January 25, 2024 • 39 mins
Welcome to Navy Sports Central - The Official Podcast of the Navy Sports Nation!
We are back with a terrific start to the new year! In our sports update, we will be checking in with the Track & Field and Wrestling teams. And you will also get an nice breakdown of men's basketball team's exciting win over Army.
Then, be sure to stay with us as we welcome Coach Bill Roberts of the Navy Men's Swimming & Diving team to the podcast. We will get an insider's look at their championship culture that has been built over the decades; one that they leaned on heavily to bounce back after a tough loss to Army to win their 19th consecutive Patriot League title.
Coach Roberts will put you in the moment as he recaps the thrilling win in the 400 yard freestyle relay that earned the Mids the championship. And he also shares some of his philosophy on what it takes to keep the team sharp as they prepare to defend their title just a couple months after another big win over Army.
This is your chance to learn more about one of the truly elite programs in all of Navy Athletics. It's an episode you won't want to miss!
Related Links:
- Navy Sweeps the 2023 Patriot League Swimming & Diving Titles!
- Navy Men's Swimming & Diving Beats Army to Reclaim the Star!
We want your answer to our Question of the Day. Here is the one for this episode:
How many ECAC Championships has Bill Roberts won as the head coach of the Navy Men's Swimming & Diving Team?
A.) 7
B.) 11
C.) 13
D.) 15
You can give us your answer on the Navy Sports Nation Group Facebook page.
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Follow Navy Sports Central wherever you get your podcasts:
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Music is provided courtesy of Audio Jungle. Artists featured in order:
Music is provided courtesy of Audio Jungle. Artists featured in order:
- Seven In Music (Intro)
- Alexiaction (Deep Dive)
- Loka Music (Question of the Day Lead In)
- Cinematic Alex (Closeout Music)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Karl (00:14):
Hi everybody.
My name is Karl Darden and I'dlike to welcome and thank all of
you for joining us today onNavy Sports Central.
I'm your host and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation where we take adeeper dive into Navy Sports.
The Dark Ages have arrived inAnnapolis, but it didn't seem to
have much of an effect on themen's basketball team.
They played very well down thestretch against Army last
weekend to come away with a win.
(00:34):
I'll be breaking down that gamein our sports update.
We'll also get caught up on howthings are going with indoor
track wrestling and the swimmingand diving teams, and don't
forget about our question of theday and mid-watch segments.
I hope your new year is off toa great start, so please stick
around and I'll get you allcaught up.
Okay, here we go with our firstepisode of 2024.
(01:00):
Sorry about being a little bitslow getting out of the blocks.
I got slammed with work duringthe first couple of weeks after
the holidays and I was alsoholding off because I wanted to
kick things off this year withan awesome guest.
His schedule did open up thisweek and we had an opportunity
to connect for a greatconversation, and that's coming
up in our deep dive segment, soyou won't want to miss that.
Now let's go ahead and getrolling.
First we're going to check inwith the indoor track and field
(01:23):
teams, both the men and thewomen.
The men posted a big win overPrinceton a couple of weeks ago
at home.
The final score was 92 to 87.
The Mids won 9 out of the 17events and scored a maximum of 8
points by finishing 1, 2 and 4of them.
I'm going to go through some ofthe top performances, starting
with the field events.
Joshua Boamah got thingsstarted by setting a new school
record in the weight throw.
(01:43):
He registered a distance of21.02 meters, which comes out to
68 feet and 11 and 3 quarterinches to win the event, and his
throw beat the previous recordby 0.26 meters, which had stood
for over 50 years.
And then, in the high jump,Sheldon Olmer and Benjamen
Schneider finished 1-2 for theMids.
Olmer recorded a jump of 2.08meters, which comes out to 6
(02:04):
feet 9 and 3 quarter inches, andSchneider posted a height of
2.02 meters, which converts to 6feet 7 and a half inches.
Walker Rudisaile and ThomasChristie also took the top two
spots in the pole vault.
Rudisaile won the event with aheight of 5.2 meters, which
comes out to 17 feet 3 quarterinches, and that also tied the
(02:25):
ninth best mark in schoolhistory.
So clearly the field eventsplayed a big role in the team
coming out on top in this meet.
But there are some great resultson the track as well.
Brahmir Vick took care ofbusiness by winning the 60 meter
hurdles with a time of 7.81seconds.
His finish tied the second besttime in Navy history.
Murphy Smith won the 3,000meters with a time of 8:18.
11 and Justin Mumford was rightbehind him 8:19.
(02:46):
56 819.56.
And that was good for thirdplace.
The Mids final win came in the4 by 800 meter relay.
Garrett Boblitz, Anthony Engel,Greyson Gravitt and Carson
Sloat edged out the Tigers by0.32 seconds and finished with a
time of 7:.
43.
1.
Unfortunately, the women had alittle bit of a rough outing.
Princeton ended up winningtheir dual meet 103 to 74.
(03:08):
But there were some performancesI did want to mention.
Gia Anderson won both the 60meter hurdles and the 200 meters
.
Her time in the 60 meterhurdles was the 10th fastest in
the program's history, at 8.62.
And she ran the 200 meters in24.7, which was a personal best.
Ellie Abraham and Emily Boutintook the track for the first
time this season.
In the mile, Abraham finishedsecond with a 10th best time in
school history of 4:51.
(03:28):
96.
Boutin was right behind her inthird, crossing the finish line
in 4:52.
19.
Now, both teams also competed inthe Wesley A.
Brown Invitational this pastweekend.
There was no team scoring, butI did want to share two new
school records that were set.
Vick recorded a time of 7.76 towin the 60 meter hurdles.
He beat his own school recordby just one one hundredth of a
second and he set that at thefirst of the two Navy
(03:51):
Invitationals in 2022.
By the way, Vick now owns sixof the top ten times in the
event, including the first five.
Murphy Smith won the 5,000meters with a time of 13:55.
15.
The previous school record of14:03.
10 had stood since 2011.
Andrew Kirkland and JustinMumford also beat the old school
record with times of 13:56.
28 and 13:59.
02 respectively.
(04:14):
The next big meet on thecalendar for both teams is the
Star Match against Army onFebruary 3rd, and, with the
Black Knights still holding aslim lead in the competition,
these two stars that are up forgrabs are going to be absolutely
huge.
The meet will be at home, so ifyou're local, try to get out
there and support the Mids,because these dual meets can
have more than a few momentumswings and a big crowd can
provide a lot of great energy.
(04:34):
That could prove to be thedifference.
Okay, now let's jump over tothe wrestling team and see
what's going on with them.
They rolled into the holidaybreak with a 6-0 record in dual
meets, and then they had areally strong showing at the
Franklin and Marshall Open, withAndrew Cerniglia winning the
title at 165 pounds.
But since then it's been somepretty tough sledding.
The team dropped two matchesagainst number 19 Oklahoma and
(04:56):
number 11 South Dakota State acouple of weeks ago, and then
last weekend they got behind17th ranked Lehigh early and
just couldn't catch up.
That was on Saturday, but theone that had to hurt the most
was the Mids match againstBinghamton the very next day.
They had a solid lead withthree matches left.
In fact they only needed one toclose out the meet, but they
just couldn't nail it down andBinghamton ended up winning by a
(05:16):
single point 18-17.
So the good news is the Mids dohave a chance to get back on
the right track against NorthCarolina.
That match will take place inChapel Hill this weekend and, by
the way, the star match againstArmy will be on February 21st
and, yes, it will be at home.
Okay, now it's time to take alook at men's and women's
basketball.
In case you missed it, bothteams took on Army last Saturday
(05:37):
in Alumni Hall.
There weren't any stars on theline.
This time, though, those willbe contested at West Point on
February, the 10th.
Now for those of you whohaven't been tracking them, this
season both teams are prettyyoung.
Compared to recent years, themen lost a ton of seniors and at
the start of the season, AustinInge who is the team captain,
by the way was only one of twoseniors on the entire roster and
(05:57):
the only one who's playedsignificant minutes.
The women are about in the sameplace.
Their backcourt is led by acouple of freshmen, actually
Zanai Barnett- Gay and Kaya KyahSmith.
Both of them are very excitingplayers.
Anyway, the women went toe totoe with Army and only trailed
by four points at halftime, butin the third quarter, just about
everything the Black Knightsthrew up went in, and they
pulled away for a 66-51 win.
(06:18):
So you know the mids Mids aregoing to be looking to get even
in the rematch up at West Pointin a few weeks.
Next, the men took the court totry and prevent the sweep and
I've got to say that in thegames I've seen so far this
season, this team is gettingbetter with everyone.
They've had several playersrise to the occasion and one of
them is Austin Benigni.
You'll learn more about him inour mid-watch segment.
What I'll say right now is ifyou haven't seen him play yet,
(06:39):
make it a point to do so beforethe season is finished.
Anyway, the game started out alittle bit slow for the Mids.
They were fine.
Defensively, coach Ed DeChellislikes to alternate between a 2-3
zone and a man-to-man defense,depending on the situation.
The team has very active handsand feet, which was partly
responsible for the 10 stealsthey came up with.
Offensively, the mids like togo with a lot of ball screens to
(07:00):
try and get Benigni an openlook or drive to the basket.
