Seven Steps to Success

Tulane's First-Year Swimming Program Makes No Excuses

By John Sudsbury, Associate Director of Athletic Media Relations

In sports, coaches are always looking for victories. When a new team starts up, opponents salivate at the chance to get an ?easy? win against a weak and inexperienced foe. Thus, head coach Daniella Irle had little trouble finding opponents for Tulane?s first-year women's swimming program, which began competition this fall. However, here's a warning to those teams:

"We have no reason to be successful, other than that we are going to be," Irle said. "We will make no excuses. Our goal is to finish over .500, which would be an amazing feat for a first-year program. We will have struggles, yes, but we will be successful."

Irle is not simply preaching typical "coach-speak" to boost the morale of the 15 swimmers (14 freshmen and one sophomore who took to the pool in August). In two years, Tulane has created a new program from scratch, building the 15th intercollegiate sport at Tulane into a competitive program which will represent the ideals of Tulane University and its athletic department.

Tulane followed what it hopes will be a blueprint for success in a seven-step process: The Decision; The Hire; Recruiting; Organization; Design; Transitioning; and Business.

The Decision

On July 24, 2002, Green Wave Director of Athletics Rick Dickson announced that Tulane would add women?s swimming and diving with the team slated to begin competition in 2003-2004 (the diving team will be phased in during following seasons). The addition of the sport was another step toward the university's goal of achieving gender equity in its athletics program.

"I'm happy to announce the addition of swimming to our line-up of sport programs," Dickson said at the time. "After an extensive research process during which we evaluated many potential sports and looked at a wide range of factors involved in sponsoring those teams, it just made sense to add swimming now."

There were three key factors in the decision: participation in swimming in Louisiana and in the South is high, giving the Green Wave a strong base of potential student-athletes, as well as an interested fan base; Tulane sponsored women's swimming from 1977 to 1990, giving the program a history and a built-in alumni base; and perhaps most important, was the existence of a high-quality swimming facility in the Reilly Student Recreation Center.

The Hire

After choosing swimming as its 15th sport, the next critical decision was to hire the right person to lead a new program; someone with the energy to attack the obstacles, but also a coach with experience and a proven record of success.

Enter Daniella Irle, who had spent 10 years as the head swimming and diving coach at Fresno State University. Irle, who was born in New Orleans and raised in Texas, led the Bulldogs to an impressive 93-33 dual meet record, and her Fresno  State swimmers broke every school record during her tenure. She had 15 student-athletes qualify for the NCAA Championships.

"We're very pleased to attract a coach of Daniella's caliber to build our women's swimming program," Dickson said upon her hire on October 16, 2002. "Her credentials are impeccable; she has extensive experience, and her student-athletes have a record of success both in the pool and in the classroom."

With the two major administrative steps completed, the bulk of the remaining duties would fall into the capable hands of Irle, who enthusiastically accepted the challenge.

"The opportunity to start a new program that is fully-funded is a once-in-a-career opportunity," Irle said. "We can do something very special here at Tulane."

Recruiting

In almost any endeavor, it is people that lead to success. In collegiate athletics, those people are student-athletes. NCAA rules limit recruiting and also set dates for when potential swimmers can be signed to National Letters of Intent. Irle began her Tulane position on Nov. 1, giving her 10 days to find the building blocks for a successful program during the NCAA's early signing period.

For Irle, recruiting began even before major considerations such as relocating from California to New Orleans.

"Recruiting is the first and most important step," Irle said. "I remember sitting in my condo in California, movers going in and out with boxes, and I was on my cell phone with a recruit."

Amazingly, in the incredibly competitive world of recruiting, Tulane and Irle convinced three high-level swimmers to choose Tulane rather than established programs.

"Looking back on it, I don't know how we did it," Irle said. "In a normal year, signing three student-athletes [in the early signing period] is good."

After picking up three signees in November, the recruiting momentum continued.

"I made a decision that I wanted quality over quantity the first year," Irle said. "I preferred to have a solid academic and athletic core rather than a big core for the first year.

"I couldn't sell the program, because we don't have one, but I could sell the institution, because it's a great one. Every kid I talked to had heard of Tulane. And I could sell my statistics and my resume from my years at Fresno."

