DANVILLE — Over 15 years ago, the Danville girls swimming team was in the middle of its salad days and Carley Fredericks was right in the middle of it.
“I am not sure when Jana Drennan took over as a coach, but I know in the 2009 season, we broke every record except one and we broke them all again the season after that,” Fredericks, who was Carley Strader at the time. “It was a very successful three years for me and for a total of five years we broke records like it is our job.”
After her time in college and a few offers in the past, Fredericks decided to take the job as Danville girls swim coach last week.
“I said the other night that third time’s the charm,” Fredericks said. “Every since I graduated from college in 2015, they had some different coaching changes and I was asked two times that was really casual. It didn’t work because of my schedule and what I was doing at the time. I started teaching in the district this year and it turned out to be the perfect time.”
It may be the perfect time for the swim team, who has had low numbers the last few years compared to the heights of Fredericks’ era at Danville.
“I haven’t been super-connected to the swim team, but I know they haven’t had large numbers,” Fredericks said. “When I was there,we hade about 25-30 swimmers and last year, they had four. It was a mighty four, but it is a pretty big difference.”
With that, the mission was clear for the new coach: To bring more excitement to the team.
“We are looking forward to get excitement about swimming, It is a unique sport, so it is hard to get girls interested in it,” Fredericks said. “My main focus is to build the program and have a successful program. I am willing to teach the basics to get started. If I have to teach someone to swim, I will and turn it into a great program again with some awesome results.”
The first start to the build was an informational meeting on Wednesday. The meeting, along with online registration, hopefully gave Fredericks more opportunity to build.
We had five girls there, but they have an online registration now and there is five girls on there that is registered and some didn’t make it to the meeting, so I think we have seven girls now,” Fredericks said. “When they asked me to coach, there was one girl, so we have grown 600 percent.”
Also in the meeting, Fredericks put down some expectations that may have not been seen in the program for a while.
“I plan on being a dedicated coach and the best way to succeed is to have dedicated swimmers,” Fredericks said. “You can start small and if you are dedicated, you can grow and be successful. When I gave the girls my schedule, they seem to be a little surprised and I was like ‘If you want to be good, you have to get the yardage in, so I need you here every day and we are going to be doing a lot of swimming.’”
The main thing that Fredericks is looking for is potential. With that, she can find out who will be among the leaders in the rebuild.
“If we all are learning, we don’t need two-hour practices or two-a days,” Fredericks said. “But if I see potential, I am going to push you to reach that high level and if we need to get 10,000 yards in a day, we are going to do it.”
The first practices for the team start next week and while they may behind, Fredericks is excited to start bringing girls swimming success back to Danville.
“The first practice is Monday and I feel we are starting late but this is my first week of school and it has been a whirlwind, but I am excited and ready to get started on Monday,” Fredericks said. “I am excited and I just can’t wait to see how this year goes and to build it for the future as well.”