Daylight Saving Time may dictate that clocks be turned back this weekend.
But for three days in Penn State’s Natatorium, the Nittany Lion Aquatic Club will continue to sprang forward.
As in Ryan Sprang, the club’s still-slightly-new head coach.
Friday marks the swimming savant’s 410th day on the job. And he’ll celebrate it by overseeing just another example of the NLAC’s reawakening and resurgence.
The club is hosting a USA Swimming-sanctioned meet, beginning Friday night and running – er, freestyling – through Sunday evening at the NLAC’s Fall Kick-off invitational.
Joining it will be nearly 600 visiting age-group swimmers from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and Delaware, competing in over 350 heats and finals. Among that group will be nearly 100 ever-improving NLAC swimmers between the ages of 6 and 19. And a couple of dozen grateful NLAC parents.
Sprang sprung onto the scene, you see, last fall. The NLAC’s forerunner – the Big Cat Swim Club – was being run by a dedicated group of parents. But, by last August, they knew they needed help.
So, led by attorney, age-group swim advocate and aging adult swimmer Scott Etter, an entourage of swimming parents who feared that the quality youth opportunities in State College would be lost, went out and found Sprang.
An Atlantic 10 swim champion and team captain at St. Bonaventure University, Sprang jumped into coaching immediately upon graduation in 2002. He’s had stops and successes in New Jersey, Virginia and central Pennsylvania before arriving in State College.
So Sprang knew what he was getting into when he showed up as head coach of the Nittany Lion Aquatic Club on Sept. 20, 2010.
“I knew it was a rebuilding project, and I found myself in that role before,” Sprang said earlier this week, his eyelids a bit droopy – not from chlorine but from the lack of sleep that comes with being the father of a two-week-old. (He and his wife Andrea also have a toddler, Ryan Jr.)
“That was OK,” Sprang added. “I would rather build something than inherit it.”
He’s talking about the swim club and not the newborn…I think.
FAST OUT OF THE BLOCKS
The rebirth – of the club – has gone swimmingly. Club membership is up over 150 and kids come from as away as Lewistown, Lock Haven and Mechanicsburg to be a watery Nittany Lion. (For club info, click here.)
Last summer, at USA Swimming’s Long Course Mid-Atlantic Junior Championships, the host NLAC finished third. Not bad – they beat nearly 100 other squads that boasted more than a thousand swimmers.
Times have changed. State College swimmers butterfly and breaststroke faster. And State College swim parents no longer have butterflies or ponder having a stroke.
“Ryan completely revamped the program,” said Parvathy Hughes, whose daughters Ally, Meghan and Caroline swim for NLAC. “Ryan gave the kids new goals to achieve, and even the non-superstars improved at every level. It’s fair to say he resurrected the club.”
So Sprang may be good. But no way he walks on water. Right?
“We still have a lot of work to do,” Sprang said. “There’s fundraising, hosting meets. It’s a challenge. We’re trying to upgrade the program, increase the budget and do what’s most important – give kids the opportunity to do their best.”
For those parents who remember the heyday of the Nittany Lion Aquatic Club’s forerunners, it’s like turning back the clock.
Age group race after age group race will be the scene this weekend at The Nat – where the NLAC is hosting 72 events, each with least five heats.
That’s 25 hours or so of swimming 25-yard laps.
Definitely a reason to continue to Sprang forward — no matter what the season.
