with the adjustment, especially the captain’s parents with organizing team bonding events. “The captain’s parents have been a huge help in taking a lot of responsibilities off my shoulders,” Stone said.
Stone has been going through different challenges this year with the new coaching adjustment. He previously coached an all-boys swim team at Saint Louis Park. Stone would coach the boys to a more direct or assertive approach. He implied that girls’ teams often respond better when they are provided with a clear understanding of the purpose behind their training, due to coming from a different school he has had to learn to adjust his coaching style. “It’s been a huge learning experience coming from a school like St Louis Park, where the primary training that people have gone through is club swimming, whereas here they have trained at Country Clubs, so it’s a big difference in terms of how in shape people are at the start of the season,” Stone said.
This season Stone has made some changes to the team. Stone decided to not have a JV and Varsity team this year, but he decided to have a short practice group and a long practice group instead. He said it doesn’t make sense for the team to have a Varsity and JV this season due to limited pool space. In reality, Stone likes to focus on it being one team and not a JV and Varsity team. Swim team members think that this decision has unified the team making them a close-knit group.“Nate doesn’t pressure us as much with JV and Varsity teams. Instead, we have short and long practice groups, which I think is different, but I think the team has grown closer because of the change,” junior Olivia Kremenak said.