Dave Salo.

Dave Salo is on a roll.

Today, he picked up another major verbal commitment, this one coming on the women's side, as Maggie D'Innocenzo has pledged her college years to the USC Trojans.

The swimmer out of Crimson Aquatics in Massachusetts is yet another sibling of one of the stars of the Texas men who is in this high school class of 2013: her older brother Nick D'Innocenzo is a senior for the Longhorns this season, was 8th at NCAA's last year in the 400 IM, which puts her in company with Jordan Surhoff, younger sister of Austin who committed to Texas, and Kyle Darmody, younger brother of Kip, who didn't.

Like her older brother, Maggie should excel in the IM's – she's got bests of 2:02.0 in the 200, and 4:15.2 in the 400 in yards (and in long course 2:17 and 4:49 – indicating she's got a drop coming in yards). Unlike her brother, though, it's not the breaststrokes that are the younger D'Innocenzo's strengths.

Instead, she tends toward the 200 backstroker and 200 butterflier, which sets her swimming apart from her brother's. Maggie  much more of a front-half IM'er than Nick is, highlighted by her best times in the individual strokes: in the 200 back, she's been 1:57.65, and in the 200 fly, she's been 1:59.16; meanwhile her 200 breast is only a 2:20. With any kind of improvements as a freshman, she could very well place in the top-16 in at least two events at the Pac-12 Championships, at least.

D'Innocenzo will likely find herself training in a group with 2013 freshman Jasmine Tosky, as the pair are very similarly balanced across the events. She will join a USC class that already includes names like Chelsea Chenault, Jamie Christy, Lexie Malazdrewicz, Riley Hayward, and Blair Carnes; and that's just on the women's side. Despite missing out on the two really-big names, Missy Franklin and Lia Neal, Salo has taken that money and spread it around to quite an extensive and versatile class.

Jack Conger can do everything from the 50 free the 500 free and his specialty is the backstroke. He's a college coaches dream. As usual, Eddie Reese locked down the top recruit in the class but is it enough to threaten the Cal Bears? Dave Durden's squads have locked down the last two NCAA championships and are loaded for a run at more? Find out what Conger thinks… Plus we talk about his goals for his senior season, which include taking down Jeff Kostoff's 500 freestyle high school record of 4:16.39. This kid is one shave away from sub 1:40 in the 200 backstroke and he knows it. Could this be the last super star of the Eddie Reese era?

For a full rundown of all the latest college recruiting news, see the category page here.

In college swimming, is there ever too much of a good thing? Virginia coach Mark Bernadino seems intent on experimenting with that theory, as he's gotten a verbal from yet another 200 butterflier, with the newest addition to that group being Erin McElfresh from Lansing, New York.

McElfresh brings in bests of 54.63 in the 100 fly and 1:59.88 in the 200. She joins a group that should have at least 4 swimmers in the A-Final at the ACC Championships this year, with none of those 5 being seniors. That includes the 2011 ACC Champion Rachel Naurath, the 2012 ACC Champion Megan Fox (both of whom won their titles as just freshmen), sophomore Sarah White, and sophomore Alison Haulsee.

Though UNC freshman Emma Nunn, already with a 1:56, could upset Virginia's dominance in the conference, the Cavaliers are still stacked in the race for years to come.

What McElfresh brings to the table that's a bit different from most of those 200 butterfliers is her ability to sprint. Among those mentioned above, McElfresh is already faster than any of them were coming out of high school in the 100 fly, and has another season to widen that margin.

Not that the Cavaliers are short on sprint butterfliers though, either. White had a good first year doing the 100/200 double, dipping under 54 seconds in the 100 fly. Her fellow sophomore Ellen Williamson, who is also a phenomenal backstroker for the Cavs, dipped under 53 seconds as a freshman.

Still, McElfresh's potential to crossover the two groups will be another unique piece to this Virginia team that has swimmers with a lot of different nuanced specialties.

On the men's side, Virginia has added Austin Quinn from the small, but academically prestigious, Chagrin Falls High School outside of Cleveland.