The fact that Tulane was a first-year program actually contributed to recruiting success in many cases. It attracted confident swimmers who wanted to be part of something unique.

"The fast ones were thinking, 'I can be the first All-American at Tulane,' or 'I can be the first national qualifier at Tulane,' and 'I can be the school record-holder!' We signed kids who were risk-takers in a sense, because as far as swimming, it is a risk, but it is a sure thing educationally. We got great students, who were very good swimmers, and who wanted to take on the challenge."

On May 5 of this year, in the late signing period, Tulane completed its first swimming recruiting class, with a total of 15 student-athletes committing to be a part of Green Wave history.

Organization

As recruiting continued, Irle advanced to the next steps in building her program - organization. That included major items like hiring a staff, building a schedule, and ordering uniforms and equipment, to the smallest details like ordering office supplies.

Former collegiate swimmer Frannie DeBord was hired as the program's top assistant, following Irle from Fresno State, where she had held the same position.

The schedule proved to be one of the easier tasks. Being a Conference USA school gave immediate legitimacy to the Tulane team, not to mention the aforementioned belief that a new team makes for "easy pickings." Irle put together a schedule with 20 dates, which include dual meets and double-dual (three-team) meets. The Wave will also compete at the Conference USA Championships in March and if things come together, the NCAA Championships.

"I am sure we will be picked to finish last in Conference USA," Irle predicted, but she offered up a contrary guarantee. "We will not finish last! We are going to raise the bar for the rest of this league."

Program Design

Every step in the creation of a program is critical, however, the most-important aspect for long-term success is the program design, basically a syllabus or a 12-month training plan which is tweaked from year to year according to the make-up of the team.

With a team full of freshmen, Irle has had to alter the training plans she had used in the past. In general, she has reduced both the volume and intensity of workouts, which include dry-land and running sessions, weight-training and actual pool work.

"We have trimmed back on everything to accommodate the fact that they are all adjusting," Irle said. "The intensity level of collegiate swimming is just so much greater. If we find that we have under-estimated them, I can crank it back up. The program is supposed to challenge them, not bury them."

Transitioning

More than a year after the decision was made to add swimming to the Tulane athletics repertoire, the Green Wave hit the pool on Aug. 28, 2003, with the second day of fall classes.

Irle and her staff prepared diligently for the arrival of the newcomers. Unlike other teams, the Green Wave swimming team had the unprecedented situation of no upperclassmen. Veteran student-athletes were not available to usher the rookies to practices, to locker rooms, to classes, to the dining halls, or to the bookstore. More importantly, veterans were not available to offer advice in relation to swimming.

"Frannie and I have to help them get acclimated athletically, academically and socially," Irle said. "We have to play a much bigger role than coaches. We have to be mentors and big sisters. My demands are the same as always, but I am trying to use a softer presentation."

Business

Finally, after six steps to building the program, the Tulane swimming team reached the final step - business. It was "do-or-die-time" for the team as it opened its first season on Oct. 17 at the Rice University Relay and Bi-Athlon.

"We're a small team; we're a young team, we're an inexperienced team," Irle said. "But we're not going to use any of those things as excuses. We are going to go out and compete and it is my job to get them prepared.

"This team does not see being a first-year program as a burden," Irle continued. "They view it as an honor. They are so aware that they are setting the standard, and they are not scared of that. We have the right kind of kids at the right kind of school with the right kind of coaches."

Tulane will host a pair of double-dual meets in its inaugural season. The Reilly Center debut for the Green Wave will be on Nov. 23 when Louisiana-Monroe and nationally-ranked Nevada visit the Crescent City.

"With the way that Daniella has built Tulane swimming with quality student-athletes, I already see this program as a success," Dickson said. "With a first-year program, it is not accurate to measure success by wins and losses, but I am sure the competitive fires of the coaches and swimmers will drive them to be their best."

By the end of the swimming season in March, many of those teams who opted for the easy win against the rookie Tulane program will likely be smarting from a loss suffered at the hands of the surprising Green Wave. And for Tulane, after the seven long steps of the program's first-year, Irle and the Green Wave will not be relaxing. They will simply change focus to new steps: Recruiting (again), Improving, Winning.