Transcript for podcast

Transcript with Nicole, Wes and Mark

Nicole

Hey guys, welcome back to Navigating Neva. I am your host Neva Nicole and I’m here with my co-host Wes.

Wes King

Hey everybody.

Nicole

And we’re diving deep into All Things Aquatics, safety and sports. And I’m especially excited for today’s guest. He’s the voice behind Heavy or Not and a podcast that I’ve listened to and loved. And he’s also involved with ISCA and passionate about gameplay and water polo.

Nicole

So please welcome Mark.

Mark Rauterkus

Pleasure to be here. Thanks for organizing this.

Wes King

Our first podcast host on our podcast, right, Nicole?

Nicole

He is. We’re very excited to have you.

Wes King

Yeah, it’s fantastic. Yeah.

Nicole

So Mark, thank you so much for joining us. And before we jump in, can you share a little bit about what inspired you to start Heavy or Not and what you love about those conversations?

Mark Rauterkus

Well, you know, people don’t read as much as they used to. Back in the day, I published about some books, and people even don’t read online learning as much. So I wanted to be able to share ideas and percolate some good thoughts, and the podcast is a way to think about other things while you’re walking the dog or doing the dishes or taking a road trip. So, you know, it was just everybody’s doing a podcast.

Mark Rauterkus

So that was sort of important to me. I’d like to be able to blend those different media, the little bit of music in there, a little bit of the spoken word, Try to use some AI in ways that then could be a bit of a learning and academic exercise for myself But then it can be a way to share it with others. So I just been a bit of a labor of love I started in the very beginning of 2025 So it’s just percolating along.

Mark Rauterkus

I called the first 50 episodes Season One so we’re now sort of moving into season two after the 50 flip turn.

Wes King

Nice, good call back the 50 flip turn. Well played, well played. You’re not a swim coach by chance, are you? That wouldn’t tie back into some of your background there a little bit.

Would you mind giving the audience a little bit of background? We know you in the aquatic profession, but from your training to your certification to your work with the ISCA, would you mind giving the audience a little bit of background of who you are and where you come from?

Mark Rauterkus

I was a swim coach back in 1976. So I guess it’s been about 50 years. And more recently, I’ve been a high school coach. And even then, a couple years ago, I asked the school where I was at, I said, Can I take a sabbatical?

I got these fun projects I really want to work on and then laughed. And then I said, well, OK, make me emeritus coach. And they laughed some more. So anyways, I sort of tried to don shift.

We had two other coaches come on and be head coach. They each have done a year. I think the one woman, Jacqueline, is going to come back and coach. So I want to be able to be an assistant to her or support her in the high school varsity season.

So I’ve been doing a lot of high school coaching in the last 20 years or so. But it also gives me an opportunity to do some of the broadcasting for the big championship district meet here. And I’ve also helped with some community programs, run a couple of swim pools back in recent times in the day with a neighborhood pool. And it recently, you know, it shut down like maybe four years ago or before COVID.

And then I also worked for a couple of years at a country club pool, ran their pool. So sort of a wide range of things. I’ve been a college coach more than a dozen years at different levels. When I went to college back as a journalism major at Ohio University, I then became an assistant coach on the men’s team.

So for the four years I was there, I had, I was an assistant coach and I also coached the community, the Athens Swim Club Otters. So, and that was off and on for most of those four years. So yeah, I’ve coached in a lot of different states, had some fast swimmers that have been blessed, been able to lead and, but nothing to, you know, to the Olympic trials level. There’s just a lot of grassroots fun coaching.

Most recently, too, I had a big 10 or so years of working with our Pittsburgh Public Schools. They had a summer school program. They called it Summer Dreamers, and it was a way for those kids that were in the bottom two-fifths of their academic standing could go to summer school for free. It started back in the stimulus fund era.\And we would then take the kids on half a day for swimming and water polo. And then the other half of the day, they do some reading and literacy as well as math. And we were sort of like the motivation to keep them coming back. It was 27 days.

And so the kids got some exercise and swimming in. And then they got their academic stuff too. So it was like a half day of each. And so that was a lot of fun working with us as a subcontractor to the school district.

Now, lo and behold, this year, Pittsburgh Public Schools did absolutely nothing with any summertime programming for any kids at any level. So I’ve been somewhat frustrated with our local swim scene, especially in the heart of the city.

