Swimming & Diving Update From The Desk Of Matt Gianiodis
9/6/2007 12:00:00 AM | Swimming and Diving
Sept. 20, 2007
Right off the bat I want to let everyone know that we had a great time this past weekend honoring the guys from the 1957 Big Ten Championship team.
Jim Clemens and Wally Dobler did a great job of organizing the event and Eldon Van Spybrook, the president of the Varsity S Alumni group, also helped with the arrangements. In all, we had 18 former swimmers and divers from the mid to late 1950's. They had a full weekend of events including: a visit to Jenison, a picture at Sparty, a breakfast and awards ceremony at the Kellogg Center, a seat in the LaSalle Bank club for the Spartan victory over Pittsburgh and an informal reception at the hotel on Saturday.
The reunion was a great event and it reminded me of the Golden Spike reunion last year. If you have a reunion planned or you want to plan one with your former teammates, please contact me and we'll help you with the plans.
Clemens, the 1957 captain, addressed our team this past Friday. His talk was inspirational and he reminded all the current team members of the importance of contributing to the Ralph Young Club. It is a message that should also resonate with our alumni.
This Friday marks our annual team scavenger hunt. This will be the fifth consecutive year we have the scavenger hunt, and of course, my favorite memory in those five years was when Ian Clutten rode his bike all the way out to the Beef and Cattle Research complex to get an item for the hunt.
Our practices have been very good so far and we have had relatively good weather (knock on wood) for our outdoor practices. The indoor pool is now officially open and it looks really nice. It is still the same pool, but it is so much brighter and cleaner. The new bulkhead is fantastic and the diving end is a real upgrade. Now all we need is a cover for the long course pool and we'd be all set.
Also, I'd like to congratulate David Diget on his induction into the Battle Creek Hall of Fame. Dave was an All-American swimmer here in the late 1950's. He was the head coach at Western Michigan University and he now coaches at Battle Creek Lakeview High School.
I saw Karen Fetters at the Bowling Green football game on Sept. 8. Shawn Elkins stopped by that same week. I also saw Tommy Parker this past weekend and I heard from Lindsay Fetters also. I am glad to see all of you and I hope that you always feel free to stop by or call anytime.
Beat the Irish!
Players Mentioned
