Athletics’ decision to fire Werner was a failure to the coach and the Swimming & Diving program.
As a former student athlete of Greg Werner, there were plenty of practices when I felt my body would fall apart, and I had many less-than-positive comments racing through my head. For me that time was cut short, as in fiscal year 2006-07, when the Athletics Director Kirby Hocutt cut Men’s Swimming & Diving from Ohio University’s Intercollegiate Athletics roster. At the time it was devastating, but I continued at OU and eventually got a job as a student manager at the Aquatic Center and got the chance to coach the Athens youth program, as well as be an assistant coach for the Athens High School swim team. As a coach, I think I got more nervous than my swimmers did. I felt that their success rested on my shoulders. As much as I cared about my swimmers, sometimes the message got blurry. I would hear, “Why are you making us do this?” and, “It’s the end of practice, how am I supposed to keep my 50 splits consistent? I’m exhausted.” Heck, I even had a swimmer throw a kickboard at me. What the swimmers misunderstood as being mean and not caring was actually the opposite. It was because I cared so much that I pushed them; I believed in their potential and was putting them on a track to succeed.
Clearly, based on Greg Werner’s record, he had the same goal. Is that hard for young athletes to understand when they are in the grind of practice? YES. I don’t expect any athlete to be able to see the big picture when his or her body is aching. However, I do expect that athletics department officials understand how coaching works. I also expect that if they were truly concerned when they put Werner on probation they would seriously look into the matter instead of writing his termination letter the same day. The program in one short season went from winning MACs or runner-up to the worst showing in school history. Mr. Schaus, you clearly made a miscalculation when you decided to, quote, “go in a new direction.” The mistake is made. The least you can do now is apologize to Greg Werner. On behalf of everyone who supports Greg Werner: Way to go, Bobcats!
Brandon Burns is an Ohio University alumnus and the aquatics coordinator for the Twinsburg Fitness Center in Twinsburg, Ohio.