Wes King

Wow. But the background as a whole, sometimes the word coach is thrown around. You are the dictionary’s definition of it. That’s phenomenal.

Mark Rauterkus

Thank you. 

Wes King

And I hope our audience can grasp the level of excellence and effort that goes into that variety. It’s not just coaching one level. It’s taking all the things you learn and bring them to the schools, bring them to the community, bring them to the collegiate. And I just think that’s very respectful. So thank you for sharing that.

Nicole

If you guys listen to Mark’s podcast, he talks about a lot, but the one that I’m referring to is he talks about where the, I guess we’re going to say where the school systems or the states have taken the pools kind of out of what used to be, and he talked about in Pittsburgh what they did. And when I started in the 90s, we did a Saturday morning, I don’t know what it was because I was in high school, but they brought the kids over and we basically tutored the children. and the highlight of their morning was we gave them swim lessons and we gave them swim lessons and then we tutored them but who wants tutoring on a Saturday so the highlight of that was that they got to go swimming and get in the pool and I don’t

Nicole

I mean that’s just not happening that much anymore.

Wes King

The pool was the all-star then.

Nicole

Right, well the pools are still there though we’re just not using them you know when everybody cut the funding for the music and the arts I think they’re they’re missing the point that aquatics was cut too and when you cut that you’re also losing your water safety aspect but let’s not dive down that hole you guys just go listen to his podcast we want to talk about water polo let’s start there so you started with water polo it’s a very unique sport but I mean it’s very big out in California and stuff but for our listeners let’s tell them about let’s start there with you in your background

Mark Rauterkus

Well, I’ve had the pleasure to work with a longtime coach, Monty Naskowski. He was four times or five times as an Olympic water polo coach. And I put together a big textbook manual of coaching water polo with him. And when we were working on that, I started a local team where I had been the high school coach, sort of an off-season thing.

And you had to maybe use some photographs and such. Yeah, I never was a player of water polo and that sort of gets me a little less respect among some of the other, you know, real hardcore players, but I’ve done some officiating with it. We worked on, you know, some books and we have actually a course on water polo with the International Swim Coaches Association. Inside our learning management system just called water polo.

So there’s all some really nice Materials there about tactics and strategies and man up and all sorts of things. It’s it’s a really dense Sport is a lot to learn and I think swim coaches should be able to Use water polo more to our advantage to keep the kids engaged and and actually my son He didn’t like competitive swimming much, but he loved water polo. So he would swim, you know, a little bit to stay in shape. But boy, if you threw a ball at his eyes would light up, you know, and some people really love it.

Now my other son, He was In some places in California, you know, there’s some friction between the swim coaches and the water polo coaches, and they butt heads a lot. And if a swim coach were to take on water polo, where it doesn’t exist anymore, and they could control it, and they say, okay, we’re going to do it for these six weeks, and that’s all, or we’re going to be able to blend it in here and there. And then they were Hi, coach the kids a bit or coach the girls team or coach the JV team or be involved. And I also think that it will add a layer of diversity to the practices.

Instead of swimming back and forth all the time, do a little more vertical swimming, do a little more passing, you know, kick with a ball, make it something instead of a pool boy, we’re gonna use a water polo ball instead. You know, it gets the giggles up, It gets the variety up, the problem solving, and I just think there’s a whole dynamic with the gameplay that is different than head down, swimming back and forth.

With our city kids, especially, you know, they they’re not going to be, you know, lap swimmers or take a serenity kayak, you know, tour. But put a ball in front of them and now they can, you know, think about, you know, catching like Odell Beckham and throwing it and, you know, getting their their competitive juices flowing.

Wes King

Absolutely. I don’t want to go too far before I miss this. If we have not introduced you to Ron Usher, who’s one of our sponsors for All Things Aquatics Event, let’s do that. Maybe you already know Ron, but same mentality behind the play aspect.

Wes King

And the second thing that I loved hearing you say was the pool can be used for anybody who wants to compete. You don’t have to love swimming to do it. My son, and and The community you can help the setups of the event and I think that’s just something that’s often missed We just coach coach coach or maybe we just officiate And so I just love that there’s a crossover in your mind and your approach to say we’ve got to combine with the swim team We’ve got to be an official maybe we’ve got to work with the community in that and I think that’s something that can really help the people that don’t understand what water polo is or how it can engage and with all

Wes King

the things that have to do with the pool. So again, I appreciate the knowledge, but I also appreciate the fact that you’ve got that multiple layover perspective and the gamification approach, I think is really cool.