His times don't immediately catch one's eye among some of the names that we've seen commit lately, but he popped big-time as a junior last season. His 200 free, for example, went from a 1:46 to a 1:41; and his 500 went from a 4:36 to a 4:30.

In his 200 IM, in his very first swim of the 2011-2012 season, he knocked a full second off of his best time. Then, at the Ohio High School State Championship meet, he took that swim all the way to a 1:51.4: eight seconds faster than he was at his taper meet the year before. To top it all off, in the 400 IM, he dropped an amazing 17 seconds to go from a 4:15 to a 3:58 in his 400 IM.

Despite training through it all with the Lake Eerie Silver Dolphins, Quinn had an insanely-good junior season. If he does even half that well as a senior (which of course there are no guarantees of), then he all of a sudden shoots into the top 60 (or better) recruits in the country.

A very special moment at the FINA / Arena 2012 World Cup meet in Berlin, Germany, last weekend, when the French Olympic champion Camille Muffat charged ahead in the women's 400 freestyle, splitting repeatedly under world record pace, until she just missed it by 1 hundredth of a second. Behold how everyone cheers on her, even the Danes and Americans who had swimmers being distanced by her. Result list here.

Chuck Warner, author and coach, is an old friend. Thoughtful and passionate about the sport, he has studied the details behind what it takes to achieve swimming excellence.

CHUCK WARNER: Lessons From Legends

LESSONS FROM LEGENDS: The “Myth” of George Haines

At a recent certification coaching course conducted by the American Swimming Coaches Association, the 48 coaches in the room were asked if they recognized the names of some prominent figures in the current and past history of swimming. The results were (in parenthesis he number of coaches who recognized the name):

Coach Dick Shoulberg (18) – President of ASCA and longtime coach at Germantown Academy

Coach Jim Wood (12) – Past President USA Swimming and current President of USAS

Coach Peter Daland (8) – 92 year old, longtime coach at USC – 25 National Team Titles

USA Swimming Executive Director Chuck Wielgus (7)

Coach Mark Schubert (6) – Record of 44 National Club Team Titles at Mission Viejo
USA National Team Director Frank Busch (5)

Coach Jim “Doc” Counsilman (3) – Author of the Science of Swimming, former coach Indiana University

Coach George Haines (0) – 6-time Olympic Coach, 43 National Club Team Titles, 44 Olympic Gold Medals

Many of us coach and swim in the sport of swimming overlooking history and looking for help to achieve our goals by being attracted to whatever current trend seems to be effective. Frequently this approach is met with limited success. A friend suggested the other day that many coaches, and perhaps swimmers, toil each season and each year like the Greek Myth of Sisyphus.

Sisyphus?

Sisyphus was a figure in Greek Mythology that was condemned to death by the Greek Gods. He was able to strike a bargain with the Gods, however, to continue to live. His alternative to death was becoming bound to an eternal existence of pushing a bolder up a mountain, watching it roll back down and then pushing it back up again…over and over and over, forever. My friend compared the experience to the swimming coach who continually tries to reach for glorious success with his or her swimmers in a season only to watch it finish with limited results and then start all over again at the bottom of the mountain in the new season and push the boulder up just like Sisyphus.

History can teach us many lessons that make it more likely to reach the mountain top and stay there. But in swimming we often miss out on learning from the past and instead become Sisyphus mindlessly repeating our journey of failure or mediocrity.

When it comes to coaching swimming the story─or myth if you like─of George Haines is one that should be a part of anyone’s oral and written history to understand what it looks like to be standing on the top of the mountain in the sport of swimming. Perhaps from that view something can be learned about how to get there.

Since no one in that ASCA course knew George’s name a myth might be concocted that he made his money in the Haynes underwear industry, and used the funds to bank roll opportunities to support fast swimmers thereby building a powerful team. This myth could even be created to say that Haynes took the Y out of his name and turned it into an “I” to hide his source of riches.

Ok, not true. No underwear. This is just a story of a person helping swimmers get faster.

In 1951, at 26 years old, Coach Haines founded the Santa Clara Swim Club with 13 swimmers. Twenty-three years later Santa Clara had won 43 national club team titles, a record that stood until Mark Schubert’s Mission Viejo teams had beaten it in 1985. Haines also coached the Santa Clara High School boys swimming and water polo teams. His teams were so strong that it was once documented that some of his swim teams would have placed in the top five at the Men’s NCAA Championships.