That gives them the option toshoot, take it to the rack or
find a teammate for an openjumper.
On Saturday he did a great jobgetting to the basket because
his outside shot was just alittle bit off.
One player who's really come onstrong as of late is Mike Woods
.
He is a 6-4 sophomore fromUpper Marlboro, Maryland, and
(07:20):
against Army.
He went 6-8 from the floor andfinished with 17 points, while
bringing down a team high 8rebounds, and 6 of those were on
the offensive glass.
One thing that really struck meabout this game was how even the
stats were.
Both teams shot basically thesame from the field.
The Mids shot 38.8% compared to38% for Army, and they were
dead even on their 3-pointpercentage at 30.8%, though the
(07:42):
mids only took half as manyshots.
They only put the ball up frombeyond the arc 13 times compared
to 26 for Army.
So, with these practicallyidentical stats, it tells you
that the game pretty much camedown to 1 or 2 big plays down
the stretch, and the biggest oneof all was an offensive rebound
that Donovan Draper grabbed inthe paint off of a missed
3-pointer from Benigni.
He got the put back to go downand that put the Mids up by 3
(08:02):
with 1:21 left in the game.
Army did get a quick layup toget back within a point, but the
Mids were able to close thingsout from the free throw line,
speaking of which, that was onearea that could have really done
them in.
No one shot their free throwsvery well in the first half at
all.
The team average for the yearis about 70%, which isn't
horrible, but in the first halfthey were just 4 of 13.
The mids did manage to finishstrong by making 7 of their last
(08:24):
10, and the two that DonovanDraper hit with a couple seconds
left iced the game.
The final score was 57-53, andthe mid sang second for the
third time in a row.
So, yeah, this team is stillpretty young, but they're off to
a great start in a PatriotLeague, and, after watching them
go against some of the moreexperienced teams, they've
played with a lot of poise.
Just a few days before the Armygame, they came from 12 points
(08:44):
down in the second half to beatLehigh.
Right now, the mids are 4-2 inthe Patriot League, and we're at
a point now in the schedulewhere they'll have, like you
know, three games a week.
So it'll turn into a little bitmore of a grind, but my feeling
is that this group isn'tlacking in toughness one bit, so
I'm looking forward to watchingthem play the rest of the
season.
Alright, that takes care of oursports update.
I'm going anywhere, though,because our deep dive segment is
(09:05):
next.
Okay, we are back here at NavySports Central, and before I get
to our guests in the Deep Divesegment, I wanted to share an
(09:27):
observation I had recently.
When looking at the 36th NavyVarsity Sports, you know,
certainly football comes to mindfirst.
If you're looking at the onethat has the most impact, it is
clearly the biggest revenueproducer and, along with alumni
donations, the football programplays a critical role in helping
the academy achieve itsphysical mission.
But when you're looking atsustained superior performance
(09:47):
over time and I'm talking acouple of decades here, not just
a few years the two teams thathave been the standard bearers
for Navy athletics have been themen's and women's swimming and
diving teams.
Now, the plan for this episodewas to feature both of them, but
unfortunately something came upwhich made it necessary to
reschedule our conversation withJohn Morrison, who is the
women's head coach, and my planis to have him on our next
(10:08):
episode.
Not to worry, though, becauseI'm happy to have the men's
coach join us today.
He took over the program in Mayof 2003, and, entering this
season, his record in dual meetsis 201 and 66.
He's been named the PatriotLeague Coach of the Year 11
times and the East CoastAthletic Conference Coach of the
Year on 12 occasions.
But probably the most tellingindicator of this sustained
(10:28):
excellence is this the NavyMen's Swim Team competed in the
Patriot League championships forthe first time in 2004.
Not only did they win it, butthey've taken home the trophy
every single year since then,except for 2020, when the
championships were canceled dueto the pandemic.
So I am very happy to welcomeNavy Men's Swimming and Diving
Coach Bill Roberts to thepodcast.
All right, Coach Roberts, thankyou so much for joining me on
(10:49):
Navy Sports Central.
I really appreciate you takingthe time.
Coach Roberts (10:52):
Karl, my pleasure to be here.
I look forward to talking alittle bit about the program and
Navy athletics.
Karl (10:57):
Yeah, same here, and I'll tell you that I actually started
off with the Navy Sports Nationblog about four years ago and I
think it was about the secondor third article I wrote covered
the swim team, and one of thethings I remember from about
that time was you did aninterview with Pete Medhurst, I
believe it was, and one of thethings you spoke to about the
secrets of the team's successwas the overall culture that has
(11:20):
been established there.
I was wondering if you couldspeak to that a little bit and
kind of point to what that lookslike on a day-to-day basis in
practice.
Coach Roberts (11:27):
Sure, absolutely.
Yeah.
I think a lot of coaches willtell you that it certainly
starts with the culture, and nomatter what sport you're talking
about, that's got to be inplace before you pick up a stick
or a ball or dive into thewater.
So that's been really paramount, and I think just the longer
I've been here, the more of apremium I put on that as well,
(11:47):
just in my own design of ourseason.
So the team's got a couple ofvirtues that are pretty
important to them that we reallytry to practice and preach on a
regular basis, and that istradition, brotherhood and
excellence.
The team came up with that onethemselves, and then, on top of
that, the one thing they'll hearfrom me is just our main
(12:08):
mission or goal is to provide anenvironment for these guys to
reach their full potential, bothas an athlete, a student, a
person.
So how we set up thatenvironment is really the, I
think, what is my main role inthis whole process.
So that's kind of what we aimto do, and then more to answer
(12:28):
your question, I think if youstepped on the pool deck on any
given practice day, you wouldjust see a really strong desire
of our guys to want to be here.
It's really at or near, and alltime high.
There's just a great energy andenthusiasm within this program,
and it's been like that for acouple of years now.
So I think it goes back overgenerations of team captains and
(12:54):
senior classes that have reallyemphasized culture, and we've
worked together to establishsomething that is still a work
in progress, but something thatwe feel is solid right now.
Karl (13:07):
Right, right, Okay, very good.
Now, one of the things that'simpressed me over the last
several years and this mighteven kind of go hand in hand
with the culture you'veestablished is the performance
of some of your freshmen thatcome in year over year.
I mean, there always seems tobe like one or two people that
really stand out, and this yearthe guy I was pointing to was
(13:27):
Juan Mora, one of yourbreastrokers.
We can talk about him in alittle bit, but I just wanted to
get your take on this.
I mean, what are some of theindicators that you look for
that would tell you, hey, from amental toughness standpoint,
this athlete, even this early,is a little bit ahead of the
game.
Coach Roberts (13:44):
Well, I think just to preface my response,
Carl we're always placing betson people because you never know
until they get here.
So Juan's a great example rightnow.
I guess we'll get to him lateron, but in terms of the mental
toughness and fortitude it takesto get through this place, it's
(14:09):
for me.
I put a greater emphasis ontalking to the club coaches
because they see the kids on adaily basis.
I think in my early time here Iknew I needed to do that, but I
didn't do as much as I shouldhave, and now I'm doing a lot
more and that's been reallyhelpful.
I think, if you can go watchthem compete somewhere, I try to
get out there and see them atleast once a year and just see
(14:31):
how they interact with theirteammates.
Even though we're up in thestands, you can get a little bit
of a sense of the type ofperson you're going to be
working with.
And then the other piece of thetrifecta there is having them
come out for an official visitor getting them to the campus
just to see how they do interacthere.
So those are some things thatwe do do, but I still think at
(14:56):
the end of the day, you can onlyget to know them so much.
We do try to do really regular,consistent recruiting and just
get a little bit of a sense ofthe type of person.
But I still think it's notuntil you get here during Plebe
Summer that you see thattoughness and as they go through
Plebe Summer and then I thinkyou got a better sense of what
(15:17):
you got.
Karl (15:19):
Right, Right, Okay.
So now I want to jump back tolast year, and this is actually
following the Star Match againstArmy.
There were a lot of I don'tknow about a lot, but I did
catch a couple of college swimblogs that were kind of speaking
to the fact that hey, lookslike this might be the year that
Navy goes down in the PatriotLeague championships, and what I
(15:40):
was curious about was, giventhe fact that you had a couple
of meets to go before you got tothat point, is there anything
that you did different to kindof get the team's mindset the
way you wanted?
Or was it basically justbusiness as usual, knowing that
they would go ahead and step upto the plate there when the time
came?
Coach Roberts (15:59):
Last year's case a little bit of both.
We really try to set ourselvesup as a championship program, so
everything's working towardsFebruary and March.
So a lot of those elementsdidn't change too much.
But at the same point we justhad our world rocked in December
and I think we had to do somesoul searching and really decide
what we want February and Marchto look like.
(16:22):
This time around, because wewere in new territory we went
into the meet as a big underdogI think on paper it was 50 or 60
points.
And the interesting thing aboutlast year is as soon as we got
back for a winter training camphere, we got hit with another
challenge and the pool watertemp was just ridiculously cold
(16:43):
for about a week straight.
So I had this team that was allfired up and ready to go and
get after it and raise the barto hopefully win, and day after
day we're just really strugglingwith that.
So it was an interesting timethat happened to us.
It was almost like some karmicadditional challenge.