Mark Rauterkus

Well, back to Ron for a moment. Yeah, we definitely have hooked up. Yeah, we did a webinar on how to make swimming fun. And yeah, I definitely love, you know, the idea of OtterBall.

And we’re gonna be working together. Yes and I are cut from the same cloth. Yeah, that’s what made

Wes King

Yeah. That’s what made me. Yeah. And my high school didn’t have a pool and didn’t have a swim team.

Wes King

But we had a big water park. And you know what people do in a water park? They don’t swim laps. They play, right?

Wes King

And they bring their beach balls. And so just the fact that you’ve wrapped your head around that, besides just the competitiveness and everybody competes, I just think that there’s a great bridge to anybody that doesn’t want to put their face in. And anybody that doesn’t want to put their face in for two hours in swimming laps over and over and over, I think it just gives a great option.

Mark Rauterkus

Yeah, and especially for summer school type things, you know, it’s hot in the summer, you know, go to the pool, you know, it’s right, right, you don’t want to be on the basketball court when it’s 90 or 100 degrees Fahrenheit, you know, you want to be or even in a gym, they get real like ovens, you know, so let’s leverage these pools more in the summertime, you know, that are, you know, especially in our school setting. Now, the other thing is, people don’t really want to swim in third period in their academic time. Their hair is wet. Their nails. You got your suits, 40 kids in one class.

Wes King

In Chicago or Pittsburgh in the winter. Keep going. Sorry. Yeah.

Mark Rauterkus

So a lot of the PE teachers are a little frustrated and the kids are a little frustrated. So a lot of times those swimming pools don’t get used for phys ed like they could or should, but it’s really hard unless you have like a block scheduling or something like that. To get in and out in a 40 minute period is difficult.

Wes King

Right. To your point about and we’ve kind of touched on this a little bit And I think you’ve started to bridge the gap in Pittsburgh, and I know we talked about Ron How do you see water polo playing a role in swim development? Whether it’s Nicole and her joyful water swim program in Georgia swim school whether it’s an independent instructor How do you see water polo and what you do kind of? Inserting itself or being an add-on because you touched on it, but I think you’ve got a lot to offer there

Mark Rauterkus

Well, I think it’s really critical to look at the journey of that child growing up to an adolescent to becoming a young adult. And a lot of kids drop out of competitive swimming when they figure out, oh, I’m not going to make it to the national team, or I’m not a D1 swimmer. So they hit maybe age 14, 15.

Wes King

Or they have to practice 16 hours a day. Sorry.

Mark Rauterkus

Sorry. So then, we’ve got some choices to make let them go, you know, and then you know you’re making this funnel work and it’s getting smaller and smaller to top it. But boy, if we could keep them involved a to be a swim instructor. to be a lifeguard, of course, and also to be a water polo player, or to be an open water swimmer, or to be a triathlete.

I think all those other activities are extremely valuable for their livelihood and for the program’s health. And especially like at college, man, there are a lot of college teams that are club based that are dying for water polo players. And you know, if you can swim, they’ll take you on. You got a new set of buddies, and they’re going to teach you water polo.

But, you know, how great would it be that, you know, you go to a place like Carnegie Mellon University here in my town or W&J or, you know, some are like varsity programs, but some are not. And and then you can play water polo, you know, so and if you’re a long term swimmer, you may have three, four or five years and you’ve never caught the ball with one hand and passed with one hand or dribbled you know with your head up or um you know so I if we could teach some of the basics and I’m talking about you know maybe 20 times a year they’re gonna have you know a good half hour of of water play with the ball I think that would go a long way. Just being able to use that hand-eye coordination and control the ball with one hand, it takes a month or two of practice to get that done.

So I would love to see our age group swimmers all have some A-B-Cs of water polo, knowing some of the rules.

Wes King

I like that.

Mark Rauterkus

Knowing how to catch a pass. Knowing how to cover or guard somebody or mark them. Some of the kids are coming from soccer, ice hockey, field hockey or some of the other sports know that. Then there are some kids that like to be goalie.  Maybee grab some of them from the other sports. “Hey, we have a goalie too.” Or be a quarterback where the goalie is gonna stop the ball, number one, but then lead the counterattack with their passing.

