Swimming / Tracy Dodds : Schubert Is Selling Top Swimmers and Others on Boca Raton Facility

The pool that lured Mark Schubert to Florida has yet to be built. But the former Mission Viejo coach is not the only one excited about the Mission Bay facility in Boca Raton sight unseen.

At the annual U.S. Aquatic Sports convention in Phoenix two weeks ago, the delegates gave Mission Bay the bid for the Phillips 66-U.S. Swimming short-course national meet in March, 1987.

“I think that shows the kind of interest we are generating here, that we could land the bid without having the facility in existence,” Schubert said.

In typical Schubert style, he worked the convention and made it happen. He showed slides. He showed models. And, of course, he leaned on the reputation he built at Mission Viejo for being able to run a swim meet.

Schubert is not allowing for any kind of a grace period as he makes the move from one planned community revolving around a swimming program to another.

Even though their facility is not yet built, the Mission Bay swimmers are working. They train at the short-course pool at Florida Atlantic University during the week and at the long-course pool at Delray Beach during weekends.

Perish the thought that Schubert is using this time while he has no pool just to recruit swimmers. “Oh, no,” he said. “The swimming program has been in full swing since the 19th of August. We’re pointing toward an early peak in December for the U.S. Open meet. That’s a long-course meet, and we’re expecting the Soviets and the East Germans. That’s a much earlier date than in the past.

“It’s important for us to really get things started.”

It would seem that Schubert would expect some sort of a rebuilding phase to take place now--that he wouldn’t necessarily expect to win the next club title. But, of course, he said: “I’m planning to. Certainly I am starting over. But we have a number of outstanding kids here. We will certainly be in the hunt. We don’t plan to roll over.

“I think we can be among the top women’s teams, particularly with (Olympian) Amy White’s commitment to come here. With Amy, along with Susan Johnson and some others who haven’t been top scorers in the past but who have the potential to be, we’ll be there. We’ll have to swim phenomenally to be in the top three, but we’re not conceding anything.”

Schubert is working with 70 swimmers. Larry Leibowitz, who was Schubert’s assistant for seven years at Mission Viejo, took the initial coaching position at Mission Bay in June and started the team at that time. He went from no swimmers to 17 before Schubert arrived Aug. 17. By the end of the summer, the roster was at 70.

“Obviously, when (former Mission Viejo diving coach) Ron O’Brien and I were hired there was a tremendous amount of local publicity,” Schubert said. “A lot of kids that had been members of an existing local team (the Boca Swim Club) wanted to join our team. The president of that team is now president of our team. So we got a number of swimmers that way.

“Amy’s brother, Eric, came with us and Susan Johnson (the national champion in the 200-meter breaststroke) and a number of other kids who are young but very much up and coming. We have Luis Morrell (fastest 14-year-old 1,000 freestyler) and Yoshiyuki Mizumoto (the Japanese national champion in the 400 and 1,500 freestyle.)

“I anticipate that many of the college kids will come here next summer. We’re hoping that Peter Berndt (Alabama) will be here, and Frank Iacanno, Laurence Bensimon, Pernilla Nimb. There are others, but I’d rather not say who they are until they make their own announcements.”

Most of the Mission Viejo divers are making the move, too, to continue working with O’Brien.

It is most likely that, along with the coaches, the club swimming power has just moved from the West Coast to the East Coast.

“Quite frankly, I have all the confidence in the world that this will be a better position than Mission Viejo,” Schubert said. “I think we’ll have superior facilities and superior support as far as working with medical support like physiologists and psychologists, that sort of thing.

“I felt for the 13 years I was at Mission Viejo that it was the best position in swimming, but I think this will develop into an even better position.”

Terry Stoddard, who swam for Schubert at Mission Viejo and who served as an assistant coach under Schubert, is still being called the interim coach at Mission Viejo. The Mission Viejo Co. has given no indication whether it is interviewing other coaches or planning to stick with Stoddard.

Swimming Notes Matt Biondi, who was named swimmer of the year by U.S. Swimming, also won the Phillips performance award of the year as voted by reporters for his 48.95-second world record in the 100-meter freestyle at the national long-course meet in Mission Viejo, and was named collegiate swimmer of the year. Where is he now? Playing water polo for the University of California. . . . Richard Quick, women’s coach at the University of Texas and recently named coach for the 1988 Olympic team, will also coach the U.S. Swimming team competing in the World championships at Madrid next Aug. 15-24. It will be the first time Americans, East Germans and Soviets will have met for a major competition since 1982. Trials for the World championships will be held in Orlando, Fla., June 22-27. The first team will go to a training camp in Boca Raton two weeks later, while the second team will go immediately to Moscow for the Goodwill Games.

The American Swim Coaches Assn. is developing a certification program that would classify all coaches on one of five levels. . . . Swimmers selected in the McDonald’s-U.S. Swimming National Junior Olympic meets held simultaneously in Orlando (the East) and Austin (the West) will compete in the U.S. Olympic Festival, formerly the National Sports Festival, in Houston July 25-Aug. 3. Times will be compiled from both meets, and the top 72 girls and the top 72 boys will then be put into one talent pool to be drafted by the four coaches for competition in the Festival. Each team--North, South, East and West--will draft 18 boys and 18 girls.

The U.S. Swimming Open in Austin Dec. 6-8, will have a new format. There will be competition in a college division, a club division, and an international division. It will be a long-course record, so world records can be set.