Saturday was a day for old and day for new. The morning began with the first-ever Carthage Swimming Golf Outing - basically Steve Szymanski ('05), James Beaman ('05), Justin Reeder ('07) and I getting together for a round at Maplecrest.Then at night - it was a chance to get together for a new generation of Red Men when we had a little cookout outside of the pool. We used to do a cookout at my place but got in trouble because it ran at the same time as the president's big freshman reception so this year we made it available for anyone who was arriving a day early and we had a great turnout with a dozen freshmen and their parents there (one more, Blake Bendix, wasn't far away - #18 was on the field for the football team's 35-7 win over Carroll).
Today the upperclassmen return to Carthage and the campus has the energy and excitement that you come to expect. That energy has carried over onto the team. The fact that we have such a young group is a little nerve-wracking, but its also tremendously exciting. To get everyone off on the right foot, we'll be conducting "Carthage Swimming 101" for the next couple of weeks. While the captains also run practices for the group, the coaching staff will be conducting regular meetings and classroom sessions so that we can all hit the ground running. With just one senior this year, we'll need to get these guys on the same page quickly so that we can go after some big goals this season. Of course, the other side of having just one senior is thinking of what these guys can do in the years aheadl.
PS - In case you didn't notice Saturday's score - Nebraska 52, Nevada 10