So I just think we need to spend a little bit of time as a competitive programs playing some water polo so that then when those kids exit competitive swimming, they have a whole other future for another number of years.

Especially at the college club program. That happens too at CMU, where the kids might swim for two or three years and then they’re grad students. Okay, well, their competitive swimming eligibility is over, but they can still play club water polo. And once you’re a water polo player, the are masters.

That is what I’ve been involved with in Pittsburgh for a number of years too, is that people love to play. And they’ll play into their 60s. My point

Wes King

Put a life jacket on them and a ring buoy and they’re good to go.  I’m teasing. My point is, it’s something you can do forever. It’s like a recreational basketball league. Once you can stay above water and you know the rules, you can survive for a long time doing it.

Mark Rauterkus

Right. These guys are serious. And so if you have a good water polo background and there’s a master’s team and you can figure out how to play once a week or something like that, you know, more power to you. And I think that’s a great way to socialize.

And that’s one of the things too that If you’re starting from scratch, start with a master’s team, because then those master players are going to get something out of it just playing themselves. But then you’re going to be able to lean on them to be your officials, to help coach those other younger kids, to be the water ball or the junior water polo team’s mentors. Then it’s going to be able to then snowball. So there’s certainly an opportunity.

There is a gentleman in our town. He grew up in Russia. He came to the states for college. Twenty-five years later he found out, “Hey, there is masters.

“I’d like to get back into this.”

He is a clinician, working in a different profession and holy smokes, you know, I’m gonna get back in shape and I’m gonna, yeah, I played when I was a teenager and we had a good time and he’s blending in now. So, you know, it’s, it’s just so healthy to have a well rounded, multi-age groups, multi abilities, being able to socialize and play at the pool.

Nicole

That is so true. Um, we have let’s see the federal law enforcement training center here and I was over there. I’m a Red Cross instructor trainer, so I went to help them do their renewal, and I found out that all the guys play water polo on lunch, and I was like, what? I had no idea.

I mean, it’s hard to get on base over there, get in the gate, but the guys there do, and I thought that was great and fantastic. But let’s segue this into your... The International Swim Coach Association. I wanted to say that for our listeners that don’t know what ISCA is.

So you’ve been connected with them for a while. What excites you most about working with them or your role over there? What is their vision for aquatics?

Mark Rauterkus

They host great, great meets. So the our President and CEO, Doug Fonder is the meat manager, and we host a number of meets. There’s generally two championship meets in short course and two championships and long course that are in St. Petersburg, beautiful facility.

And one’s an age group meet premium final and the other is a senior meat. And then there are some other meats throughout the year. Just last weekend was one of two open water swims. They’re both in Virginia, one’s in Smith Mountain Lake, and the other one’s going to be for the first time in Jamestown.

And then there’s some meats have been using the Hampton Aquaplex. It’s a sort of a newer pool in the Norfolk area. So there’s a there’s a fall meet in October, there’s a December, this is going to be interesting, a short course meters meet, sort of built more like an international one where you have you swim your birth year, rather than your age group. And that’s an age group prelim final meet.

And then there’s a teams have come from Alaska and Hawaii to Florida. 

And their teams from Colorado have gone to Norfolk. 

So you see new people and that travel experience is just so motivational to the whole team. you know that you’re you’re working on the cuts a couple of those meets are no cut or what he really likes to do is um you know if you have um bonus events so there are four bonus events or they’ll swim the meets with the um the shorter events they’ll have no cuts but if you want to do the 200s or whatever you’ll have to have a cut so um there’s some flexibility there with trying to get more of your team to come and then it gets really confusing You know, you got futures and juniors and seniors and a sectional meet here, you know, so it’s hard to, you know, like get a gather a relay. So you’re going to have all these kids do a relay unless you’re a mega team. So, so the one of the options is to then just gather everybody and say, Hey, we’re going to ISCA because there’s going to be some fast kids there.