(17:04):
So they made it through thatand after that it was really
just a terrific run of trainingFor me.
It almost made my job a littleeasier because the guys were so
driven and so motivated to putthemselves into position.
So I still think at the end ofday, carl, let's do our thing,
let's do it as well as we can,and we know we can be
(17:26):
competitive at that meet.
It's just a matter of gettingourselves in the position to do
so and then executing reallywell once we're there.
Karl (17:33):
Right.
So now I'm going to ask you tokind of take us back and put us
in that moment right at the endof the meet, which was the 400
freestyle relay.
Now, just for the benefit ofour listeners, guys, this was a
three-day slug fest.
I mean, the two teams were likethrowing haymakers back and
forth.
Over the first couple of days,a lead changed hands a couple of
(17:53):
times, well, more than a coupleof times.
But going into that last relayrace, basically it came down to
whoever wins, it wins thechampionship.
So, coach, first of all, the onething I noticed was that when
they were doing the kind of thepan of the crowd and they were
hitting the army side this wasat Bucknell University, but I
(18:14):
got the sense that they figuredman, we've got this, because
they basically put out the samerelay team they did at the Star
Match and their last guy, OwenHarlow, won that individual
event at the Star Match and theguy he beat was Garrett McGovern
, who was swimming anchor forNavy.
So I guess, what was your gameplan for the race?
(18:34):
How did you come up with theorder of the athletes and,
compared to what you guys werethinking as a staff, did
everything play out the way youthought.
I mean, obviously you got theresult you wanted to, but I mean
in terms of just what was goingon, leg by leg.
Coach Roberts (18:49):
Terrific question .
In terms of that event.
Our goal that day was just toget it to that event After the
morning session.
If you just followed theprojections for the night, we
were probably set to get beat byabout maybe 40 to 50 points.
(19:09):
Army just had to just kind ofhold serve, as they say in
tennis, and they would win themeet.
So we were just hoping that wecould chisel away within each
event and pick up points on theway, and we knew we had a relay.
If you look at the results, wehad won.
We were 4-4-4 in the relaysgoing in and we felt confident
about this one.
(19:30):
But we also knew that it'sgoing to be Army Navies
championships on the line, soanything can happen.
In terms of the order, a funnystory right after the 100,
Garrett came up to me andessentially said I'm done, coach
, I don't know if I have anymore left in me, and we still
had a lot of time.
So I said all right, just getout of the pool, get your legs
(19:52):
up, just take a couple ofmoments.
And so he did that.
And then in my mind I'm justthinking all right, well, we've
got a good plan B, we've got acouple guys, we can drop on
there.
That will be just ascompetitive.
But if he can't do it?
But he came back.
I can't remember exact time,but he came back and said I'm
good to go.
And at that point there was nodoubt we're going to put a
(20:13):
manker, because he'd beenanchored on several of the other
relays.
I just felt he wasn't going toflinch in that spot if it gets
close.
He was just so good for us.
So he was the anchor.
Jonah was going to be lead off.
He didn't swim an individualthat day, so we wanted to put up
the freshest person.
We got in the front end and hedid a terrific job.
And then Austin and Everettwould fall in the middle and
(20:38):
those are two really experiencedracers right there.
So essentially that's what wedid.
But, Karl, I think we could havemixed and matched a little bit
and still produced the sameoutcome.
I just felt like Garrett neededto be on the end.
That was the main thing.
Did it play out the way wethought up until the 375?
(20:59):
Yes, and then when they caughtus, I just said to myself I was
right there on that end of thepool and I said I can't believe
we're going to get B on the lastlength.
That was the thought goingthrough my head because they
just had such momentum.
Well, they flipped, pushed offtogether.
Harlow probably broke out ahead, but Garrett just really
(21:22):
elevated on the last 12 and ahalf and was just amazingly
amazing performance.
How he got to the wall first itwas really special.
I still can't fully tell youhow that happened.
I just know it did and it wasjust a great moment in our
program's history.
Karl (21:40):
Right right, so quick funny story for you.
I was watching the meet on ESPNPlus I'm just monitoring right
here and my office door wasclosed and the race had already
started and my wife walked inand I said not now.
And then, as Garrett wasturning on that last leg and I
saw him like kind of catching up, my face was getting closer and
(22:02):
closer to the screen, likefoolishly thinking I could see
his hand touch the wall by doingthat.
But it was just so exciting.
And the question I have for youis, as best as you can, can you
describe the atmosphere in thegym when his name came up first?
Because I can tell you fromwatching it on TV on ESPN here,
(22:23):
it was incredible.
I mean, how loud that sound was.
It's almost like if you werethere, you could feel the sound
of it just bouncing off yourskin.
So I was wondering what theatmosphere was like.
Coach Roberts (22:34):
Well, I think it was a heavyweight fight in the
making.
I think everybody there there's10 teams, essentially 20 teams
men and women for each school,and so everybody was certainly
pulling for their own team'sperformances that day.
But I think very close behindwas they either chose Army or
Navy.
They're rooting for one of thetwo teams that evening.
(22:55):
So I had a lot of people comeup to me and say, hey, we're
pulling for you, we're pullingfor you.
So that was kind of neat.
So I think people, everybody wasreally vested in this thing.
They'd watched the lead changes, they'd watched the just the
meat play out and the drama ofit all and they knew this thing
was shaping up.
It was just no matter whathappened in the events leading
(23:18):
up to the relay.
Somehow it's going to come downthe last relay and that's what
it did.
So there was just an energygoing into that event.
So in championships you havethe individual swimming races
and then you have a diving breakand then you've got the relay
to finish it off.
So it just really was aterrific build up to that event.
(23:40):
The things I remember, like youmentioned, Karl was super loud
and then when the officials sayquiet for the start it got super
quiet and then it was just agreat race.
I was right on the corner, theteam was kind of on the bench
right there and a lot of it wasa blur.
(24:01):
But the moment to your question, the moment he hit the wall, we
could partially see it from ourend.
We were pretty sure he got thewall first and then it flashed
on the screen.
But the struggle is it's notlike a game where when the clock
runs out, games over in relays,you have to wait until it's
(24:23):
confirmed.
So we certainly celebrated, butwe had to wait until the
officials gave it the two thumbsup.
So there's two sets of releasesof energy within us.
And then, after that moment itwas it just made for a really
special finish to a season thatwas all about redemption, I
(24:43):
think.
Karl (24:45):
Right, right, okay, cool.
So now I'm going to take usforward just to last month and
talk a little bit about how thatrematch with the star match
played out.
So in this one, aftereverything was over, in the
post-match interview you'dmentioned that you felt like
Juan Mora's race was the turningpoint in the meet and he just
(25:08):
turned in a great performance inthe 200-yard breaststroke.
And first of all, feel free totell us a little bit about him.
I know he's from out inCalifornia, I believe Folsom, I
think but tell us a little bitabout him.
And secondly, was this theresult you were expecting?
Because I know a lot of timeswhen you are positioning
swimmers and so forth, you'resaying, ok, I think I can get
this out of them, and anythingelse would be a real bonus.
(25:30):
Was that the sense here?
Did you have a pretty good ideathat this guy could compete?
Coach Roberts (25:35):
No well, yes and yes.
Juan actually grew up primarilyin Florida and then his family
recently moved to California, sohe's got dual places that he
now considers home.
But I first got to know him hecame to our camp a couple years
ago and so, like many kids whoattend the camp, they'll say,
(26:02):
hey, I really want to come andswim for you.
I hear that from a lot ofcampers.
Juan was one of them.
He just certainly stood out.
He was very competitive at thetime and then he had a pretty
good senior year in high school,dropped some pretty good time,
so we were all in in terms ofrecruiting and then he did a
(26:22):
year at Mercesburg before hecame to Navy.
In terms of the.
So I guess, to tell you aboutJuan a little bit, he's super
driven, he's got his goals set,he knows what he wants to do,
he's a team first guy all theway, he's an optimist and he's
(26:43):
got a.
He's got a great sense ofability to will his body to do
what he wants it to do.
You know that's the big part ofour training program, but not
everybody can quite say, hey,this is what I need you, the
body, to do for me right now.
But he's got that sense.
I think the amazing thing aboutwhat he did in the 200
(27:04):
breaststroke that was a pivotalpoint in the meat is right in
the middle.
And what you don't see in theresults is that Juan had had a
concussion back in earlyNovember, so he was out of the
water for a good good amount oftime.
So to answer your question likedid I?
It was more of.
We're just hoping we could getsomething out of him, as opposed
(27:24):
to was he going to becompetitive for the win?
Army's got extremelyexperienced and proven
breaststrokers.
So to ask a plea let alonesomeone who'd missed a good
amount of training time inNovember leading up to the meat
to go ahead and try to competefor the win, that wasn't in our
(27:48):
expectations of him.
Little did we know that hedidn't change his expectations.
He still was going out there tocompete for the team.
So that's one of the greatthings about coaching the Navy
is that sense of belief thatthese guys and girls have going
through a program like here.
Karl (28:05):
Right, right, okay, cool.
So yeah, that was.
And then it was interestingwhen I was watching the end of
the last couple of races, I meanbecause they were covering,
obviously, the women and the menat the same time and the Rowdy
Gaines haven't met.
