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Post by freshmilwaukee on Sept 30, 2010 10:40:47 GMT -6
Erica Janssen - Headed to University of Maryland...
This is a tough loss for the Men's and Women's swimming program.
Good Luck to Erica
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Post by swimfan2 on Oct 16, 2010 12:01:35 GMT -6
Leaving while the season has already started is tough. I can only imagine that the athletes have taken it very hard. She was a great coach/mentor/leader/friend/parental figure to all of those athletes.
When a coach leaves at this time of year, you have to ask why. After working with Erica for many years as a colleague and remaining a friend of hers, I can say that I respect her decision to leave. The lack of support she has received from the athletic department would surprise most of you.
It is public knowledge that her program has nowhere near one of the best budgets in the Horizon League, close to the lowest in scholarship dollars (just ahead of Butler and Valpo - which have finished last and second to last in the League every year), and she was the lowest paid head coach in the Horizon League. With this type of support, you would expect the program to be near the bottom of the League, but, over the past four years, she has built the program up to just this past year, scoring the most points in the league for both the men and women. While winning the Men's title AS A FEMALE HEAD COACH (never been done before in the history of NCAA DI athletics), and being named Men's Coach of the Year (pretty sure this has never happened either - but don't quot me on it).
After continuing to fight those battles and strive to get more for her program and running into dead ends, I can understand why she left. It's unfortunate that UWM has lost someone that put her heart and soul and life into the program purely for the better of the student-athletes. Also someone that probably helped out with NCAA equity issues.
Knowing many of the coaches at UWM, I can say that many are like Erica in the fact that they are down on resources and support but high on love and passion for their sport. I am actually surprised that more have not fled the ship yet. Since Koonce has left, I believe it already is 7 people from the department have left the program. Something needs to change at UWM before we lose more great coaches.
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Post by PantherU on Oct 20, 2010 21:20:30 GMT -6
I'm curious, what do you think needs to change? Under an anonymous SN, you can say things that you can't, perhaps, on the job.
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Post by mikes1988 on Oct 21, 2010 13:24:19 GMT -6
The short answer is money as you can see from swimfan’s post above. She must have received a large pay increase to get her to move from a head coaching job to an assistant coaching position with a bad team in the ACC (not an elite swimming conference by any means).
Arguably, this is a step backwards in her career. Just like any other sport work your way up to one of the top jobs either by having success at a lower level or by attaching yourself as an assistant with top tier program. This move certainly doesn’t accomplish the latter. You couple the salary issue with the fact that the swimming program is limited by lack of scholarship money and average (at best) facilities, it is not surprising that she made the move.
I realize that the athletic department has serious financial issues and we just don’t have the money to throw at the problem. This is just one more reason why the financial success of the men’s basketball team is critical to the success of all our teams.
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Post by mikes1988 on Feb 28, 2011 13:04:58 GMT -6
The men's swimming team repeated as Horizon League champions with the women's team finished second to Green Bay. Also, Kyle Clements was named the Horizon League men's coach of the year.
Congratulations to all.
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Post by mikes1988 on Mar 2, 2011 13:08:56 GMT -6
Also congratulations to Emily McClellan who became the first female ever, from the Horizon League, to qualify for NCAA D1 swimming championships.
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Post by sidzills on Feb 25, 2012 22:23:55 GMT -6
Wow, had to dig for this one ... HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to BOTH swim teams and head coach Kyle Clements. They just wrapped up both league championships tonight. Third in a row for the men. That is all.
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Post by parkerj on Feb 25, 2012 22:32:08 GMT -6
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!
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Post by PantherU on Feb 25, 2012 23:42:01 GMT -6
And with that, Milwaukee becomes the winningest program in Horizon League history. 112 Championships, one more than Notre Dame.
Boom.
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Post by mikes1988 on Jun 26, 2012 13:27:21 GMT -6
Milwaukee swimmer Emily McClellan qualified 4th in this morning’s preliminary heats at the US Olympic swimming trials. Top 16 swimmers from the morning preliminaries swim tonight in the semi-finals. Top 8 times from the semis compete in the finals tomorrow night. Top 2 swimmers from the finals make the Olympic team. You can watch her swim tonight on NBC at 7pm.
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Post by sidzills on Jun 26, 2012 20:09:03 GMT -6
I don't post on here much, but this is big time. Emily finished 4th in her heat and 8th overall and will SWIM IN THE FINALS (which are tomorrow, I believe). Meaning: She has a 1 in 4 shot at the Olympics. The top 2 of the 8 that swim will make it... Just awesome for her and UWM.
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Post by skrapheap on Jun 27, 2012 7:30:53 GMT -6
Go Emily!
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Post by skrapheap on Jun 28, 2012 9:25:36 GMT -6
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Post by skrapheap on Sept 11, 2012 8:04:42 GMT -6
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Post by mikes1988 on Sept 14, 2012 15:46:39 GMT -6
The amazing thing is that Emily has a legitimate chance to be a NCAA national champion by the time she graduates.
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