You know, we’re gonna be able to race and then everybody can go to one place. The coaches has a little more, you know, sanity with the end of season tapering, you’re not gonna have people going in all different directions. So, yeah, you can’t say anything, you know, native about the way the ISCA meets, you know, are held. So, that’s one of the big, You know, staples of reasons why you know it was funded but but but then they’ve also had a little more of some clinic backgrounds, so they used to do some coaching summits that we had a pretty solid scientific basics, a lot of the researchers and stuff. Now, they haven’t done those too much anymore. But I think there’s going to be another event coming up. It’s going to be a little more award centric in spring of 2026.

And with our background, I’m the webmaster So I, you know, help organize the, you know, the signups for the meets and PR types of stuff. But then we’re also building, we have a, you know, you can become an ISCA member, and then you get access to this global library for ISCA members. And there’s more than 400 articles and lessons and older recordings and such. It’s really valuable for your staff education or for your newer coaches that want to learn up on stuff in your search bars.

That’s all I think real solid good education to yeah, we’re definitely You know ask the American Swim Coaches Association is the you know, the granddaddy, you know the big boy in the block but we’re we’re like the you know, the the little brother or maybe the cousin, you know, and what we do though we do really I think there’s a level of quality to it. We’re gonna bring a few more books into print and There’s a sports psychology book that we’re working with a gentleman out of BC, Canada, John Hogg, Ph.D. It’s Mental Skills for Young Athletes.

That’s all I think solid stuff and that web stuff and the tech stuff is something that I really like. And we have a lot of new things on tap as well. In that regard, we’re teaming up with some people, we’re going to have a CRM, a client relationship manager, and using all the the AI skills and tricks that coaches should be able to leverage in an affordable way, save them time, keep the parents and guardians well aware of what’s happening, and allow some AI stuff to filter into our administrative duties.

Wes King

We’ve had Jose Galligher on here before who is great instructor, great trainer, great coach and to see the global operations of swimming operations. To see the national perspective of ISCA and understanding that there is support out there. And that there is proper execution of training, swimming meets, the mental approach and the book writing. I think that’s where the fitness is headed, right?

Understanding how to take care of your body, understanding prevention, understanding your mental approach. Do you see that too, or where do you see ISCA going? You kind of teased some things on the horizon, or if you could hit an easy staples spot, what would you want you guys’ next big stamp of approval to be, your next big task?

Mark Rauterkus

Yeah, well, we definitely need to keep supporting and sustaining the meets. And he’s been adding new meets each year. There’s another meet or two. We used to do some meets out in the West Coast.

It’d be nice to maybe do those again. So the meets are definitely the mainstay. The thing that I’m excited for that we really haven’t been talking about future stuff is the AI tools. And, being able to use AI to help you find maybe local businesses that might be interested in sponsoring your team.

Wes King

Okay. There we go. that for all things aquatics? Nicole, if you get that hooked up, you can use that to promote next year’s all things aquatics event. Mark, you’re on the hook. Sorry, go ahead.

Mark Rauterkus

OK. Yeah, that’d be, I’d love to do that. And then, and just the text messaging, you know, I used to, I worked a little bit at Swimming World magazine, the publisher then was Dick Deal. And he said, one way that you can lose a $50 bill is put it in an envelope and mail it to a coach.

You know, they they never even open up their mail, you know, so,

Wes King

Knowing coaches and seeing their office, I’m just having flashbacks of the magazine sitting up for the belt.

Mark Rauterkus

So you have a system so that you never miss a phone call because it would then automatically, hey, I wasn’t able to pick up. You know, here’s a text message back at you. You know, is there something I can help you with? And then they can say, yeah, is the pool open?

Or it could be something simple. Or it could be, when’s the next tryout? Or is the meet scheduled like this? And if your AI bot knew that, it could answer 90% of those questions.

And then if you if you’re able to then maybe you could jump in later or you could see that conversation, and then be able to make sure that they got the answer that they needed. And, and, and, and we’re going to keep the, you know, the community well informed. Being able to use some artificial intelligence for our operational stuff is going to be huge. And the way it is now, you could get an Instagram message, or somebody’s going to tweet you, or somebody’s going to send an email or a text, and we can have a unified inbox.

So then you can sort of see what’s happened. And then our other coaches might be able to jump in to use it, but would have the shared Rolodex. So a lot of these utilities that are more or less marketing driven, but can help a coach and help a program stay organized and be more profitable and more nimble with your operations.