By the way, how cool is it tohave someone like rowdy gains
engaged in your program to theextent that he is, because I
know historically he does do theArmy Navy meets and the Patriot
(28:28):
League championships.
But one thing he was saying waslike he was like doing the math
and everything and he figuredout that, okay, the women pretty
much got it wrapped up, the menpretty much do, as long as they
finish here and here in therelays, and that's basically how
it played out.
In fact, I think you guys did alittle bit better than what he
had predicted.
So what does it mean to havesomebody like rowdy gains, who's
clearly an Olympic legend andin fact his nickname was King
(28:49):
Sprint?
Can you speak to what it meansto have someone like him
involved in your meets?
Coach Roberts (28:55):
Well, he's been coming for a couple of years now
and he speaks to the teambeforehand and we're all
thanking him for coming out.
I think that's kind of the gistof your question, but we're
thanking him, but literally heis thanking us, he's thanking
the midshipmen.
He's just so in awe of whatthey're doing at that age and so
(29:18):
genuine, so passionate, justbig believer in all the values
of sport and our sport.
So I never can spend too muchtime with him.
Just an amazing human being and, again, like I mentioned with
Juan, very positive, veryoptimistic human being, someone
you want to be around, and he'sjust a highly infectious,
(29:42):
positive human being.
So to have him there.
We're just on the sidelinesthere and we're just walking up
and down and he's right therecalling the meet.
This guy calls the Olympics andhere he is in an outfit.
It's awesome.
Every time we get him back it'sjust a huge bonus for our
program and we know it means alot to him.
(30:04):
He speaks about that when hecomes here, so it's a treat.
I'm glad the NAAA is able tomake that happen each year.
Karl (30:13):
Right, right, okay, very good, all right.
Last question we have thePatriot League championships
coming up in a little over amonth, well, actually about a
month.
They start on February 21st.
What are a few of the thingsthat are top of mind for you, as
you had in these last couple ofmeets?
I know you got a Navy inviteand then you got one against
Columbia.
I think, yeah, what are some ofthe things that are top of mind
(30:35):
so that you can get the team topeak at the time that you want?
Coach Roberts (30:41):
Yeah, that's a great question.
There's a lot to it.
I think it starts with havingyour goals set.
We dedicate a lot of time togoal setting throughout the year
, so this is a big bullseye.
When we sit down in thebeginning of the year, they know
you can't fake this one.
You got to work long and hardover several months and several
(31:03):
years to be competitive for aconference championship, and
you've also.
This is one of those times wherethis really becomes a team
sport.
Everybody is relied on.
Even if you're not there,you're having a part in the guys
that are going to go andrepresent, and pushing them in
practice and making them earntheir spot is critical to our
(31:24):
success.
So I think those are some ofthe broader elements that we
lean on for this time of year.
And then, specifically eachyear, we're going to look at
what's the most direct path forus to win a conference
championship.
So, carl, we're very blessed.
We've got a lot of depth here.
I think most Navy teams arebuilt on that and so we've got
(31:48):
to be really good with ourpersonnel.
We're spoiled and we've got bigrosters.
We've got deep rosters, but westill have to make the right
decisions with the right peopleat that meet.
So I think those are some ofthe things that go into it.
And then, yeah, I'm just alwaysbig on just say believe in
yourself, believe in your team,trust your training, and these
things are just vital to whatyou're going to do.
(32:10):
And at the end of the day, it'sstill the same skill you're
doing in a dual meet againstColumbia or the Navy Invite, but
you know they're just.
You know the stakes are alittle higher, but still it's
the same act.
So we spend a lot of time justmentally and trying to visualize
that.
So they don't, you know, getnervous or hit the panic button
or, you know, just succumb tothe pressure.
So it's never easy, you know,and every year is a different
(32:33):
pathway to get there, but it's.
It is for us, I think, thething that we enjoy the absolute
most in terms of you know, whatwe take pride in, just because
it's such a team of that Right,that's not to take anything away
from the Army and Navy.
Duel me, that's obviously verycritical, but completely
different.
You know this is a four-dayknee and so yeah, yeah, all
(32:56):
right.
Karl (32:57):
Well, I'll definitely be tuning in, and so this looks
like a pretty good place to wrapthings up.
Coach, thanks so much fortaking time out of your schedule
to meet with me today.
I know things are going to bepretty hectic, especially coming
off of the couple of meets youhad last week.
Good luck the rest of theseason and I look forward to
watching you guys defend yourtitle at the championships.
Coach Roberts (33:14):
Yeah, I appreciate it.
It's my honor to speak with youtoday and thank you for all
that you do promoting theathletic program here.
Karl (33:20):
All right, thank you, coach you take care, go Navy,
bye-bye.
Okay, we're going to go aheadand take a short break now, but
before we do that, I did want togive you all a couple of ways
to stay up to date on NavySports.
The first is to join the NavySports Nation group Facebook
page.
I've got a link to that in theshow notes.
Just click on it, answer acouple of questions and you'll
be good to go.
The second way takes even lesstime.
(33:42):
Just hit the follow button onwhichever platform you're
listening to this podcast rightnow.
It can be Apple Podcasts,spotify, iheart Radio it doesn't
matter.
Once you do that, every episodewill be downloaded to your
directory when it's released andyou can listen to it whenever
you're ready.
So please consider becoming amember of our group and you can
actually tap that follow buttonright now to show your support
for the podcast.
I'm looking forward to havingyou join us.
(34:03):
We'll be right back All right.
Thanks for staying with us onNavy Sports Central, Karl Darden
, here with you, and now it'stime for our question of the day
(34:25):
.
First, let's go ahead and checkthe responses to our last one.
As you may recall, we werediscussing the impact of the
transfer portal on collegefootball, so here's a question.
In 2019, roughly 6% of DivisionI college football rosters were
made up of players from thetransfer portal.
What was that percentage duringthe 2023 football season?
Was it A, 21%, b, 26%, c, 29%or D 32%?
(34:50):
The most popular answer was A21%.
There were 37% of you who wentwith that one.
Next was 32%, which came in at36%.
Then there was 13% of you whoselected 26%, followed by 4% who
chose 29%.
I know there's a lot of percentgoing back and forth there, but
anyway, it turns out that thecorrect answer was A 21%, so
(35:14):
nice job to those of you whocame up with that one.
I will say, though, that at therate the transfer portal is
growing, I wouldn't be surprisedto see the percentage of
players using it climb to over30% in the next couple of years.
So thanks to all of you whotook the time to answer that
question.
Now let's get to the one forthis episode.
I mentioned earlier that CoachBill Roberts has led the Navy
men's swimming and diving teamto 19 Patriot League
(35:34):
championships.
Now, how many East Coastathletic championships have they
won since he became the headcoach?
Is it A, 7%, b, 11%, c, 13% orD 15%?
So you can take some time tothink about that one and you can
reply back by going to the NavySports Nation group Facebook
page.
I'll have the question up bythe end of the day.
(35:57):
All right, let's go ahead androll into our mid-watch segment
and, for the winter sportsseason, we're going to focus on
a couple of basketball players.
Let's start with the women.
The athlete we'll be featuringover the next couple of months
will be Zanai Barnett Gay.
She is the mid-starting pointguard and she came to the
academy from Glendale, maryland,which is about 20 miles west of
Annapolis, and I'll start bysaying that she has made a
(36:18):
pretty big splash since showingup on campus.
Barnett Gay leads the team inscoring, averaging 18.9 points
per game, and she's second inrebounds, pulling down about
five and a half per contest.
In the mids most recent winover Bucknell, she scored 16
points and grabbed the teamleading 11 rebounds.
The Patriot League is alsorecognizing her impact so far
this season.
They've awarded her the Rookieof the Week honors five
(36:38):
different times.
So Barnett Gay's numbersindicate that she's had no
trouble at all adjusting to thecollege game, and the two things
that really impressed me abouther is her court vision and how
she maneuvers in traffic.
She has consistently figuredout ways to create her own shot
even when it looks like onedoesn't even exist, and she does
a really good job finding openteammates both in transition and
when the team is in their halfcourt set.
(36:59):
Barnett Gay also has somepretty tight handles.
I'll tell you that I've seenher blow by more than a few
defenders using an absolutelywicked crossover dribble, so
she's going to be a lot of funto watch over the next few years
.
On the men's side, our focus isgoing to be on Austin Benigni.
You heard me mention himearlier.
He is a sophomore from theWoodlands, texas, which is just
outside of Houston.
I remember seeing him play forthe first time last year as a
(37:21):
freshman, when he came out ofnowhere to score 23 points off
the bench against YoungstownState early in the season.
Benigni is about 5'10".
That might be a tiny bitgenerous, but I tell you what he
is absolutely fearless going tothe rack.
I've seen him disappear intraffic in the paint and somehow
he still manages to get off areally good shot that winds up
going in most of the time.
Benigni is averaging about 16points and 6 assists per game.
(37:44):
Both of those lead the team.
He also put up 32 points inthat comfort behind win against
Lehigh that I mentioned earlier.
The last two came from the freethrow line with less than 4
seconds left to give the midsthe win.
So when you get a chance duringone of Navy's games, take some
time to focus your attention onBenigni.
