April 26, 2010
Swimming & Diving Community Service Photo Gallery
By Richard Stevens = Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
A fish out of water usually is a short-winded fish in trouble. A Lobo swimmer out of water this spring appeared to have two choices.
1. Do some community work.
2. Get to running/conditioning.
Actually, the Lobo swimmers really had no choice. New Mexico coach Tracy Ljone had her University of New Mexico swim team going hard in both directions. It was a busy spring for these Lobos and occasionally they even got to get wet.
“We try to do quite a bit of community service in the spring,” said Ljone. “We did some extra this spring because we had more time.”
The extra time for Ljone’s Lobos came about because Ljone said something “blew up” in UNM’s Seidler Natatorium. Oh, it wasn’t a real explosion. Nothing nuclear.
Ljone said it had to do with a broken “something” in the heating system that took close to two months to repair.
Of course, it was frustrating for the Lobos, who were de-pooled out of Seidler for two seasons as their natatorium went dry dock thanks to a leak that forced some refurbishing.
So, Ljone put the spare time to good use. Just check out the community service performed by the Lobo team this spring:
1. Helped with an Easter egg hunt at the Los Duranes Community Center.
2. Helped with an Easter Egg hunt put on the by student lettermen.
3. Visited kids in the hospital as a SAAC project.
4. Put on a swim clinic at the Thomas Bell Community Center.
5. Held a goal-setting workshop (with games) at the Horizon Academy.
6. Held a goal-setting workshop and put on a fitness class at the Montessori Elementary School.
7. Helped with the “Fetch A Palooza” pet-adoption project.
8. And the UNM divers will help with fundraising and the live auction at the Coaches vs. Cancer gala to be held May 8.
“The girls enjoy this stuff,” said Ljone. “We’ll continue to do more with the schools. The girls love it and the kids they work with love it. I’m very proud of the work our team has done this spring in the Albuquerque community.
“It was definitely a different off-season for us without a pool to train in, but I think the team took pride in representing UNM athletics through community service and thoroughly enjoyed their time spent with the different groups.
“Not only did the team impact the kids they worked with, I believe the kids left a great impression on our ladies.”
So, did the Lobos do any swimming this spring? Did they make any impressions on the water?
Yeah, the Lobos did what they did when their pool was out of commission for two seasons. They hit the water at the West Mesa Aquatic Center. But Ljone said their pool time probably was cut in half.
“We are allowed to swim eight hours a week during this time of the year,” she said. `We probably were in the water about four hours. It was just too hard to ask the girls to drive all the way over to West Mesa during school.”
Still, Ljone put her Lobos to work. There was running up the bleachers at University Stadium. There was spin work on stationary bikes. There was just plain, old-fashioned running.
“It was tough to lose our pool again. We had to do a log of dry-land training,” said Ljone. “I think at first it was a nice change for them. But they are swimmers and they aren’t in love with running. I think they were ready for more pool time.”
The Lobos are back in the UNM pool this week. The explosion has been fixed. The Lobos will tune up for their summer seasons with club teams — which Ljone says is a key time for her Lobos.
“Swimming is an endurance sport,” she said. “They need to stay in shape.”
If not, the next explosion at the UNM pool might come from the Lobos mild-mannered coach.
Editor’s Note: Richard Stevens is a former Associate Sports Editor and sports columnist for The Albuquerque Tribune. You can reach him at rstevens50@comcast.net