Long Hours Hone Winning Edge -- More Club Teams Training Talented Young Swimmers

"All my friends will think I'm cool

because I went swimming before school . . ."

- Excerpt from "Morning Workout," a poem by Blanchet freshman Katy Jayne

While Seattle sleeps, they swim.

Hours before sunrise, a small group of young swimmers gather at the Ballard Pool in a yearlong, some say lifelong, pursuit of excellence. Among them are a few of the best Class AA swimmers in the Metro League and the state.

"They are just driven," said Pat Hamilton, a coach for the Shilshole Aquatic Club, to which the swimmers belong. "I used to swim at the UW and this rivals their workouts."

SAC is one of four prominent club teams that compete for Seattle's top high-school swimmers. The others are Swim Seattle, Bellevue Athletic Club and Cascade Swim Club.

Each team differs slightly in philosophy and training techniques, but all stress strict discipline and a rigorous schedule.

Hamilton, 26, a graduate of Interlake High School, swam for a similar club and followed a similar regimen for 12 years before becoming a coach three years ago.

"Why do they do it? I don't really know," he said. "Some of them are just obsessed. I was. You fall in love with it and it becomes a habit.

"Everyone here is a potential collegiate swimmer and has a chance to earn a scholarship. That has a lot to do with it."

Every day, 18 boys and girls arrive at 4:45 a.m. and enter the building at Northwest 67th Street and 15th Avenue Northwest.

Once inside, night suddenly becomes day.

The cold blackness outside is shut out by the building's heavy metal doors. Blinding warm light floods the pool from overhead fixtures. Chlorine stench makes eyes teary and burns inside the nostrils. The water temperature is 85 degrees and a thermometer hanging on a wall reads 80.

The swimmers, draped in towels, walk cautiously across the damp floor as they make their way from the locker room to the pool.

An hour and 30 minutes later, they've covered nearly 1,200 yards and 24 laps in the 25-yard pool.

"Time to go home," Hamilton said. "Err, check that. Time to go to school."

On this morning, Brett Tannhauser is the last to leave.

It is 6:30 a.m. and he has about 90 minutes to drive home, dress, eat, drive to school and finish his homework before classes begin at Blanchet High School.

He is tired because he slept just six hours the previous night. Yet he has no plans to change his schedule, which some weeks has him practicing three times a day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

In fact, he may increase the frequency of his morning workouts.

"As you get better, it's something you've got to do," said the 16-year-old sophomore. "I do it to get pool time and to get better. . . . The competition is getting better and better. I've got to keep up."

And to think that his prep coach was worried that Tannhauser would get fat and lazy after winning the 500-meter AA state championship as a freshman.

"Oh, no, that's not going to happen," Tannhauser said.

Still, Blanchet Coach Pres Pew had his concerns.

"I was a little concerned at what it would be like to have a freshman for a state champion," Pew said. "It's pretty unusual. You never know how someone that age will respond . . . But he's kept his head on straight. He's pretty focused."

SAC practices three times a week each morning at Ballard Pool and nearly every night at Connolly Center at Seattle University. The group has about 90 members ranging in age from 13 to 21.

They practice throughout the year and break for a week in April and six weeks in the fall.

The price of their dedication doesn't come cheap.

Tannhauser estimates his parents spend $2,000 each year to keep him a member of the SAC. His younger sister, Jamie, is also a SAC swimmer, but her fees are significantly less.

Several other Metro standouts belong to the club: Seattle Prep's Joel Shapiro, Renee Kendall and Spike Morgan; Roosevelt's Ross Russo; Franklin's Brian Okuda, and Blanchet's Rachel Haff and Katy Jayne.

As club teams grow in popularity, they loom as potential competitors to high schools. So far, prep and amateur teams have maintained cordial relationships. Most swimmers give their loyalty to their high-school teams, but that may be changing.

"It's a real conflict sometimes and the hardest thing is that the kids are caught in the middle," Seattle Prep Coach Mike McCloskey said. "Sometimes the goals of the club aren't the same as the high school. . . . It can be a conflict with practices."