He does a great job ofcontrolling the pace of the game
and when you see how heconducts himself out there on
(38:04):
the court, he looks more like anexperienced senior than a
sophomore.
That's going to do it for thisedition of Navy Sports Central.
Thank you all so much forjoining us Now.
If you like what you've heard,please be sure to hit that
follow button wherever you getyour podcasts and remember to
get the word to all the otherNavy fans out there.
And once again, I'd like tothank Coach Bill Roberts of the
men's swimming and diving teamfor joining me today.
(38:24):
That was a great look behindthe curtain at one of the truly
elite programs in all of NavyAthletics.
Our question of the daycontinues to be a show favorite.
You can get in on that byjoining the Navy Sports Nation
group Facebook page and givingyour answer to this week's
question.
I will pin it to the top so youdon't miss it.
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
(38:45):
Academy or Navy Athletics.
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to you
courtesy of Audio Jungle.
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody.
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden.
Go Navy beat Army.
Hi everybody.
My name is Karl Darden and I'dlike to welcome and thank all of
you for joining us today onNavy Sports Central.
I'm your host and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation where we take adeeper dive into Navy Sports.
The Dark Ages have arrived inAnnapolis, but it didn't seem to
have much of an effect on themen's basketball team.
They played very well down thestretch against Army last
weekend to come away with a win.
(00:34):
I'll be breaking down that gamein our sports update.
We'll also get caught up on howthings are going with indoor
track wrestling and the swimmingand diving teams, and don't
forget about our question of theday and mid-watch segments.
I hope your new year is off toa great start, so please stick
around and I'll get you allcaught up.
Okay, here we go with our firstepisode of 2024.
(01:00):
Sorry about being a little bitslow getting out of the blocks.
I got slammed with work duringthe first couple of weeks after
the holidays and I was alsoholding off because I wanted to
kick things off this year withan awesome guest.
His schedule did open up thisweek and we had an opportunity
to connect for a greatconversation, and that's coming
up in our deep dive segment, soyou won't want to miss that.
Now let's go ahead and getrolling.
First we're going to check inwith the indoor track and field
(01:23):
teams, both the men and thewomen.
The men posted a big win overPrinceton a couple of weeks ago
at home.
The final score was 92 to 87.
The Mids won 9 out of the 17events and scored a maximum of 8
points by finishing 1, 2 and 4of them.
I'm going to go through some ofthe top performances, starting
with the field events.
Joshua Boamah got thingsstarted by setting a new school
record in the weight throw.
(01:43):
He registered a distance of21.02 meters, which comes out to
68 feet and 11 and 3 quarterinches to win the event, and his
throw beat the previous recordby 0.26 meters, which had stood
for over 50 years.
And then, in the high jump,Sheldon Olmer and Benjamen
Schneider finished 1-2 for theMids.
Olmer recorded a jump of 2.08meters, which comes out to 6
(02:04):
feet 9 and 3 quarter inches, andSchneider posted a height of
2.02 meters, which converts to 6feet 7 and a half inches.
Walker Rudisaile and ThomasChristie also took the top two
spots in the pole vault.
Rudisaile won the event with aheight of 5.2 meters, which
comes out to 17 feet 3 quarterinches, and that also tied the
(02:25):
ninth best mark in schoolhistory.
So clearly the field eventsplayed a big role in the team
coming out on top in this meet.
But there are some great resultson the track as well.
Brahmir Vick took care ofbusiness by winning the 60 meter
hurdles with a time of 7.81seconds.
His finish tied the second besttime in Navy history.
Murphy Smith won the 3,000meters with a time of 8:18.
11 and Justin Mumford was rightbehind him 8:19.
(02:46):
56 819.56.
And that was good for thirdplace.
The Mids final win came in the4 by 800 meter relay.
Garrett Boblitz, Anthony Engel,Greyson Gravitt and Carson
Sloat edged out the Tigers by0.32 seconds and finished with a
time of 7:.
43.
1.
Unfortunately, the women had alittle bit of a rough outing.
Princeton ended up winningtheir dual meet 103 to 74.
(03:08):
But there were some performancesI did want to mention.
Gia Anderson won both the 60meter hurdles and the 200 meters
.
Her time in the 60 meterhurdles was the 10th fastest in
the program's history, at 8.62.
And she ran the 200 meters in24.7, which was a personal best.
Ellie Abraham and Emily Boutintook the track for the first
time this season.
In the mile, Abraham finishedsecond with a 10th best time in
school history of 4:51.
(03:28):
96.
Boutin was right behind her inthird, crossing the finish line
in 4:52.
19.
Now, both teams also competed inthe Wesley A.
Brown Invitational this pastweekend.
There was no team scoring, butI did want to share two new
school records that were set.
Vick recorded a time of 7.76 towin the 60 meter hurdles.
He beat his own school recordby just one one hundredth of a
second and he set that at thefirst of the two Navy
(03:51):
Invitationals in 2022.
By the way, Vick now owns sixof the top ten times in the
event, including the first five.
Murphy Smith won the 5,000meters with a time of 13:55.
15.
The previous school record of14:03.
10 had stood since 2011.
Andrew Kirkland and JustinMumford also beat the old school
record with times of 13:56.
28 and 13:59.
02 respectively.
(04:14):
The next big meet on thecalendar for both teams is the
Star Match against Army onFebruary 3rd, and, with the
Black Knights still holding aslim lead in the competition,
these two stars that are up forgrabs are going to be absolutely
huge.
The meet will be at home, so ifyou're local, try to get out
there and support the Mids,because these dual meets can
have more than a few momentumswings and a big crowd can
provide a lot of great energy.
(04:34):
That could prove to be thedifference.
Okay, now let's jump over tothe wrestling team and see
what's going on with them.
They rolled into the holidaybreak with a 6-0 record in dual
meets, and then they had areally strong showing at the
Franklin and Marshall Open, withAndrew Cerniglia winning the
title at 165 pounds.
But since then it's been somepretty tough sledding.
The team dropped two matchesagainst number 19 Oklahoma and
(04:56):
number 11 South Dakota State acouple of weeks ago, and then
last weekend they got behind17th ranked Lehigh early and
just couldn't catch up.
That was on Saturday, but theone that had to hurt the most
was the Mids match againstBinghamton the very next day.
They had a solid lead withthree matches left.
In fact they only needed one toclose out the meet, but they
just couldn't nail it down andBinghamton ended up winning by a
(05:16):
single point 18-17.
So the good news is the Mids dohave a chance to get back on
the right track against NorthCarolina.
That match will take place inChapel Hill this weekend and, by
the way, the star match againstArmy will be on February 21st
and, yes, it will be at home.
Okay, now it's time to take alook at men's and women's
basketball.
In case you missed it, bothteams took on Army last Saturday
(05:37):
in Alumni Hall.
There weren't any stars on theline.
This time, though, those willbe contested at West Point on
February, the 10th.
Now for those of you whohaven't been tracking them, this
season both teams are prettyyoung.
Compared to recent years, themen lost a ton of seniors and at
the start of the season, AustinInge who is the team captain,
by the way was only one of twoseniors on the entire roster and
(05:57):
the only one who's playedsignificant minutes.
The women are about in the sameplace.
Their backcourt is led by acouple of freshmen, actually
Zanai Barnett- Gay and Kaya KyahSmith.
Both of them are very excitingplayers.
Anyway, the women went toe totoe with Army and only trailed
by four points at halftime, butin the third quarter, just about
everything the Black Knightsthrew up went in, and they
pulled away for a 66-51 win.
(06:18):
So you know the mids Mids aregoing to be looking to get even
in the rematch up at West Pointin a few weeks.
Next, the men took the court totry and prevent the sweep and
I've got to say that in thegames I've seen so far this
season, this team is gettingbetter with everyone.
They've had several playersrise to the occasion and one of
them is Austin Benigni.
You'll learn more about him inour mid-watch segment.
What I'll say right now is ifyou haven't seen him play yet,
(06:39):
make it a point to do so beforethe season is finished.
Anyway, the game started out alittle bit slow for the Mids.
They were fine.
Defensively, coach Ed DeChellislikes to alternate between a 2-3
zone and a man-to-man defense,depending on the situation.
The team has very active handsand feet, which was partly
responsible for the 10 stealsthey came up with.
Offensively, the mids like togo with a lot of ball screens to
(07:00):
try and get Benigni an openlook or drive to the basket.
That gives them the option toshoot, take it to the rack or
find a teammate for an openjumper.
On Saturday he did a great jobgetting to the basket because
his outside shot was just alittle bit off.
One player who's really come onstrong as of late is Mike Woods
.
He is a 6-4 sophomore fromUpper Marlboro, Maryland, and
(07:20):
against Army.
He went 6-8 from the floor andfinished with 17 points, while
bringing down a team high 8rebounds, and 6 of those were on
the offensive glass.
One thing that really struck meabout this game was how even the
stats were.
Both teams shot basically thesame from the field.
The Mids shot 38.8% compared to38% for Army, and they were
dead even on their 3-pointpercentage at 30.8%, though the
(07:42):
mids only took half as manyshots.
They only put the ball up frombeyond the arc 13 times compared
to 26 for Army.
