Georgia Southern swimming and diving coach Mindy Czech has come a long way since becoming the team’s leader two years ago, and the fruits of her labor were realized when the coaches of the Northeast Conference — the conference in which GSU’s swimming and diving teams compete — recognized her as 2007 coach of the year.
Czech’s two divers — sophomores Nicole Hutchison and Katie Creighton — performed well in the 2007 NEC Championship. Hutchison was awarded third place for the 1-meter dive and won the title for the 3-meter dive after coming in first. Creighton helped her teammate out with fourth and third place finishes respectively.
The NEC is usually dominated by Gardner-Webb and Central Connecticut State, with Wagner and Radford rounding out the top competition in the league, but the appearance of Czech has given rise to the emergence of GSU as a competitive force. The Eagle diving team finished second in the tournament, with Gardner-Webb taking the title. The second-place finish was the best in program history for GSU, as it edged out CCSU and Wagner to claim the second spot.
Czech looks to the future of the Eagles with excitement, as GSU has built a new facility for the swimming and diving team.
“We are moving into the RAC, which is a beautiful brand new facility,” said Czech. “The girls are extremely excited. It has really motivated them to dive better, and I think it should also help with recruiting. It will bring a lot of recognition to Statesboro as a city as a whole, the RAC and to Georgia Southern University.”
Czech has taken a light-hearted approach to guiding her Eagle divers, choosing to approach coaching in a way that gets her team excited about competing.
“We started practicing four days per week,” Czech said. “Really quality practice…and that really helped. Being out of the pool every other day really refreshed them. They got excited about coming in, and they started diving better. It was amazing to see it happen right before my eyes. Before the meet, I had them practice less, and they did really well like that…They were confident in themselves, and they have fun. They have a ‘go get it’ attitude, and to me that is what it is really about.”
With both of her divers being so young, the future looks bright for coach Czech, but for now, she is just enjoying rising to the top.
Czech’s two divers — sophomores Nicole Hutchison and Katie Creighton — performed well in the 2007 NEC Championship. Hutchison was awarded third place for the 1-meter dive and won the title for the 3-meter dive after coming in first. Creighton helped her teammate out with fourth and third place finishes respectively.
The NEC is usually dominated by Gardner-Webb and Central Connecticut State, with Wagner and Radford rounding out the top competition in the league, but the appearance of Czech has given rise to the emergence of GSU as a competitive force. The Eagle diving team finished second in the tournament, with Gardner-Webb taking the title. The second-place finish was the best in program history for GSU, as it edged out CCSU and Wagner to claim the second spot.
Czech looks to the future of the Eagles with excitement, as GSU has built a new facility for the swimming and diving team.
“We are moving into the RAC, which is a beautiful brand new facility,” said Czech. “The girls are extremely excited. It has really motivated them to dive better, and I think it should also help with recruiting. It will bring a lot of recognition to Statesboro as a city as a whole, the RAC and to Georgia Southern University.”
Czech has taken a light-hearted approach to guiding her Eagle divers, choosing to approach coaching in a way that gets her team excited about competing.
“We started practicing four days per week,” Czech said. “Really quality practice…and that really helped. Being out of the pool every other day really refreshed them. They got excited about coming in, and they started diving better. It was amazing to see it happen right before my eyes. Before the meet, I had them practice less, and they did really well like that…They were confident in themselves, and they have fun. They have a ‘go get it’ attitude, and to me that is what it is really about.”
With both of her divers being so young, the future looks bright for coach Czech, but for now, she is just enjoying rising to the top.
