THE DAY OF THE K.B.F
By Mark Rauterkus, Assistant Swimming Coach, Ohio University Men's Swimming
Every athletic team has a nature. This unique personality has many contributing factors. The team's roster and staff, with their respected ages, experiences, abilities, and the sport, all influence a team's nature. For instance, baseball's World Champion, the Pittsburgh Pirates, claimed to be "family." Before and during the 1976 01ympic Games, the U. S. boxers had an astounding record and astonishing closeness. this University, the men swimmers have been building a team character at pre-season practices.
An excitement was lifted from the splashes as the team entered the water. The warm-up was designated by the coaches, sitting in the stands, slightly removed, as a 1,000-yard distance was done (any way the swimmer prefers). This type of set is referred to as "choice. Such freedom always is appreciated by the swimmers and, consequently, was abused. The shallow end was plagued with bystanders acting somewhat like a social club.
However, if close attention was paid, the swimmers were in two social cliques. freshmen forming one group of swimmers, called "rookies," which means they have to do some small chores before and after each practice. (These are duties that would be taken care of by managers in revenue sports, i.e. football and basketball.) Meanwhile, the vets make up the other half of the team.
The vets stand together and have experience over the rookies. It is quite an advantage. These guys had started the year with close friendships already developed from previous years. However, the vets generally are willing to share their experiences and pass along tradition.
The workout that day was a typical early-season practice. Typical, with Fletcher Gilders as the coach, means anything could happen. The team expected a wide range of workouts and activities throughout the week, but overall, the tendency was for the coaches to be lax in the early weeks. Applying pressure to the swimmers too soon in the season will hurt the squad more than help it.
Besides, it was Friday; and like every other O.U. student, the swimmers were wired-up for the weekend by Friday afternoon.
"The rookies are up to something, Fletch," I said. As the coaching assistant, I was seated next to him. We shared The Post and nondescriptly kept an eye on the guys. Four rookies had emptied the cupboard which housed all the kickboards. The kickboards then littered the deck behind their starting blocks at the shallow end of the pool. The rookies then proceeded to kick with a board to the opposite end of the pool and try to secretly flip the board over the bulkhead to the deck near the base of the diving board. This continued nonchalantly throughout the 40-length warm-up. while, we played along by pretending not to notice.
David Sebastian, a wide-eyed freshman who talks with a high-pitched Jersey voice, got bold. Then, He slipped out of the water and gathered the kickboards into two stacks. Then, after first checking to see if the vets were still soaking their heads in stroke, he dashed into the close quarters of the men's locker room with one stack. Bob Pethick, another rookie, followed his buddy with the second stack of kickboards. After ditching the kickboards, the guys came back to conclude the warm-up.
Meanwhile, Fletcher got into the game. He shuffled down to his office, back to the stands, and to his office again. Then after decoying his team, he finally entered the locker room. I could tell at this point that Fletcher was going to play along, because he secretly moved one stack of hidden boards from the locker room to an adjacent space which still was out of the swimmers' view. The groundwork had been set. When he returned, I descended from the stands, and we started to run the practice.
The workout stimulated the rivalry. The workout was a continuous series of relay races. The coaches picked the teams and the events. Always reigning in Lane #4 was the fastest combination of freshmen swimmers, and in the neighboring lane, the vets' finest relay swam. The outside lanes had combination relays made up from the existing swimmers. Wagering on the races and extremely close finishes further provoked the feud.
There was a value to this workout. Fletcher proceeded to explain his reasoning to tired ears after one hour of 100% sprint swimming. "We wanted to see a few things, and we saw them. We looked closely at your starts, he said. The guys' and even my attention began to drift away during the coach's discourse.
"In other words, get off your duff!" The guys rose and started conversing as they slunk towards the showers. I presumed Fletcher was done babbling. Philip, an upper- classman who holds the University's individual-medley record, was teetering the lip of the pool while heading toward the locker room. Then, from seemingly out of nowhere, Sebastian gave Phil a push into the water.
"I don't believe you did that!" Philip repeated at least five times.
By this time, Sebastian and his fellow rookie, Pethick, had made a quick escape to the refuge of the shower room. Meanwhile, all the other rookies lingered and began to pick up the remaining kickboards.
By this time, I was just holding my breath. Then it came. Sebastian and Pethick a re-emerged from the locker room, loaded with kickboards. They dropped them and started hurling them at the vets. Everybody looked to Fletcher to see if he would speak out against his massacre attempt. He was laughing. Then the vets started to flee. A retreat was in order or else get clunked. But, they met the same fate from the shallow end.
The rookies had the vets trapped in the middle without any kickboards. It was a moment of glory for the freshmen. The joy was seen in the faces as they tried to guide the projectiles into the bodies of teammates.
The vets were trying to shield themselves any way possible. But soon, the strategy of a kickboard fight enters and momentum changes. In the K. B. F. (code for kickboard fight), the gist of the conflict lies in the exchange of the kickboards. like any other battle known to man. No one gets defeated, and no one wins.
In the K. B. F. one always gets excited and continues to hit a man when he is down. So, the rookies kept punishing the vets until their ammo had expired and was all in the hands of the vets. It is impossible to throw a kickboard and then recover it without your opponent first firing it back at you.
The vets then returned the favor of the rookies by letting them have it. Since the Styrofoam can inflict no pain nor be thrown with any speed or accuracy, everyone has a good time with this "hit-and-be-hit" philosophy of war.
With this in mind, I suggest that the University President, Doctor Ping, wire the American Embassy in Iran and invite the captives and the captors over for a K. B. F. In fact, the Shah might also drop by to try out his arm. If the results mirror the same results obtained by the O.U. swimmers, then everyone will have had let out all of their tensions and aggressions and then be able to live together in this small world of ours, peacefully.
And, swimmers, don't we know it! That seven-foot by 25-yard lane of water can get awfully small with two, three or four college swimmers trying to stroke away to intervals. Now, I hope you understand that every practice at 0. U. does not end in this manner. However, it is nice to recall what one October practice was like (especially now that you are swimming with such intensity every day), and the taper is just around the corner.
Chapter Two: A concluding remark about the 1980 Freshmen-Vet rivalry
Ashland College was scheduled for a dual meet at O.U. on Feb. 9, 1980; however, back in the fall, Ashland called us to cancel the meet. This left an open date for the Bobcats. So, an intra-squad meet was held according to regular-meet procedure.
The freshmen flanked one side of the pool, and the upperclassmen, the other. The final score was 51-60, in favor of the ROOKIES.
The freshman class is the strongest class of swimmers to enter O.U. in recent years. Moreover, this year graduation will take NOBODY from our squad! The nucleus is here. We have something to look forward to. Ohio University is "up and coming!"
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