My daughter graduated college and moved to Arizona for a job, before we did. She lived in Tempe for one year before moving to the Bay Area for a swim marketing job.
While our daughter was in Arizona, I loved to visit and spend time with her. We’d walk Waffles at the Tempe Beach Park where there is water and a walking bridge.
Once while we were walking across the bridge, a woman stopped us and asked “Is that Waffles?”
We were dumbfounded. Yes, Waffles had become a bit of a social media star. The marketing team at Utah posted him promoting swim and dive and he had his own Instagram account. But he was no “Doug the Pug.”
It turned out the woman was the wife of a swim coach from my daughter’s team at the University of Utah. So she actually knew Waffles and recognized him. Her husband Herbie Behm swam at ASU, coached at Utah and returned to ASU around the same time my daughter moved to Tempe.
Why am I bringing this up?
Since Wednesday last week, I’ve been watching NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships. I subscribed to ESPN+ to watch (now I’ll cancel because the swim meet is over.)
I loved watching the meet. It reminded me of being at PAC 12 swimming championships cheering for my daughter and teammates.
What was really exciting was that Herbie’s ASU team won their first NCAA championship in history, topping CAL Bears. So the two top teams were from the PAC 12 — during the final year the conference exists.
When Herbie swam for ASU in 2008, the school decided to cut men’s swimming. At the time, we had two swimmers from our Palm Springs club team swimming for ASU. I remember fundraising to keep the program open. In the end, parents and supporters prevailed by raising $1 million and ASU kept men’s swimming. But they had a hard time getting recruits to a program that could be on the chopping block at any moment. They were near the bottom of the pack at PAC 12s.
Flash forward to 2024 and they are the number one team for Men’s Swimming in the nation. How did they turn their program around? Bob Bowman. The school hired Michael Phelps’ coach in 2015 and he built the program from scratch and brought Herbie on board as assistant coach in 2018. Phelps lives in Scottsdale and he can be found on the deck and in the pool along with other Olympians.
Bowman is obviously an incredible coach. He attracts amazing swimmers like Leon Marchand, who is currently the number one swimmer in the world. You’ll hear his name a ton in Paris 2024 Olympics. Unfortunately, he’s from France and won’t be on the US team.
My daughter believes a ton of credit goes to Herbie who is an innovative coach and breaking new ground.
At NCAAs this year, so many records were broken. It was really exciting to watch.
With the PAC 12 dissolving, I’m worried about future Olympic sports like swimming. Travel to meets in other divisions may be cost prohibitive and impossible for student athletes. In PAC 12s the swim programs without swimming include my alma mater University of Washington, my dad’s University of Oregon, and I’m not sure what else. Men’s swimming isn’t the PAC 12, but more like the PAC 5 or 6 — and that was several years ago.
What do you think of ASU’s rags to riches story — from cutting Men’s swimming to being number one?
<3
Waffles for President. What’s it like to have a famous grandpup! Ha, ha. You bring up so many good points about the PAC-12 disbanding EA. Yes, I’m sure the student athletes for football and basketball will be fine. It makes at least some sense for the UCLAs and USCs to want to want to be part of the Big 10, but I worry about the other colleges and what happens to swimming or track/cross country or field hockey. It’s going to be costly and I suspect in the end the student athletes will be the ones who suffer. If there’s any happy news, it’s for ASU. Good for them, going out on a high note.
Haha! Waffles for president. 😅 I guess I can be thankful my daughter got to compete in the PAC 12 while it existed and she didn’t have to fly across the country for meets.
Yes, good for her. Utah flying to Michigan or OSU, 3 hours 30 plus, to Penn State or Maryland, 4 hours plus. Ugh.
It was hard enough for her having to study through travel trips. But they would combine meets like USC and UCLA on one trip. Stanford and CAL on another. I’m really curious to see the schedules next year.
Things happen fast. Today it’s announced that Bob Bowman is named Head Coach for Texas and Herbie takes over as Head Coach at ASU. A longtime winning coach at Texas retired.
I don’t know the first thing about sports, so can’t comment on that. However, I love that Waffles was recognized out in the world. How fun!!
Me, too! Such fun! 🥰
I get to babysit Waffles for 10 days later this month. I can’t wait!
Oh wow…I expect to see a ton of new photos! Yay! 🥰🥰🥰
I’m sure I’ll take plenty. I’m not sure that Miss Olive is going to be happy, though.
I wondered about that! Make sure she gets equal time! 😜
Last visit by Waffles, he ended up with a claw stuck in his cheek!
Oh no…Olive has a wicked side, doesn’t she? 😜
She doesn’t want to play chase with Waffles!
It was fun! We thought at first it was a random stranger. After that my daughter had dog park dates with Herbie and his wife.
I have huge problems with collegiate sports…it’s become a whole world onto itself
Definitely. I used to love collegiate sports compared to pros. Now it’s a mess.
Was just going to add my thoughts and saw LA’s comment. Big universities with big sports programs are so fundamentally wrong in my opinion and the line continues to be blurred between collegiate and pro. Does anyone go to college to further their education anymore, or is it just about making money and getting your name tied to a brand?
The NIL decision really ruined college sports in my opinion. In addition to kids wanting money and fame, they have no loyalty to their coach, teammates or college.
This is so fascinating, Elizabeth! Thanks for giving us a peek into the swimming world. I love the hard working parents, coaches and swimmers that prove it’s possible to turn anything around. Hopefully the college conferences remember that as they re-align!
Thanks! Yes, I love that the program went from being cut to number one in the country. The UW cut it’s swimming program years ago. Unfortunately, I see more of that to come.
Michael Phelps actually visited the Fitness Equipment Manufacturer I worked for, many years ago.
That’s awesome!
Wow! Being a famous pet owner is awesome
It’s fun! Now Waffles is out of the spotlight and is a middle-aged graying dog.
I don’t follow the swimming world too closely these days, so I appreciate the glimpse inside, and understanding how the coaches can actually build a championship team from scratch. That’s amazing. My beef is biological males being allowed to swim on the women’s teams because they identify as female. They still have more muscles, heart and lung capacity than biological females. Anyway…love that Waffles has a fan club. Hugs, C
I loved the rags to riches story about ASU, and then was shocked that within 48 hours, their head coach left! I am with you on males on women’s teams. I actually knew one of the swimmers that Lia Thomas beat during the Ivy League Championships. It was a girl who swam with my daughter in So Cal and went on to Harvard. She never gets to say she was an Ivy Champion because a male beat her. Don’t get me started about the locker rooms and how the women’s spaces have been invaded. In Palm Springs at our aquatic center, a middle-aged man identified as female and he’d shower naked right after school got out and the middle school and high school girls would enter the locker room.