Wes King

It sounds like what the swim instruction industry has tried to do. As a swim lesson provider, they’ve tried to catch on with those CRMs and booking lessons. It sounds like you’re trying to take that model, but expand it specifically to your world in the coaching aspect and all the things that can get disconnected, but make them connected in your world. Is that kind of a fair analogy?

Mark Rauterkus

Well, yes and no. The swim lesson people, we’ve got a new alliance. Swim Influx System provides a turnkey all-in-one marketing thing that services swim schools. And now we’re going to be working with them, and they’re going to help with the fulfillment part.

We’re going to add extra layers with the bigger kids. So we’re going to build upon some of that good mojo that they’ve already got going. And so we’ve got an alliance brewing. I was going to be talking about that this weekend a little bit.

We have it in our area. And so, yeah, there’s no sense in recreating the wheel.

Wes King

There you go.

Mark Rauterkus

The marketplace isn’t that big.

Wes King

Yeah.

Mark Rauterkus

We’ve got a, you know, a finite number of teams and facilities and pools. And this is going to resonate with the techie type people. And there are some coaches that we know is going to take a while to get them on board or get their parents on board, or whatever. Yeah, we’re going to be working hand-in-hand with those people that provide to partner or make an alliance with those fellows are going to be out there for a month.

Wes King

Again, and I’ll go off script, and I know, Nicole, you’ve got some questions about the podcast, but for our  listeners out there, that’s why we do this. That’s why we have people like Mark on here, so we can build those bridges and have conversations about What is water polo and how do I get involved? Well, you get involved by having a feeder system. You get involved by understanding what it takes in your community and learning about how to run proper programs.

And so, again, just a great way to tie it all back together, Mark. Super impressive. Yeah.

Nicole

And to tie onto that, I mean, Navigating Neva is my podcast, but Navigating Neva was meant to not reinvent the wheel during COVID. children obviously kept drowning as the world does and we weren’t reaching people during COVID but my idea was there’s no reason for me to make something new when everything exists so I was in in the first few episodes I was telling people what was already out there I wasn’t creating things when I already from 20 years of experience know what’s there so For example, when Mark mentioned the Swim Inflex, we’ll get him to give me that link to that website. So if you’re listening, when you go to Navigating Neva, you can just click on the link and know exactly what he’s talking about, and then pull that up for yourself.

Same with the books that he mentioned. So what he’s mentioned on today’s episode, it’ll be in the show notes so that you guys have access to that, as well as his podcast. Because that’s what... Aquatics is a very small circle, and there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel when it’s already out there for us to use. But we’ll segue that into your podcast, Ready or Not, or Heavy or Not, not Ready or Not, Heavy or Not, how it’s totally different energy than most podcasts out there. So before we started recording, you were telling us a little bit more about it. For our listeners, just tell us a little bit more about your podcast.

Mark Rauterkus

Sure. I started it in January 2025, and presently I’m up to 52 episodes. We called the first season the first 50 episodes. And we had a rewind and ended that episode with an AI-created song.

There’s a folk song on number 50, and we do a flashback of all the prior episodes. But yeah, we’ve been covering everything from swimming in Scotland to, you know, what it’s like to travel and having coaching zombies and mindset and supplements, you know, so a lot of it’s swimming, but some of it is this the psych and some of it’s society type things too. I try not to be Too much in current events. You know, I think we did do a little beat down on that one film, The Swim Lesson.

Nicole

I remember the video.

Mark Rauterkus

Yeah, so that was back in, I don’t know, episode eight, nine or so. So, but it was like a, that was a little more of a current event because Academy and Mission Picture wanted to nominate this in the LA Times were all about it. And let’s put the brakes on this, guys. But so I like them to be evergreen.

So it’s it’s a okay if you could binge listen, and I don’t really like in my podcast to have much interviews. So there are times when we do a little bit of interview, but a lot of it is just what I call jump cuts. So we’re just going to go right into it and go at it. And I’ll even replay a little bit from other interesting podcasts that I’ve heard.

There was two things from the radio lab. It’s a NPR type thing. One fella had some big trauma when his brother didn’t come back from a time when they were younger and talked a little bit about some heavy things. You know, we talked a little bit about the, you know, the camper kids in, you know, South Texas and things of that nature.

So, there are some heavy issues, you know, and then there are some other things that are not so heavy. So thank you for listening. And I think I would love in the future to get more voices involved. And if you want to rant away, do it on your phone and send it to me. 

