The Daily Cardinal dives into the pool with UW swimming Head Coach Eric Hansen.
Hansen is no stranger to success. After coaching six national champions as an assistant at the University of Arizona, Hansen has brought his golden touch to the Badgers. Both men's and women's teams are currently in the top 10 in the nation, with UW's women sitting at No. 8 and the men perched at No. 10. The Badgers have their first and only home meet of the season Feb. 7.
The Daily Cardinal: What is your philosophy in coaching a sport with so many individual events as opposed to a team sport?
Eric Hansen: My philosophy is I really feel that if you take a team approach to swimming, then the individuals will perform at a much higher level. It's kind of the group thing in that many individuals are much stronger than the single person. We've had a lot of success with that, and I honestly feel that when you have a group of people working together toward a common goal, it's a much stronger thing than just an individual standing on their own. We stress the team aspect, everyone has a role to play, and there are expectations that everyone has to abide by, and that creates consistency and consistency is the obvious component to success.
DC: Is there any big difference between coaching the men's or the women's teams?
EH: There are definitely some differences, but together we try to combine the strengths of each one of the teams and rely on those. It's different coaching men and women, but when you bring them together, there are a lot of great components to it, and I really prefer that.
DC: What's been the biggest factor to the success you've had so far at Madison?
EH: You know, I function on the philosophy that if you invest more, you should expect more, and I've recruited individuals that share that common philosophy. This isn't a sport that you just train during the college season. It's a suffering sport, quite honestly. It's a sport that if you invest more you should expect more, so the success we've had has been expected. We expect to improve throughout the season and from season to season.
DC: What's it like having two teams ranked in the top 10?
EH: The polls aren't necessarily all that important. However, I think people have been recognizing the progress that we've made, and that pleases us. I think it also gives the kids confidence in what we're doing. It's a stepping stone and a small reward saying, \Hey, we're doing the right thing, we're on the right track. Let's keep it going."" I think it also gives the public an idea of what's going on here. It's new territory for us, but, once again, we expected to be there. Whether we end up in those spots at the end of the season, we'll see. But, you'd better believe we have high expectations because we've invested a ton in terms of training this year. We feel like we're training smarter, but we're also training real hard too.
DC: What does the Big Ten competition look like this year?
EH: First and foremost, the Big Ten Championship isn't our priority. Nationals is, and will always be, our priority. However, we feel like we can be better at the Big Ten level too. On the women's side, we feel like we can go in and do better than we did last year. Last year we won all the freestyle events, and two of the three relays, and we feel like we can do better than that. ... I know we're going to need some help in diving, but I'm confident we have some talented divers. Swimming-wise, I think we can get it done.
DC: What's your overall assessment of your season so far?
EH: I'm really pleased with the season so far. ... We've already done something really special this season, but our goal is the final meet of the season. We feel like we've qualified approximately nine men and nine women for NCAAs. You never know, but based on previous years, we feel like we can take about 18, possibly 20. Last year we qualified 11, so that's progress right there, so we've got the opportunity to score some more points. I think we've set ourselves up to be better than last year--that's our first goal--and our second goal is to knock on the door and try to be in the top 10, and I think we've put ourselves in a position to do that. I think the next step is to re-evaluate and move on from there.