So, with these practicallyidentical stats, it tells you
that the game pretty much camedown to 1 or 2 big plays down
the stretch, and the biggest oneof all was an offensive rebound
that Donovan Draper grabbed inthe paint off of a missed
3-pointer from Benigni.
He got the put back to go downand that put the Mids up by 3
(08:02):
with 1:21 left in the game.
Army did get a quick layup toget back within a point, but the
Mids were able to close thingsout from the free throw line,
speaking of which, that was onearea that could have really done
them in.
No one shot their free throwsvery well in the first half at
all.
The team average for the yearis about 70%, which isn't
horrible, but in the first halfthey were just 4 of 13.
The mids did manage to finishstrong by making 7 of their last
(08:24):
10, and the two that DonovanDraper hit with a couple seconds
left iced the game.
The final score was 57-53, andthe mid sang second for the
third time in a row.
So, yeah, this team is stillpretty young, but they're off to
a great start in a PatriotLeague, and, after watching them
go against some of the moreexperienced teams, they've
played with a lot of poise.
Just a few days before the Armygame, they came from 12 points
(08:44):
down in the second half to beatLehigh.
Right now, the mids are 4-2 inthe Patriot League, and we're at
a point now in the schedulewhere they'll have, like you
know, three games a week.
So it'll turn into a little bitmore of a grind, but my feeling
is that this group isn'tlacking in toughness one bit, so
I'm looking forward to watchingthem play the rest of the
season.
Alright, that takes care of oursports update.
I'm going anywhere, though,because our deep dive segment is
(09:05):
next.
Okay, we are back here at NavySports Central, and before I get
to our guests in the Deep Divesegment, I wanted to share an
(09:27):
observation I had recently.
When looking at the 36th NavyVarsity Sports, you know,
certainly football comes to mindfirst.
If you're looking at the onethat has the most impact, it is
clearly the biggest revenueproducer and, along with alumni
donations, the football programplays a critical role in helping
the academy achieve itsphysical mission.
But when you're looking atsustained superior performance
(09:47):
over time and I'm talking acouple of decades here, not just
a few years the two teams thathave been the standard bearers
for Navy athletics have been themen's and women's swimming and
diving teams.
Now, the plan for this episodewas to feature both of them, but
unfortunately something came upwhich made it necessary to
reschedule our conversation withJohn Morrison, who is the
women's head coach, and my planis to have him on our next
(10:08):
episode.
Not to worry, though, becauseI'm happy to have the men's
coach join us today.
He took over the program in Mayof 2003, and, entering this
season, his record in dual meetsis 201 and 66.
He's been named the PatriotLeague Coach of the Year 11
times and the East CoastAthletic Conference Coach of the
Year on 12 occasions.
But probably the most tellingindicator of this sustained
(10:28):
excellence is this the NavyMen's Swim Team competed in the
Patriot League championships forthe first time in 2004.
Not only did they win it, butthey've taken home the trophy
every single year since then,except for 2020, when the
championships were canceled dueto the pandemic.
So I am very happy to welcomeNavy Men's Swimming and Diving
Coach Bill Roberts to thepodcast.
All right, Coach Roberts, thankyou so much for joining me on
(10:49):
Navy Sports Central.
I really appreciate you takingthe time.
Coach Roberts (10:52):
Karl, my pleasure to be here.
I look forward to talking alittle bit about the program and
Navy athletics.
Karl (10:57):
Yeah, same here, and I'll tell you that I actually started
off with the Navy Sports Nationblog about four years ago and I
think it was about the secondor third article I wrote covered
the swim team, and one of thethings I remember from about
that time was you did aninterview with Pete Medhurst, I
believe it was, and one of thethings you spoke to about the
secrets of the team's successwas the overall culture that has
(11:20):
been established there.
I was wondering if you couldspeak to that a little bit and
kind of point to what that lookslike on a day-to-day basis in
practice.
Coach Roberts (11:27):
Sure, absolutely.
Yeah.
I think a lot of coaches willtell you that it certainly
starts with the culture, and nomatter what sport you're talking
about, that's got to be inplace before you pick up a stick
or a ball or dive into thewater.
So that's been really paramount, and I think just the longer
I've been here, the more of apremium I put on that as well,
(11:47):
just in my own design of ourseason.
So the team's got a couple ofvirtues that are pretty
important to them that we reallytry to practice and preach on a
regular basis, and that istradition, brotherhood and
excellence.
The team came up with that onethemselves, and then, on top of
that, the one thing they'll hearfrom me is just our main
(12:08):
mission or goal is to provide anenvironment for these guys to
reach their full potential, bothas an athlete, a student, a
person.
So how we set up thatenvironment is really the, I
think, what is my main role inthis whole process.
So that's kind of what we aimto do, and then more to answer
(12:28):
your question, I think if youstepped on the pool deck on any
given practice day, you wouldjust see a really strong desire
of our guys to want to be here.
It's really at or near, and alltime high.
There's just a great energy andenthusiasm within this program,
and it's been like that for acouple of years now.
So I think it goes back overgenerations of team captains and
(12:54):
senior classes that have reallyemphasized culture, and we've
worked together to establishsomething that is still a work
in progress, but something thatwe feel is solid right now.
Karl (13:07):
Right, right, Okay, very good.
Now, one of the things that'simpressed me over the last
several years and this mighteven kind of go hand in hand
with the culture you'veestablished is the performance
of some of your freshmen thatcome in year over year.
I mean, there always seems tobe like one or two people that
really stand out, and this yearthe guy I was pointing to was
(13:27):
Juan Mora, one of yourbreastrokers.
We can talk about him in alittle bit, but I just wanted to
get your take on this.
I mean, what are some of theindicators that you look for
that would tell you, hey, from amental toughness standpoint,
this athlete, even this early,is a little bit ahead of the
game.
Coach Roberts (13:44):
Well, I think just to preface my response,
Carl we're always placing betson people because you never know
until they get here.
So Juan's a great example rightnow.
I guess we'll get to him lateron, but in terms of the mental
toughness and fortitude it takesto get through this place, it's
(14:09):
for me.
I put a greater emphasis ontalking to the club coaches
because they see the kids on adaily basis.
I think in my early time here Iknew I needed to do that, but I
didn't do as much as I shouldhave, and now I'm doing a lot
more and that's been reallyhelpful.
I think, if you can go watchthem compete somewhere, I try to
get out there and see them atleast once a year and just see
(14:31):
how they interact with theirteammates.
Even though we're up in thestands, you can get a little bit
of a sense of the type ofperson you're going to be
working with.
And then the other piece of thetrifecta there is having them
come out for an official visitor getting them to the campus
just to see how they do interacthere.
So those are some things thatwe do do, but I still think at
(14:56):
the end of the day, you can onlyget to know them so much.
We do try to do really regular,consistent recruiting and just
get a little bit of a sense ofthe type of person.
But I still think it's notuntil you get here during Plebe
Summer that you see thattoughness and as they go through
Plebe Summer and then I thinkyou got a better sense of what
(15:17):
you got.
Karl (15:19):
Right, Right, Okay.
So now I want to jump back tolast year, and this is actually
following the Star Match againstArmy.
There were a lot of I don'tknow about a lot, but I did
catch a couple of college swimblogs that were kind of speaking
to the fact that hey, lookslike this might be the year that
Navy goes down in the PatriotLeague championships, and what I
(15:40):
was curious about was, giventhe fact that you had a couple
of meets to go before you got tothat point, is there anything
that you did different to kindof get the team's mindset the
way you wanted?
Or was it basically justbusiness as usual, knowing that
they would go ahead and step upto the plate there when the time
came?
Coach Roberts (15:59):
Last year's case a little bit of both.
We really try to set ourselvesup as a championship program, so
everything's working towardsFebruary and March.
So a lot of those elementsdidn't change too much.
But at the same point we justhad our world rocked in December
and I think we had to do somesoul searching and really decide
what we want February and Marchto look like.
(16:22):
This time around, because wewere in new territory we went
into the meet as a big underdogI think on paper it was 50 or 60
points.
And the interesting thing aboutlast year is as soon as we got
back for a winter training camphere, we got hit with another
challenge and the pool watertemp was just ridiculously cold
(16:43):
for about a week straight.
So I had this team that was allfired up and ready to go and
get after it and raise the barto hopefully win, and day after
day we're just really strugglingwith that.
So it was an interesting timethat happened to us.
It was almost like some karmicadditional challenge.
(17:04):
So they made it through thatand after that it was really
just a terrific run of trainingFor me.
It almost made my job a littleeasier because the guys were so
driven and so motivated to putthemselves into position.
So I still think at the end ofday, carl, let's do our thing,
let's do it as well as we can,and we know we can be
(17:26):
competitive at that meet.
It's just a matter of gettingourselves in the position to do
so and then executing reallywell once we're there.
Karl (17:33):
Right.
So now I'm going to ask you tokind of take us back and put us
in that moment right at the endof the meet, which was the 400
freestyle relay.
Now, just for the benefit ofour listeners, guys, this was a
three-day slug fest.
I mean, the two teams were likethrowing haymakers back and
forth.
Over the first couple of days,a lead changed hands a couple of
(17:53):
times, well, more than a coupleof times.
But going into that last relayrace, basically it came down to
whoever wins, it wins thechampionship.