And we’ll blend it in there.

Wes King

Don’t tease. That’s how Nicole and I communicate is voice memos to each other, only like 7 to 10 a day. and and English You know the pool operators are on the other side and nobody’s in the middle and so just hearing how you’ve been able to Pardon the pun navigate these waters. There’s my pun for the day.

It took me all episode, but I got it in But seriously not everybody can do that, right? We’ve had people on there would have told challenging stories of how they couldn’t get their program launched or how they had to really battle with other types of services and I think you’ve shown a great job today of not only how you did it, but that it can be done again and again, whether it’s a school system, whether it’s a swim meet, whether it’s a community service, whether it’s competitive, you can incorporate games, you can incorporate coaching, you can incorporate operation success all into it if you have the right approach. And so again, I just appreciate your ability to, there it is again, navigate all those waters because now everybody’s had that type of success and I’m glad our audience got to hear that.

Mark Rauterkus

Well, my here’s my long term vision and you guys can help them. You know, the Ted Lasso, right? He’s so he’s talking about, you know, football or, or there’s been a a lot of new documentaries on all sorts of sports, whether it’s Netflix or Peacock and such. I would love to be able to have a Ted Lasso, but instead of it being football or soccer, have it be a swimming thing.

And a little bit like The Pit is true to the ER room setting. They work really hard on making sure that the jargon is accurate.

Wes King

And they have the advisors.

Mark Rauterkus

I think we need to do that with swimming and make sure that we can be teaching about aquatics and swimming and then be able to have some of these stories unfold at the pool. So one day, maybe, we’ll be able to. bootstrap it. Or, find others who are interested in doing something on a TV basis with regards to making Heavy Or Not a TV show.

Wes King

I love it.

Nicole

I love it. That’s a great goal. I’ll ask you in a year where you are on your quest.

Wes King

Yeah, that’s how the All Things Aquatics event happened, Mark. So be careful what you say out loud to Nicole. In six months from now, you might have a TV script on your lap, because that’s how this event happened.

Wes King

In three days, it’s because I made the mistake of telling Nicole my pipe dream, and now it’s coming true in 72 hours. So be careful what you wish for, my man. You may end up with

Mark Rauterkus

We could do a whole season from All Things Aquatics.

Nicole

I just like to follow up on your wishes. I like where you are going.

As we wrap up the night we were gonna go through some Quick hit questions just for fun for all of us. So Wes I was gonna let you take the first question

Wes King

Yeah I do because I pay attention. You told us a lot of things about what you love about aquatics. What is one of your favorite memories, whether is is about coaching, a meet. What is one of the things that really hit home for you.

Wes King

What are your favorite stores about aquatics?

Mark Rauterkus

I guess it was coaching. We were able to take our City League team and get out of the City League and join the WPIAL. That was a year that I had my older boy as a senior and my younger boy as a freshman. We won our section.

It was a huge deal. We went to an away meet. The other team felt, oh, here comes those city kids. And then they looked up, and they had suspended one of their stars because he had missed practiced.

And so they had their guard down. And our guys.

Wes King

Go guys.

Mark Rauterkus

They went down to that 400 free relay. And all four of our kids turned in lifetime best times. We won the meet by a whisker. And then that was able to win our section.

Wes King

And your sons were on that team? Is that right?

Mark Rauterkus

Yeah, my sons were both on the team.

Wes King

Yeah.

Mark Rauterkus

And so it was a team effort. And it was, you know, if that guy didn’t get, you know, fourth place in that race, we wouldn’t have won it. You know, so everybody felt, you know, it was like one of those glowing results.

Wes King

Farland USA, but in a pool. That’s awesome. Yeah. What do you got Nicole?

Nicole

So my question is, um, what is one misconception about water polo that you wish everyone understood or didn’t take that way?

Mark Rauterkus

Ooh, um, I don’t, the, what’s really strange about water polo is you don’t know what’s going on. You know, you’re battling the water, you know, and you’re battling your opponent, you know, and then you can occasionally pick up and see where the ball is, you know, and then there’s a whistle, you know,

Wes King

boom, boom, boom,

Mark Rauterkus

you know, so when you’re playing water polo, you’re oblivious to 90% of what’s going on, you know, cause you’re in such a trying to get position or trying to, and, and so, you know.

