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Home > Blogs > Buckeyes Beat > Archives > 2009 > February > 24
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Will Kenyon College swimming help OSU football?
Jim Steen is a guy you might want to listen to if you have an interest in winning. He’s a swimming coach, but a swimming coach who has won 29 consecutive NCAA Division III men’s national championships and 22 women’s titles in 33 years at Kenyon College.
That’s why Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel has reached out to Steen, per The New York Times:
One day last spring Ohio State’s football coach, Jim Tressel, made the hourlong trek from Columbus to learn from Steen, whose swimmers have won 47 N.C.A.A. Division III men’s and women’s team titles for Kenyon College.
Tressel, who has guided the Buckeyes to five Big Ten titles and three Bowl Championship Series title games in eight seasons, sat in Steen’s office and scribbled pages of notes one afternoon as Steen shared his philosophies.
“Jim is one of the most intriguing people I’ve ever met,” Tressel said recently by telephone.
Steen is one of the most interesting, least known successful coaches in the country. Consider this anecdote from reporter Karen Crouse:
Many of the 33 women and 29 men on this year’s teams speak of Steen as if he were the Stroke Whisperer. They say he can finish their sentences, articulate their unspoken fears, read their minds. Kellyn Caldwell, a freshman, recalled a story told by her mother, Kris Kennard Caldwell, a former Kenyon swimmer who spent one season as Steen’s assistant. Steen, her mother said, studied one of his relay swimmers as she stood behind the blocks, then said: “She’s going to false start. I can tell.” Sure enough, she did.
Tressel remains, rightfully so, the best-known coach in Ohio. It’s long been said the most powerful person in the state, bar none, is the football coach at Ohio State, whoever it might be that day. Tressel has carried that responsibility with class and respect.
Despite the grief Tressel receives for some big-game losses the Buckeyes have suffered, his record remains above argument. But there’s one man in the state who dwarfs Tressel in championships, which is why Tressel has reached out to tiny Gambier, Ohio, and Jim Steen.
The investment that Steen makes in each of his athletes impressed Tressel.
“One of the things that jumped out at me was Jim’s passion for working to be certain that his young people reach their potential,” Tressel said. “It’s even agonizing for him the thought of that not occurring.”
