The Bitter End

CEO & Head Coach John Bitter was recipient of the old "lead handshake" from Santa Clara Swim Club.  "Financial irregularities" was given as the reason for his termination.  Poor guy never had the chance to give the usual "more time with the family" reason.

Bitter's bio was scrubbed from the team's website, but is still available through Google's "cached" feature:

John Bitter 

CEO/Head Coach

Over the course of his 24 years in the coaching profession, John Bitter has had the opportunity to train, develop, and establish swimmers and programs throughout the United States.  John came to SCSC in September of 1995 as the Associate Head Coach, under the Dick Jochums.  Working with Jochums, SCSC went on to win two National tiles for Men and one national title combined.  Besides this, SCSC placed Tom Wilkens on the USA Olympic Team in 2000.  Tom went on to win a bronze medal in the 200 IM.
 
Following the retirement of Jochums in December of 2006, John was elevated to the position of Head Coach of Santa Clara Swim Club.  In this position, the club has seen tremendous growth in terms of both performance and number of swimmers and programs offered to the swimming community.  In September of 2009, John was also given the title of CEO of the organization and today he heads a swim program that has diversified itself into Adult Fitness, Competitive, Developmental, and Learn-to-Swim programming.
 
As a coach, John accomplishments have been numerous.  He has been a an Assistant Coach for the USA Swimming Junior Pan-Pac team in 2010, a two-time USA Swimming Select Camp coach, a USA Swimming Zone Development Camp Coach.  John’s swimmers have produce multiple National, Junior, and Olympic qualifiers and he has had many of his former swimmers go on to compete in college at such schools as University of Georgia, University of Virginia, Rice University, Indiana University-Bloomington, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, UC Davis, University of Arizona, University of Minnesota, University of Hawaii, just to name a few.  The biggest joy John receives as a coach is when one of his swimmers is given the opportunity to continue his or her swimming at the college level, while also receiving their degree.  Besides his work on the club level, John has also had success as a college coach, having worked with the 1989 NCAA Champion in the Men’s 1650 Free.
 
As a swimmer, John swam for Jim Tynan at Sugar Creek Swim Club in St. Louis, then for Martha Tillman at Washington University in St. Louis. Transferring after his sophomore year, John went on to swim for Dick Jochums at the University of Arizona.  John was team captain his senior year.  John received his B.A. in History from the University of Arizona and has done masters work in Sports Management at the University of San Francisco.


Former FCST head coach Allison Beebe is currently SCSC's Lead High Performance Coach and a possible replacement for Bitter.

Weakly Demotivator

Quote of the Day

If you hold a permanent view of yourself as

a victim, you become your own oppressor.

via MPRnews

Candace Owens

Wow!

I've never been a fan of Senator Graham, but he sure as heck stood up for right here:

Quote of the Day

Feelings are not evidence.

via Heightline

Michelle Perez Maglalang Malkin

Misc.

via Fort Bend ISD

Magnolia will host this year's Gulf Gold Medal Swimming clinic, featuring Simone Manuel.  Info and registration link (you have one more week to sign up) are here

CSCAA Open Water Championships Results:

Women (Rice 2nd, TCU 5th, A&M 8th)

Men (TCU 4th, A&M 5th)

Info and registration link for the Houston Build & Program a Pool Conference (November 10 & 11) is here
 

Sick of our current party system?  Wonder why logic seems to be absent from so much of what they say and do?  Check out a post by Bryan Caplan on EconLog:

You Don't Understand Our Culture

What are the key differences between GMU econ blogger culture and mainstream intellectual culture?  For starters:

1. We value intellectual progress over emotional comfort.  As long as speakers are polite, we blame listeners who get upset, not speakers who upset them.
2. We are genuinely non-partisan.  The Democratic and Republican parties both seem like absurd churches to us.  Even if one is markedly worse, we’ll never join either because both are “often wrong and never in doubt.”
3. The daily scandals that excite mainstream culture seem insipid and arbitrary to us.  What matters are statistics, not emotions – and arguments, not stories.
4. One bet is worth a thousand pages of punditry.  At least.
5. Giving in to Social Desirability Bias is a grave sin.
6. Corollary: Don’t dodge questions.
7. Hyperbole is the worst thing in the universe.  Most problems and effects are marginal.  If you’re really certain that X, you should happily bet at 1000:1 odds.
8. Appealing to your identity is a reason to discount what you say, not a reason to pay extra attention.
9. An argument doesn’t have to “prove” anything to be worthwhile; it only needs to change your probabilities.
10. We’ll strategically appease mainstream thinkers, but that doesn’t mean they’re right.