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association requires swimmers to practice with their prep teams to retain high-school eligibility. That is sometimes difficult for many elite swimmers, whose time is taken by their club teams.

Also, some amateur meets conflict with prep meets.

This spring, the Senior Nationals Swimming Championships, the Super Bowl of amateur swimming, is being held the same weekend as most high-school district meets.

Prep swimmers must swim at districts to qualify for the state meet.

McCloskey coaches two swimmers (James Scott-Browne and Shapiro) who may soon have to choose between nationals and state.

"Eleven years ago when I started (coaching at Prep), Washington was a desolate place for swimming," McCloskey said. "As the clubs have gotten stronger, the high schools have gotten stronger. It's a Catch-22. The kids are getting too good for us.

"I still believe for most of the kids, state is a primary goal. However, senior nationals . . . that's big. With high schools, kids get the exposure and excitement. You win the Metro championship and all the kids in school know it. But you can win senior nationals and nobody in school will know what that means. For now, that's what's saving us." ----------------------------------------------------------------- Metro League swimmers to watch

BOYS

Best 1995 1995 1995 Name School Yr. Event Metro District State. -----------------------------------------------------------------. Lucas Brower Lakeside Jr. 1-meter diving -- 1st 1st. . Fletcher Evans S.Prep Sr. 200/500 Free 2nd/3rd 4th/DNP 4th/7th. . Chris Jensen S.Prep Jr. 1-meter Diving -- 2nd 3rd. . Spike Morgan S.Prep Jr. 100 Fly 4th 4th 7th. . Graham Myhre S.Prep Sr. 200 IM/100 Free 2nd/2nd 1st/DNC 4th/DNC. . Brian Okuda Franklin Sr. 100 breast 2nd DNP 10th. . Maxwell Perry S.Prep Sr. 100 Free 3rd 2nd 8th. . Ross Russo Roosevelt Sr. 100 Back/200 IM 2nd/6th 3rd/DNP 4th/10th. . James Scott-Browne S.Prep So. 500/200 Free 2nd/3rd 4th/5th 4th/9th. . Joel Shapiro S.Prep Jr. 100 Back/100 Fly 1st/1st 1st/1st 3rd/3rd. . Leo Tanaka Lakeside Sr. 100 breast 3rd 3rd 9th. . Brett Tannhauser Blanchet

So. 500/200 Free 1st/1st 2nd/3rd 1st/5th. . . GIRLS Best 1995 1996 1996. Name School Yr. Event Metro District State # . -----------------------------------------------------------------. Emily Armstrong Lakeside Jr. 200 IM 6th 4th 9th. . LeAnne Cadag S.Prep Fr. 50 Free/100 Back DNC 3rd/2nd 3rd/3rd. . Monica Cohn Lakeside Sr. 100 Fly 2nd 5th 13th. . Laura Crowson Lakeside Fr. 100 Free/100 Back DNC 5th/6th 12th/12th. . Leah Goronea H. Names So. 100 Back 4th 4th 9th. . Rachel Haff Blanchet So. 100 Back/50 Free 1st/DNC 1st/1st 4th/8th. . Katy Jayne Blanchet Fr. 100/50 Free DNC 1st/2nd 5th/7th. . Leslie Lorenz S.Prep Jr. 500/200 Free 1st/2nd 2nd/3rd 9th/13th. . Krista Kohler Blanchet Sr. 100 Fly 4th 2nd 12th. . Renee Kendall S.Prep Jr. 200 IM 3rd 3rd 11th. . Stephanie Rollins.

Lakeside So. 100 breast/200 IM 1st/2nd 2nd/2nd 2nd. . Joy Tanaka Lakeside So. 100 breast 2nd 3rd 10th. . Teresa Van Winkle.

Blanchet So. 200 Free 4th 5th 14th. . Janet West Lakeside Sr. 100 breast 3rd 4th 7th. . . Abbreviations: DNC - Did not compete. DNP - Did not place. S.Prep - Seattle Prep. # - The girls Class AA and AAA state and district meets were held during the fall season..