Swimming Blogs - Chris DeSantis

I don't follow any sport the way I follow swimming. In my major professional sports leanings, I am a complete monogamist to New England teams, owing to my Boston area upbringing. Yet in swimming, my fandom is far more promiscuous. While both as an athlete and a coach I want to succeed and win, it also brings me a lot of satisfaction to see peers and competitors achieve their goals. I love the sport of swimming, and I'm a fan of watching it done well. This made the news yesterday particularly painful.

I've been a fan of Arizona State swimming since I started following the sport ten years ago over the internet. The first swimmer that caught my eye was Fransisco Sanchez. A talented sprinter from Venezuela, he wowed me by going 19 in the 50 and 43 in the 100 in advance of what I considered legitimate "taper" meets. It was inconceivable to my young mind that a man could do that. As I continued to follow the team I found more reasons to care about what was going on in Tempe.

Interestingly enough, what kept me hooked as a fan of Arizona State came from New England. After I set about following swimming in the rest of the country, I also became painfully aware of my area's woeful national reputation in the sport. I desperately wanted swimmers to emerge from the area who would shake that reputation. I also idolized many of the older swimmer's I saw at meets. I admired them for their sportsmanship and their ability. One of these swimmers was Nick Brunelli.

Now by fate, Nick Brunelli decided to attend Arizona State. He had been a good swimmer growing up in Mansfield, Massachusetts. Before he event set foot on the campus in Tempe he had won Junior Nationals. Still, I like to think he exceeded expectations with what he accomplished there. Nick transformed himself over four years from a bright young talent to a legitimate contender to make any international team. His first legitimate chance to make the team came in 2004. I pined for him to make the team and prove that New England Swimming was good for more than just a Jenny Thompson or Erik Vendt every few years. Nick finished in the loneliest of positions at the 2004 trials, 3rd in the 50 free.

A steady flow of New England swimmers followed Nick, probably partly owing to Arizona State Head Coach Mike Chasson's former position at Harvard University and with a local club team. I wanted each of them to succeed much as Nick did, and if you consider success as I do to be individual and relative, most of them did.

My sentimentality goes beyond whatever fictive connection I feel to the program. I feel as if swimming has taught me most of what I know and value in life. I hate to see that educational opportunity taken away from anyone. I'm not pretending this hurts me nearly as much as it does the swimmers, alumni and coaching staff of Arizona State. Still, as the news comes forward today that the program needs five millions dollars to endow itself and survive, you don't need to be someone "involved" in Arizona State swimming to take this situation personally. I know I'm hoping this wasn't the last year I had to be a Sun Devil fan.

Read what Nick Brunelli has to say here.