The word freshman has a natural tendency to plague the minds of coaches and fans with thoughts of inexperience and poor performance.
However, for UF swimming and diving coach Gregg Troy, the word should bring nothing but enthusiasm.
After signing a combined 27 recruits this offseason (15 women, 12 men), Troy said his young athletes aren’t going to be the weakness of his team. In fact, they may be its backbone.
“We’ve got so many freshmen,” Troy said.
“Actually a freshman dominated team to some extent.”
And with so much youth on the roster, one would think the coaching staff will be busy preparing its inexperienced athletes.
But Troy believes the freshmen’s biggest problem will be how commonly they’ve experienced success.
“I think the main challenge is they’re very accomplished, and they’ve got a wide range of backgrounds and experiences,” Troy said.
“But it’s still different in a club setting than what it is when you’re competing in the NCAA where every race matters, not just for yourself but also for the people around you.”
The first tournament, the All-Florida Invitational, takes place this weekend in Fort Lauderdale at Nova Southeastern University.
If the Gators want to match their lofty expectations, they’re going to need all they can get out of their prodigious freshman class.
The group will be relied on even heavier during the first portion of the season as the athletes who competed in Rio this summer won’t be back in the water just yet. Troy said those swimmers won’t compete until October.
“They probably could compete real well, but I think the competition level is one that, for them at the moment, they’re getting their heads on straight and getting a chance to get squared away academically,” Troy said.
With talented teams like Miami and Florida Gulf Coast lying on the women’s side and a handful of solid opponents on the men’s side, Troy is interested to see how the young squad fares.
The coach was confident about highly-touted male recruit Maxime Rooney, who ranked among the top-three high school recruits in the nation.
“He was a finalist at the Olympic trials, widely looked at as one of the best in his age group,” Troy said.
And while he knows not to create high expectations too early on, Troy couldn’t shy away from the opportunity to discuss his freshmen on the women’s side either.
“We’ve got Kay Sargent, Savanna Faulconer, several others that have been on the U.S. junior national team,” Troy said.
“And Emma Ball is a very high profile international swimmer from Canada that the Canadians feel very strongly about.”
So, as the word freshman continues to bring headaches to countless coaches across the country, it’s hard not to imagine Troy will be quietly grinning when another one of his talented youngsters gets called to the block this weekend.
Contact Drew Kozlin at dkozlin@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @DrewKoz2.
UF coach Gregg Troy encourages his swimmers during Florida’s meet against Auburn on Jan. 23, 2016, in the O’Connell Center.