Even more impressive was the achievements of George’s swimmers at the Olympics.  If his life as a swimming coach was a myth one could conclude that he had made some sort of deal with Zeus who in Greek mythology was the god of the sky and ruler of the Olympian gods.  By the time George had retired in 1988 he had coached 53 swimmers to Olympic Teams that won 44 gold, 14 silver and 10 bronze medals. The majority of those swimmers were from his Santa Clara Swim Club teams.

On the 1964 USA Olympic Team alone, there were 13 Santa Clara swimmers and they won 13 Olympic gold medals. Fifteen of his Santa Clara swimmers have been inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame, more than any other team in history.

Why was George Haines so successful? What can we learn from his accomplishments a half century ago that would help coaches and swimmers today?

Many stories could be told but here are a few quick facts:

• George liked people and people liked him.
• He kept firm discipline with his teams, adhering to high moral standards but kept his sense of humor in achieving it.
• He attracted a large training group of 40-60 senior swimmers, many of whom were very talented.
• To properly conduct his workouts with a group this size, his long course training transitioned from open water space (quarries and lakes) to the building of a 50-meter complex in Santa Clara in 1966.
• He learned how to make individual adjustments while coaching a large training group.
• He didn’t simply pound his swimmers with work. Coach Haines had an intuitive sense of what was too much work and what was enough. George would say, “I had to decide how much training I dared to put them through.”
• He entertained while he trained his swimmers.
  • Practice was fun.
  • One of his favorite tricks in between sets or on an easy day was to flip a chair in the air with his foot and catch it on his foot while still in the air (from personal experience clear the area while learning how to do this!)
• He gave many individual swimmers he coached the sense that he truly believed they could win, even in competing with their teammates.

George Haines was a master trainer, father figure and confidant to his swimmers. He never sought the limelight for himself but always for his swimmers and for The American Swimming Team. At the same time he was a family man that was married to June Carter Haines for 61 years and was the father of five children.

In 1974 George finally left Santa Clara to coach the UCLA men’s team. There is a ‘myth’ worth sharing on how George treated people from his first few months on the job in Westwood. He was trying to improve the Athletic Department’s allotment for the wardrobe and equipment supply to his swimmers. He went to the long time UCLA equipment manager that had so generously cared for the high profile UCLA basketball, football and track teams. He humbly told the equipment manager, “I need your help.” Hearing from the greatest swimming coach in the world at the time, I need your help was enough for the equipment manager  to open the doors to the equipment room and outfit the swimming team in first class style.

Doc Counsilman referred to the unique personal qualities that the most successful swimming coaches have had as the “X Factor.” Doc argued that if a coach who was a great psychologist had a team that competed against a coach who was a great scientist; the psychologist would win every time.

There is always more to learn to stay at the cutting edge of world class swimming in the areas of skills, technique and training science. But those that understand how we arrived at this threshold of knowledge have a heightened awareness of those choices that will help swimmers meet their potential. And when it comes to the “X Factor” of coaching world class swimmers there is no better way to understand it than to share and listen to the Myth of George Haines.

The alternative may be simply living the existence of Sisyphus.

Legendary Mullings:

…the similarities in describing the characteristics of George Haines and considering those of Coach Eddie Reese are eerily alike.

…George played third base for a senior softball team when he retired and was pretty good we hear.

Chuck Warner has been a swimming coach for more than forty years. His teams have won seven national Y team championships, been runners-up for the NCAA Division II championship three times, been a USA National Team coach three times and Big East Conference coach of the year four times. Chuck has authored two books: “Four Champions, One Gold Medal” about the training and race for the 1500 meter gold medal in the 1976 Olympics. “…And Then They Won Gold: Stepping Stones To Swimming Excellence – Volume I” is out now. It is eight short stories of some of the greatest male swimmers in history. The second volume devoted to women’s swimmers is due out next year. He is the founder, President and CEO of Arete Aquatic Services and owner of the ARETE Swim Camp.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ORDERING“…And Then They Won Gold” go towww.areteswim.com and access “Books/Media.”

