Ten teams, including several from out of state, will compete against Centre College this weekend in Danville. (Strauss Studios Photo)
Centre College has already hosted four swim meets this season and has five more scheduled starting with this weekend’s Speedo Mid Season Invite.
Dean Brownley has been Centre’s swimming and diving head coach since 2001 and believes six home meets is the most his team has ever had before but Champions Hall, a new 135,000-square foot facility with a 10-lane, 50-meter pool and warm-up area, changed the scheduling dynamic when it opened this year.
Centre has already hosted Division I Evansville and had a round robin weekend meet with three other teams.
“Without the new facility, we could not have done either one of those,” said Brownley. “We brought three teams in from out of state for the round robin and two are traditional top 25 teams because of our new pool. Our last away meet was October 26th. Even teams that we owed a trip to have said they would come here because of our new facility.”
Brownley believes a team grows through adversity on the road but the home meets also means his swimmers/divers do not have to miss classes to travel.
“We kind of pride ourselves on not missing class. We miss one day of class the first semester and three days for conference championship and that’s it. That’s all we ever miss. But this year our conference championship is here.”
The Southern Athletic Association Championships will be in Danville Feb. 12-15, the first time it has not been in Birmingham since the conference was formed in 2014.
The Speedo Mid Season Invite Friday through Sunday at Champions Hall will bring 10 teams to Danville including in-state teams Transylvania, Cumberlands, Campbellsville and Pikeville. Out of state teams include Colorado College, Converse College and Lenoir-Rhyne University.
Brownley said the level of competition this weekend will severely test his team.
Brownley was friends with the former Colorado College coach who agreed to make the trip to Danville and after she retired the new coach honored the commitment.
Over 400 athletes will be in Danville this weekend and that should make a significant economic impact on the community. Some teams will even arrive Thursday — the day before the meet starts — and stay until Monday even though the meet ends Sunday. Some teams are even having to stay out of town to find enough hotel rooms. Brownley said teams have also inquired about what restaurants can cater food.
Brownley said it takes a “huge team effort” to host a meet like the one this weekend or the conference championship.
“We want to try and make sure we can just coach and not have to worry about the administrative stuff. It takes a lot of people to make something like this work,” the Centre coach said.
It could be possible for Centre to be in position to host the Kentucky high school swimming and diving championships in the future, especially with a spectator viewing area for 750 people.
“If the logistics on dates could be worked out, we could potentially accommodate the state championships,” Brownley said. “There would be teams that need to stay a night and it would create a lot of activity for restaurants. But I think it could work out potentially.”
There will be a high school meet hosted by Boyle County and Danville Dec. 21. Boyle coach Crystal Ellis said eight teams are already committed with more likely to also come.
“We hope to have about 500 swimmers and divers from around the state here,” Ellis said.
Boyle is also hosting multi-team meets Dec. 5 and Jan. 8 along with the regional Jan. 24-25.
Brownley still thinks the new facility is a “little bit of a secret” with potential recruits who are just finding out about the new pool.
“The longer the pool is in existence and the more people we have coming in here, the better opportunity we have for recruiting to really take off,” Brownley said. “I think the USA Swimming State Short Course Championships are due to be here in March and that brings in a lot of club teams and some of the best swimmers in the state. I am hoping that will really kick open some doors for us.
“I’m so thankful to Centre and the alumni base that enabled us to raise the funds to build this beautiful facility. It’s just an amazing place.”
