April 24, 2008
FRESNO, Calif. -
Fresno State Director of Athletics Thomas Boeh introduced newly appointed women's swimming and diving coach Jeanne Fleck to the media on Thursday at the Josephine Theater on campus. Below is a Q & A with the new Bulldog coach.
Q: What intrigued you about the Fresno State job?
A: I have never started a program before and felt like this was the perfect place. My mother also lives in northern California and thought it would be great to be near family.
Q: Are you excited about building a new facility for the program?
A: Yes! It will make such a great impact on the program with a state that has so many swimmers.
Q: What is your coaching philosophy?
A: I want the student athletes to have a great experience while growing in the pool and out. My job is to help them become the best person and swimmer they can be. When they graduate in four years I want them to have learned discipline, responsibility, accountability and to have swam really, really fast.
Q: What challenges are there in starting a new program?
A: There are so many I can not mention them all. Finding swimmers right now will be the hardest part. After that I think hiring the right staff and getting to know all the club coaches in the area.
Q: How will you spend your first 90 days on the job?
A: Recruiting, recruiting, recruiting! Then hiring staff and setting up a schedule
Q: Does a swim coach get a chance to swim with the athletes?
A: No we are watching them and working with them above the water thankfully. I love to work out but not swim anymore.
Q: What is something people may not know about you?
A: I love to read, workout, ride horses and play golf. I do not get time enough to any of them though.
Q: What excites you about starting a new program?
A: Building a program with the work ethic and attitude in and out of the pool that I would like and not having to overcome what was done in the past. It is a great challenge and I love to see swimming programs getting added which is so great for the sport. Swimming is just such a great sport and teaches you so much I am just excited to bring that back to the Fresno-Clovis area.
Quotes from the Press Conference
Quotes by Thomas Boeh
"This is one of the good days. We were here just a few months ago announcing our intention to reinstate the swimming and diving program for women here at Fresno State and we are very excited and fortunate in my mind to announce Jeanne Fleck as our head coach."
"I want to thank the search committee for selecting a very good pool of candidates and we are fortunate to have Jeanne for a variety of reasons. This is difficult to start a program from scratch and to know where the pitfalls are and the exact things to do. You don't really get a learning curve when you are starting a new program. She has many years of head coaching experience at Northern Illinois and Ohio State and has had great success as being named conference coach of the year and has had several swimmers in the national spotlight."
"For our purpose as well, since we are building a pool, Jeanne helped with the design and the construction of the Aquatic Center at Ohio State, which is considered to be a state-of-the-art facility. So we have the whole package."
Quotes by Jeanne Fleck
"I'm looking forward to joining this family and joining the community. I have heard great things about Fresno and living here and working at the University. I am just so excited."
"I am a little nervous about starting a program from scratch, but that is why I wanted this job. I'm looking forward to building it and hopefully have a full time come August to start competing."
"I've coached for 19 years but I have never had a chance to start a program and the swimming in California is amazing. Your pool of athletes just in this area alone is crazy."
"My first order of business is to get swimmers. Recruiting, recruiting, recruiting. Then I will need to get a staff and a schedule together. Those are my priorities."
"I want to recruit athletes that are good academically and good in the water. I want athletes that want to help build the program, to be successful and be dedicated, but most of all to be a great student-athlete. That is the greatest part about starting a program because you get that dedication and you can pick the kind of athletes that you want, instead of inheriting them."
"There is a great history of swimming here at Fresno State. They had great athletes here in the past so I know we can get those types of athletes again."