For a full rundown of all of the latest college swimming news, check out the category page here.

The story floating around all summer was that the USC men might have a thin recruiting class, because they didn't have much scholarship money left to give out.

Either those stories weren't true, or Dave Salo is in the greatest recruiting groove we've ever seen. He stayed largely out of the fray for the two huge men's recruits, and in exchange has landed a complete class that is shaping up to push USC into the top 5 in the coming years. The latest addition is David Morgan from De La Salle High School and Crow Canyon in Northern California.

Morgan is the defending North Coast Section Champion in the 50 free with a 20.62 (though he was a 20.45 at Juniors the winter prior), and is the section's runner-up in the 100 free (44.89, again better in 44.5 at Juniors).

He's is likely to be used primarily as a sprinter, though he's got a good 49.9 in the 100 fly as a 3rd event. But with the class that Salo is bringing in, a guy who just focuses on the sprints is really what Salo and the Trojans need. Between Reed Malone, Santo Condorelli, Michael Domagala, and now Morgan, Salo's class has three swimmers who as juniors were 44′s in their 100 freestyles, plus a 45.2 from Domagala on top. What's more, they all still seem to be getting better.

Greg Meehan has already implemented a lot of changes since taking over as the head coach of the Stanford women's team, and his latest is one that many would feel to be way overdue: he has brought former Olympian Dana Kirk as a volunteer assistant to join his Stanford coaching staff.

Kirk has as many swimming credentials as any coach in the country. She was a 2004 U.S. Olympian after winning the 200 fly at the Olympic Trials, a 17-time All-American, and an 8-time Pac-10 Conference Champion while swimming for the Cardinal. Her current full-time coaching role is as a site director for the highly-successful Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics club. Specifically, the Fremont Hills site, which is now refered to as “Dana Kirk Swimming”.

For all of her accolades though, the one thing missing on her resume is college coaching experience, and this will give her an opportunity to gain that. All reports are that Kirk has done a very good job with PASA, and if all goes well at Stanford, one would guess that with her name recognition and swimming background, she'll have a full-time job at a big-time program as soon as possible (if that's the direction that she wants to go in).

This really works out to be a win-win situation, as it also allows Meehan to bring a Stanford legend back into the fold. Being able to show recruits Kirk's name on the awards banners, and then show those same recruits Kirk on deck, could be a huge tool in his arsenal.

The Stanford women's staff now includes Meehan, diving coach Rick Schavone, full-time assistant Tracy Duchac, and undergrad assistants Betsy Webb and Sam Woodward, each of whom just finished their college eligibility last year.

Josh Ehrman hails from Saline High School, just southwest of Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan. He trains with Club Wolverine: the USA Swimming arm of the University of Michigan. His dad, Dr. Jon Ehrman, however, went to The Ohio State University: archrivals of Michigan.

But the younger Ehrman, perhaps wanting to keep harmony, slipped right out of that rivalry, and chose another Big Ten school, Purdue, for his college swimming.

This is a huge signing for the Boilermaker men, who have historically relied on their divers for the majority of their NCAA scoring. Ehrman is the defending champion in the boys' 100 breaststroke, where at last year's Michigan Division I State Championship meet, he broke the all-divisions State Record with a 55.36.

He's got a decent 200 as well, in 2:04.19, but also slides over extremely well into the 200 IM – where he's Michigan's Division I State Record holder in 1:49.34 (though he was actually clipped in finals by his teammate, and fellow classmate, David Boland.

Ehrman's services will be badly needed in Lafayette, as Purdue graduated their top two breaststrokers from last season. That included Albert Miller, who was 5th-best in the Big Ten in the 100 last year.

Ehrman will have every opportunity to take over as the team's number-one breaststroker as a freshman.

Just me playing with the ‘miniature effect' mode of my Sony camera at the FINA / Arena 2012 World Cup meet in Berlin, Germany. I think this is the women's 400 meter freestyle heat 3, Rebecca Mann (USA) closest to us, then Lotte Friis (DEN) and then Diletta Carlin (ITA).