So, coach, first of all, the onething I noticed was that when
they were doing the kind of thepan of the crowd and they were
hitting the army side this wasat Bucknell University, but I
(18:14):
got the sense that they figuredman, we've got this, because
they basically put out the samerelay team they did at the Star
Match and their last guy, OwenHarlow, won that individual
event at the Star Match and theguy he beat was Garrett McGovern
, who was swimming anchor forNavy.
So I guess, what was your gameplan for the race?
(18:34):
How did you come up with theorder of the athletes and,
compared to what you guys werethinking as a staff, did
everything play out the way youthought.
I mean, obviously you got theresult you wanted to, but I mean
in terms of just what was goingon, leg by leg.
Coach Roberts (18:49):
Terrific question .
In terms of that event.
Our goal that day was just toget it to that event After the
morning session.
If you just followed theprojections for the night, we
were probably set to get beat byabout maybe 40 to 50 points.
(19:09):
Army just had to just kind ofhold serve, as they say in
tennis, and they would win themeet.
So we were just hoping that wecould chisel away within each
event and pick up points on theway, and we knew we had a relay.
If you look at the results, wehad won.
We were 4-4-4 in the relaysgoing in and we felt confident
about this one.
(19:30):
But we also knew that it'sgoing to be Army Navies
championships on the line, soanything can happen.
In terms of the order, a funnystory right after the 100,
Garrett came up to me andessentially said I'm done, coach
, I don't know if I have anymore left in me, and we still
had a lot of time.
So I said all right, just getout of the pool, get your legs
(19:52):
up, just take a couple ofmoments.
And so he did that.
And then in my mind I'm justthinking all right, well, we've
got a good plan B, we've got acouple guys, we can drop on
there.
That will be just ascompetitive.
But if he can't do it?
But he came back.
I can't remember exact time,but he came back and said I'm
good to go.
And at that point there was nodoubt we're going to put a
(20:13):
manker, because he'd beenanchored on several of the other
relays.
I just felt he wasn't going toflinch in that spot if it gets
close.
He was just so good for us.
So he was the anchor.
Jonah was going to be lead off.
He didn't swim an individualthat day, so we wanted to put up
the freshest person.
We got in the front end and hedid a terrific job.
And then Austin and Everettwould fall in the middle and
(20:38):
those are two really experiencedracers right there.
So essentially that's what wedid.
But, Karl, I think we could havemixed and matched a little bit
and still produced the sameoutcome.
I just felt like Garrett neededto be on the end.
That was the main thing.
Did it play out the way wethought up until the 375?
(20:59):
Yes, and then when they caughtus, I just said to myself I was
right there on that end of thepool and I said I can't believe
we're going to get B on the lastlength.
That was the thought goingthrough my head because they
just had such momentum.
Well, they flipped, pushed offtogether.
Harlow probably broke out ahead, but Garrett just really
(21:22):
elevated on the last 12 and ahalf and was just amazingly
amazing performance.
How he got to the wall first itwas really special.
I still can't fully tell youhow that happened.
I just know it did and it wasjust a great moment in our
program's history.
Karl (21:40):
Right right, so quick funny story for you.
I was watching the meet on ESPNPlus I'm just monitoring right
here and my office door wasclosed and the race had already
started and my wife walked inand I said not now.
And then, as Garrett wasturning on that last leg and I
saw him like kind of catching up, my face was getting closer and
(22:02):
closer to the screen, likefoolishly thinking I could see
his hand touch the wall by doingthat.
But it was just so exciting.
And the question I have for youis, as best as you can, can you
describe the atmosphere in thegym when his name came up first?
Because I can tell you fromwatching it on TV on ESPN here,
(22:23):
it was incredible.
I mean, how loud that sound was.
It's almost like if you werethere, you could feel the sound
of it just bouncing off yourskin.
So I was wondering what theatmosphere was like.
Coach Roberts (22:34):
Well, I think it was a heavyweight fight in the
making.
I think everybody there there's10 teams, essentially 20 teams
men and women for each school,and so everybody was certainly
pulling for their own team'sperformances that day.
But I think very close behindwas they either chose Army or
Navy.
They're rooting for one of thetwo teams that evening.
(22:55):
So I had a lot of people comeup to me and say, hey, we're
pulling for you, we're pullingfor you.
So that was kind of neat.
So I think people, everybody wasreally vested in this thing.
They'd watched the lead changes, they'd watched the just the
meat play out and the drama ofit all and they knew this thing
was shaping up.
It was just no matter whathappened in the events leading
(23:18):
up to the relay.
Somehow it's going to come downthe last relay and that's what
it did.
So there was just an energygoing into that event.
So in championships you havethe individual swimming races
and then you have a diving breakand then you've got the relay
to finish it off.
So it just really was aterrific build up to that event.
(23:40):
The things I remember, like youmentioned, Karl was super loud
and then when the officials sayquiet for the start it got super
quiet and then it was just agreat race.
I was right on the corner, theteam was kind of on the bench
right there and a lot of it wasa blur.
(24:01):
But the moment to your question, the moment he hit the wall, we
could partially see it from ourend.
We were pretty sure he got thewall first and then it flashed
on the screen.
But the struggle is it's notlike a game where when the clock
runs out, games over in relays,you have to wait until it's
(24:23):
confirmed.
So we certainly celebrated, butwe had to wait until the
officials gave it the two thumbsup.
So there's two sets of releasesof energy within us.
And then, after that moment itwas it just made for a really
special finish to a season thatwas all about redemption, I
(24:43):
think.
Karl (24:45):
Right, right, okay, cool.
So now I'm going to take usforward just to last month and
talk a little bit about how thatrematch with the star match
played out.
So in this one, aftereverything was over, in the
post-match interview you'dmentioned that you felt like
Juan Mora's race was the turningpoint in the meet and he just
(25:08):
turned in a great performance inthe 200-yard breaststroke.
And first of all, feel free totell us a little bit about him.
I know he's from out inCalifornia, I believe Folsom, I
think but tell us a little bitabout him.
And secondly, was this theresult you were expecting?
Because I know a lot of timeswhen you are positioning
swimmers and so forth, you'resaying, ok, I think I can get
this out of them, and anythingelse would be a real bonus.
(25:30):
Was that the sense here?
Did you have a pretty good ideathat this guy could compete?
Coach Roberts (25:35):
No well, yes and yes.
Juan actually grew up primarilyin Florida and then his family
recently moved to California, sohe's got dual places that he
now considers home.
But I first got to know him hecame to our camp a couple years
ago and so, like many kids whoattend the camp, they'll say,
(26:02):
hey, I really want to come andswim for you.
I hear that from a lot ofcampers.
Juan was one of them.
He just certainly stood out.
He was very competitive at thetime and then he had a pretty
good senior year in high school,dropped some pretty good time,
so we were all in in terms ofrecruiting and then he did a
(26:22):
year at Mercesburg before hecame to Navy.
In terms of the.
So I guess, to tell you aboutJuan a little bit, he's super
driven, he's got his goals set,he knows what he wants to do,
he's a team first guy all theway, he's an optimist and he's
(26:43):
got a.
He's got a great sense ofability to will his body to do
what he wants it to do.
You know that's the big part ofour training program, but not
everybody can quite say, hey,this is what I need you, the
body, to do for me right now.
But he's got that sense.
I think the amazing thing aboutwhat he did in the 200
(27:04):
breaststroke that was a pivotalpoint in the meat is right in
the middle.
And what you don't see in theresults is that Juan had had a
concussion back in earlyNovember, so he was out of the
water for a good good amount oftime.
So to answer your question likedid I?
It was more of.
We're just hoping we could getsomething out of him, as opposed
(27:24):
to was he going to becompetitive for the win?
Army's got extremelyexperienced and proven
breaststrokers.
So to ask a plea let alonesomeone who'd missed a good
amount of training time inNovember leading up to the meat
to go ahead and try to competefor the win, that wasn't in our
(27:48):
expectations of him.
Little did we know that hedidn't change his expectations.
He still was going out there tocompete for the team.
So that's one of the greatthings about coaching the Navy
is that sense of belief thatthese guys and girls have going
through a program like here.
Karl (28:05):
Right, right, okay, cool.
So yeah, that was.
And then it was interestingwhen I was watching the end of
the last couple of races, I meanbecause they were covering,
obviously, the women and the menat the same time and the Rowdy
Gaines haven't met.
By the way, how cool is it tohave someone like rowdy gains
engaged in your program to theextent that he is, because I
know historically he does do theArmy Navy meets and the Patriot
(28:28):
League championships.
But one thing he was saying waslike he was like doing the math
and everything and he figuredout that, okay, the women pretty
much got it wrapped up, the menpretty much do, as long as they
finish here and here in therelays, and that's basically how
it played out.
In fact, I think you guys did alittle bit better than what he
had predicted.
So what does it mean to havesomebody like rowdy gains, who's
clearly an Olympic legend andin fact his nickname was King
(28:49):
Sprint?
Can you speak to what it meansto have someone like him
involved in your meets?
Coach Roberts (28:55):
Well, he's been coming for a couple of years now
and he speaks to the teambeforehand and we're all
thanking him for coming out.