Wes King

You are in your own battle.

Mark Rauterkus

Yeah, for sure. And it’s just a really crazy thing. So when you watch water polo, you just have to have a respect for the players. And I think they get a lot of respect, but it’s a pretty confusing game in certain levels.

And there’s a lot going on. So I just think that is You know, using all parts of your brain and using all parts of your body. And it’s quite a dynamic experience to be in a game like that.

Wes King

I love that. I love the how you start that sentence of, you know what you’re doing, but you don’t have to know what everybody else is doing. And if you can know what you’re doing, then you can control the the moment. And I think that’s that’s a great way to look at it.

Wes King

And then kind of to tee this off for let Nicole edit here. But again, to your mouth, who’s ever ears what, who’s a guest you’d love to have on Heavy Or Not someday? Well, who’s on your wish list? Who would you love to see there?

Mark Rauterkus

I just wish for I guess the floodgates to open that people just to, you know, sound off and share out and feel that they don’t need to be intimidated, you know, they could just do a recording and send it to me. Yeah, we had one of the Eastern States Clinic last year, there was a panel and actually we took that panel and broke it up into three areas. But, you know, Bob Bowman was on it and lot of heavy hitters, Mark Schubert and stuff. So they all had some really good things talking about, you know, grassroots swimming and leading up to LA. 28. So, but it’s, it’s more than just, you know, the, the big superstars, you know, it’s, it’s about those, you know, the woman that swim in Scotland, or, you know, the people in, in London are having their pool taken away because of the, the water treatment plant or something, so it’s a, I think I like to cover the big variety and I wish people would listen and sound off.

Wes King

I love it. That’s how we get ahead of SmartList, and that’s how we get a hold of Copies Podcast. That’s how you climb the majors is the good real-life stories, Mark. That’s how you get in the top 10 of national podcast rankings, so I’ve heard.

Nicole

So there’s a pool, I won’t tell you where, somewhere within 50 miles of me that I would love for this story to be on your podcast. So if somebody wants to just hit record and send it to you, I would like for somebody listening to me to send this to you. There’s a pool within 50 miles of me that is a diving well and the light bulb went out and therefore the pool has never reopened again.

Wes King

Yeah,

Nicole

yeah, we’re not gonna go any deeper you all of us here know the answer because we work in aquatics we could all probably go fix the light bulb right now, but needless to say the pool is not working. It’s a diving. Well, it’s closed. Also, there’s a person on Tik-Tok and he my instructor sent me the video.

Nicole

This would also be a cool thing for yours He is swimming Lake Powell. It’s 10 days by him. Do you know who I’m talking about? Oh

Wes King

No, not exactly.

Nicole

I don’t know his name. I know his his his name online is W is white block. And then he’s got a friend following him and he tomorrow is day 10. So I’ve been following his journey. He’s just solo swimming across the lake by itself.

Wes King

with Dana Torres. pt what was that gal who swam the channel?

Mark Rauterkus

Now that you say the story, I remember seeing it online. Yeah, it’s a long journey. When you said Lake Powell, at first I was thinking a different lake. Yeah, that’s crazy.

Wes King

Proving the world of aquatics. We tell a random story. Yes. You know enough about the situation. You know open water swimming. You know those challengs and we see the connections. It is a small world. We are happy you are a part of it.

Nicole

I’m going to wrap up this conversation, and I’m going to record it. It’s going to go out to everybody. So, Mark, it has been a very fun conversation. I was very excited to have you on tonight.

I gave a teaser for anybody who’s on social media. Now, if anybody guessed it was Mark, they should tell me. I’ll send them a prize. I don’t know if they did that or not. But I’m so glad that you joined us tonight. And maybe next year, we’ll see you at the All Things Aquatic event. And you can even help us publicize it. And then we’ll let everybody know they can find you on Heavy Or Not.

Wes King

Yeah, absolutely. 

Mark Rauterkus

I did help publicize the event. I gave you a shot on one of the episodes.

Nicole

Yes, you did. I did mean with your AI technology — a big role. Yeah.

Wes King

And we appreciate your support and good luck to you this weekend and everything you’re doing. Okay. And again, thank you for everything. Peace.

Nicole

Yep. Take care, guys. Until next time, stay safe.