How broad and deep is GMU blogger culture, really?  It’s a continuum.  Tyler Cowen might even claim to disagree with everything I just said… but he still exemplifies most of it.  The important thing to know is that our distinct culture is thriving in your midst.  We aren’t numerous, but we are a proud people.  So please show some cultural sensitivity…

As you can see by today's Quote of the Day, #7 is my favorite.

In fact, it's absolutely the greatest quote in the history of mankind...

The City of New Braunfels needs an assistant swim coach

VillaSport (The Woodlands) needs an aquatics director

Meridian School (Round Rock) needs a developmental swim coach

D&J needs an assistant manager for their Austin location

via billboard

Sarah Brightman HYMN tour coming to Smart Financial Centre (Sugar Land) February 25th.  Info & ticket link here.  If you want to hang out w/the Button's in Section 103 - Hey, who doesn't? - those seats are going fast.  North Texans?  Your concert's on the 23rd in Grand Prairie.

Must share another, The Bettor's Oath, by Caplan:

The Bettor’s Oath 

Blathering talk surrounds us, but I will take no part in it.  My word is my bet; I will always put my money where my mouth is.  When challenged, I will bet on my words, refine them, or recant.  When no one is present to challenge me, I will weigh my words and thoughts as if my fellow oath-takers were listening.

I will make both conditional and unconditional bets, and assign probabilities whenever asked.  I will claim no false certainty; unless I will stake my life on my belief, I am not truly certain – and will admit it.

When I lose a bet, I will admit defeat, pay promptly, and hold my tongue – never protesting that I was “really right.”  If I have caveats or reservations, I will declare them when I make the bet – not after I lose it.

When I win a bet, I will not shame my opponent, for a betting loser has far more honor than the mass of men who live by loose and idle talk.  I pledge my mind and words to the bettor’s oath, for this day and all the days to come...

Unless something in this oath turns out to be wrong, an eventuality to which I assign a 3% probability.

Weakly Demotivator

Quote of the Day

Hyperbole is the worst thing in the universe.

via National Review

Bryan Douglas Caplan

Johnnie Means

via Houston Chronicle

Swimming World Q&A with HCAP's Johnnie Means is here

A diverse swimming environment is one where any and everybody is presented with an affordable opportunity to be a part of the swimming world.

CSCAA Open Water Champs

Tomorrow's schedule:

• 7:30-8:15 a.m. - Women’s Check-in
• 8:15 a.m. - Women’s Pre-Race Briefing
• 8:25 a.m. - Women’s Inspection and Roll Call
• 8:30 a.m. - Women’s 5K Start
• 9:30-10:15 a.m. - Men’s Check-in
• 10:15 a.m. - Men’s Pre-Race Briefing
• 10:25 a.m. - Men’s Inspection and Roll Call
• 10:30 a.m. - Men’s 5K Start
• Noon - Women’s and Men’s Awards

More info here

Quote of the Day

My face is my mask.

via Habs Goalies

Lorne John "Gump" Worsley

Weakly Demotivator

Quote of the Day

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who

did nothing because he could do only a little.

via Acton Institute

Edmund Burke

Quote of the Day

Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature's inexorable imperative.

via Google Play

Herbert George "H.G." Wells

Quote of the Day

I just invent, then wait until man comes

around to needing what I've invented.

via PBS

Richard Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller

Weakly Demotivator

Quote of the Day

You can teach an old dog new tricks,

and this old dog wants to learn.

Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill, Jr.

Where Title IX Went Wrong

Christina Hoff Sommers reviews The Transformation of Title IX here

There could have been many sensible, non-radical ways to apply Title IX to sports programs. In assessing the fairness of a school’s resource distribution, for example, why not consider the full array of athletic opportunities—from varsity, club, and intramural sports to dance, fitness, and outdoor exploration programs? Or find a way to assess whether an institution’s offerings effectively satisfy the interests and abilities of both male and female students? But the women’s groups wanted more than that. In their view, if women were truly free and equal, they would be just as interested in competitive varsity sports as men. These advocates insisted on “proportionality”—if a college’s student body was 60 percent female, then 60 percent of the varsity athletes should be female. Anything less was proof of continuing discrimination. And rock climbing, yoga, and dance did not count. For the activists, Title IX was not an equal opportunity law; it was a mandate to change conventional understandings of what it means to be a man or a woman. “This was a heady job for government regulators,” writes Melnick.

In 1996, assistant secretary of OCR Norma Cantú sent out a “Letter of Clarification,” which mentioned “proportionality” as a “safe harbor” that would protect schools from investigation. Schools got the message that anything less than statistical parity was risky. Previously, schools had been safe from investigation if they could show they were making good-faith efforts to accommodate student interests and abilities in sports. But Cantú’s letter represented a radical policy change. It was in effect imposing a quota system—even though the original law explicitly forbade quotas. And the change was made by “administrative fiat,” in Melnick’s words, without a notice-and-comment proceeding or the president’s signature. But the OCR labeled the secretary’s decree a “clarification.” Judges deferred.

Melnick describes the chaos and expense that ensued. Colleges and universities generally have far more female than male students, yet far fewer women than men aspire to participate in varsity athletics. To keep their football teams and avoid losing even more male wrestlers, baseball players, and swimmers, most schools have opted to devote a greater share of their athletic budgets to varsity sports. Untold millions now go to a relatively small group of elite male and female athletes inside the increasingly cloistered, commercialized world of college sports. Melnick wonders what the current regulation-driven system has to do with increasing educational opportunities for young women. The average female college student might have benefited from more federal funding for physical fitness programs. Now, she helps foot the bill for the ever-expanding college athletic-industrial complex.

Proportionality means almost all schools with large football programs must do three (3) things:

1) Dump male sports until they offer only the minimum allowed by NCAA rules,
2) Use roster caps to force remaining male sports to keep their numbers to a minimum, &
3) Add pseudo-sports for women like equestrian, beach volleyball, etc.

All facts, right?  Tough to argue those, isn't it?

Okay, how about we get those Title IX radicals riled up with another fact - one they really go nuts over - Men and Women are DIFFERENT!

 Argue that one, Billie Jean & Nancy...

Quote of the Day

I can sing as well as Fred Astaire can act.

via Leonard Maltin

Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr.

ICYMI

News & Jobs

via Texas Sports

Madison Cox has been reinstated after it was determined her failed test was due to a multivitamin she was taking.  Cox had declared the supplement, but it wasn't tested prior to her original hearing.  More here

The last six months have been a grave and harrowing learning experience that I would not wish on any honest, clean, elite athlete. I know that any supplement – even a multivitamin purported to contain only those ingredients specified on the label and purchased at a local supermarket – can be suspect.

I would advise any athlete who chooses to take supplements to not only consult resources such as USADA’s Supplement 411, but to also make sure that they are third party batch tested to check for any contamination.

I am excited to return to the pool. I also appreciate the support so many people have shown me throughout this trying ordeal.

Supplement was Cooper Complete Elite Athlete

This year's Tex Robertson Highland Lakes Challenge will take place from October 31 through November 4.  More info here

High school swim/dive officials may begin registering now.  Info is here

A couple of admin-type jobs:

The YMCA of Greater Houston needs two (2) association aquatics directors

Gulf Swimming LSC needs an executive director

Weakly Demotivator

Quote of the Day

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all

to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

via npr

Henry David Thoreau