I think that's kind of the gistof your question, but we're
thanking him, but literally heis thanking us, he's thanking
the midshipmen.
He's just so in awe of whatthey're doing at that age and so
(29:18):
genuine, so passionate, justbig believer in all the values
of sport and our sport.
So I never can spend too muchtime with him.
Just an amazing human being and, again, like I mentioned with
Juan, very positive, veryoptimistic human being, someone
you want to be around, and he'sjust a highly infectious,
(29:42):
positive human being.
So to have him there.
We're just on the sidelinesthere and we're just walking up
and down and he's right therecalling the meet.
This guy calls the Olympics andhere he is in an outfit.
It's awesome.
Every time we get him back it'sjust a huge bonus for our
program and we know it means alot to him.
(30:04):
He speaks about that when hecomes here, so it's a treat.
I'm glad the NAAA is able tomake that happen each year.
Karl (30:13):
Right, right, okay, very good, all right.
Last question we have thePatriot League championships
coming up in a little over amonth, well, actually about a
month.
They start on February 21st.
What are a few of the thingsthat are top of mind for you, as
you had in these last couple ofmeets?
I know you got a Navy inviteand then you got one against
Columbia.
I think, yeah, what are some ofthe things that are top of mind
(30:35):
so that you can get the team topeak at the time that you want?
Coach Roberts (30:41):
Yeah, that's a great question.
There's a lot to it.
I think it starts with havingyour goals set.
We dedicate a lot of time togoal setting throughout the year
, so this is a big bullseye.
When we sit down in thebeginning of the year, they know
you can't fake this one.
You got to work long and hardover several months and several
(31:03):
years to be competitive for aconference championship, and
you've also.
This is one of those times wherethis really becomes a team
sport.
Everybody is relied on.
Even if you're not there,you're having a part in the guys
that are going to go andrepresent, and pushing them in
practice and making them earntheir spot is critical to our
(31:24):
success.
So I think those are some ofthe broader elements that we
lean on for this time of year.
And then, specifically eachyear, we're going to look at
what's the most direct path forus to win a conference
championship.
So, carl, we're very blessed.
We've got a lot of depth here.
I think most Navy teams arebuilt on that and so we've got
(31:48):
to be really good with ourpersonnel.
We're spoiled and we've got bigrosters.
We've got deep rosters, but westill have to make the right
decisions with the right peopleat that meet.
So I think those are some ofthe things that go into it.
And then, yeah, I'm just alwaysbig on just say believe in
yourself, believe in your team,trust your training, and these
things are just vital to whatyou're going to do.
(32:10):
And at the end of the day, it'sstill the same skill you're
doing in a dual meet againstColumbia or the Navy Invite, but
you know they're just.
You know the stakes are alittle higher, but still it's
the same act.
So we spend a lot of time justmentally and trying to visualize
that.
So they don't, you know, getnervous or hit the panic button
or, you know, just succumb tothe pressure.
So it's never easy, you know,and every year is a different
(32:33):
pathway to get there, but it's.
It is for us, I think, thething that we enjoy the absolute
most in terms of you know, whatwe take pride in, just because
it's such a team of that Right,that's not to take anything away
from the Army and Navy.
Duel me, that's obviously verycritical, but completely
different.
You know this is a four-dayknee and so yeah, yeah, all
(32:56):
right.
Karl (32:57):
Well, I'll definitely be tuning in, and so this looks
like a pretty good place to wrapthings up.
Coach, thanks so much fortaking time out of your schedule
to meet with me today.
I know things are going to bepretty hectic, especially coming
off of the couple of meets youhad last week.
Good luck the rest of theseason and I look forward to
watching you guys defend yourtitle at the championships.
Coach Roberts (33:14):
Yeah, I appreciate it.
It's my honor to speak with youtoday and thank you for all
that you do promoting theathletic program here.
Karl (33:20):
All right, thank you, coach you take care, go Navy,
bye-bye.
Okay, we're going to go aheadand take a short break now, but
before we do that, I did want togive you all a couple of ways
to stay up to date on NavySports.
The first is to join the NavySports Nation group Facebook
page.
I've got a link to that in theshow notes.
Just click on it, answer acouple of questions and you'll
be good to go.
The second way takes even lesstime.
(33:42):
Just hit the follow button onwhichever platform you're
listening to this podcast rightnow.
It can be Apple Podcasts,spotify, iheart Radio it doesn't
matter.
Once you do that, every episodewill be downloaded to your
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So please consider becoming amember of our group and you can
actually tap that follow buttonright now to show your support
for the podcast.
I'm looking forward to havingyou join us.
(34:03):
We'll be right back All right.
Thanks for staying with us onNavy Sports Central, Karl Darden
, here with you, and now it'stime for our question of the day
(34:25):
.
First, let's go ahead and checkthe responses to our last one.
As you may recall, we werediscussing the impact of the
transfer portal on collegefootball, so here's a question.
In 2019, roughly 6% of DivisionI college football rosters were
made up of players from thetransfer portal.
What was that percentage duringthe 2023 football season?
Was it A, 21%, b, 26%, c, 29%or D 32%?
(34:50):
The most popular answer was A21%.
There were 37% of you who wentwith that one.
Next was 32%, which came in at36%.
Then there was 13% of you whoselected 26%, followed by 4% who
chose 29%.
I know there's a lot of percentgoing back and forth there, but
anyway, it turns out that thecorrect answer was A 21%, so
(35:14):
nice job to those of you whocame up with that one.
I will say, though, that at therate the transfer portal is
growing, I wouldn't be surprisedto see the percentage of
players using it climb to over30% in the next couple of years.
So thanks to all of you whotook the time to answer that
question.
Now let's get to the one forthis episode.
I mentioned earlier that CoachBill Roberts has led the Navy
men's swimming and diving teamto 19 Patriot League
(35:34):
championships.
Now, how many East Coastathletic championships have they
won since he became the headcoach?
Is it A, 7%, b, 11%, c, 13% orD 15%?
So you can take some time tothink about that one and you can
reply back by going to the NavySports Nation group Facebook
page.
I'll have the question up bythe end of the day.
(35:57):
All right, let's go ahead androll into our mid-watch segment
and, for the winter sportsseason, we're going to focus on
a couple of basketball players.
Let's start with the women.
The athlete we'll be featuringover the next couple of months
will be Zanai Barnett Gay.
She is the mid-starting pointguard and she came to the
academy from Glendale, maryland,which is about 20 miles west of
Annapolis, and I'll start bysaying that she has made a
(36:18):
pretty big splash since showingup on campus.
Barnett Gay leads the team inscoring, averaging 18.9 points
per game, and she's second inrebounds, pulling down about
five and a half per contest.
In the mids most recent winover Bucknell, she scored 16
points and grabbed the teamleading 11 rebounds.
The Patriot League is alsorecognizing her impact so far
this season.
They've awarded her the Rookieof the Week honors five
(36:38):
different times.
So Barnett Gay's numbersindicate that she's had no
trouble at all adjusting to thecollege game, and the two things
that really impressed me abouther is her court vision and how
she maneuvers in traffic.
She has consistently figuredout ways to create her own shot
even when it looks like onedoesn't even exist, and she does
a really good job finding openteammates both in transition and
when the team is in their halfcourt set.
(36:59):
Barnett Gay also has somepretty tight handles.
I'll tell you that I've seenher blow by more than a few
defenders using an absolutelywicked crossover dribble, so
she's going to be a lot of funto watch over the next few years
.
On the men's side, our focus isgoing to be on Austin Benigni.
You heard me mention himearlier.
He is a sophomore from theWoodlands, texas, which is just
outside of Houston.
I remember seeing him play forthe first time last year as a
(37:21):
freshman, when he came out ofnowhere to score 23 points off
the bench against YoungstownState early in the season.
Benigni is about 5'10".
That might be a tiny bitgenerous, but I tell you what he
is absolutely fearless going tothe rack.
I've seen him disappear intraffic in the paint and somehow
he still manages to get off areally good shot that winds up
going in most of the time.
Benigni is averaging about 16points and 6 assists per game.
(37:44):
Both of those lead the team.
He also put up 32 points inthat comfort behind win against
Lehigh that I mentioned earlier.
The last two came from the freethrow line with less than 4
seconds left to give the midsthe win.
So when you get a chance duringone of Navy's games, take some
time to focus your attention onBenigni.
He does a great job ofcontrolling the pace of the game
and when you see how heconducts himself out there on
(38:04):
the court, he looks more like anexperienced senior than a
sophomore.
That's going to do it for thisedition of Navy Sports Central.
Thank you all so much forjoining us Now.
If you like what you've heard,please be sure to hit that
follow button wherever you getyour podcasts and remember to
get the word to all the otherNavy fans out there.
And once again, I'd like tothank Coach Bill Roberts of the
men's swimming and diving teamfor joining me today.
(38:24):
That was a great look behindthe curtain at one of the truly
elite programs in all of NavyAthletics.
Our question of the daycontinues to be a show favorite.
You can get in on that byjoining the Navy Sports Nation
group Facebook page and givingyour answer to this week's
question.
I will pin it to the top so youdon't miss it.
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
(38:45):
Academy or Navy Athletics.
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to you
courtesy of Audio Jungle.
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody.
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden.
Go Navy beat Army.
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