2019 2020 MDJ Boys Swim Coach of the Year
Swimming coach David Reason said the 2019-20 season was one the Kennesaw Mountain boys team had been looking forward to for the last couple of seasons.
A roster of quality upperclassmen swimmers got a boost from some young underclassmen. It helped lead the Mustangs to a second place finish in the Cobb County Championships and a county best fifth place finish in the Class AAAAAAA state championship meet. For his efforts, Reason has been named the 2019-20 Marietta Daily Journal Boys All-County Coach of the Year.
“The boys really fed off the energy of last year,” Reason said. “They were determined based on how well they did last year. They believed they could do better this year and knowing they had people back, they felt like they could do some great things this year.”
For much of the season, Reason said winning meets was not important. The main goal was to prepare the team to compete at county and state. He said they did it by utilizing their depth, and moving swimmers around to see what their best role for the team would be.
The great thing about that was that the kids were willing to do what we wanted them to do,” Reason said. “As long as it was the benefit of the team. That enabled us to spend the first half of the year preparing for county and state and that led us to putting together a decent plan.”
The team was anchored by members of its relay squads — Ben McClain, Brett Reason, Connor Haigh and Zach Lowe. The four won county in the 200-yard freestyle relay and finished second in the state meet. It also finished third in state in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Members of the quartet also had success individually.
Haigh won the Class AAAAAAA 100-yard breaststroke and finished third in the 200-yard individual medley. McClain was third in the 100-yard freestyle and fifth in the 200-yard freestyle.
“Those four were our leaders and they embraced the leadership role,” Reason said. “It was something they started talking about last year. It was a total team effort.
“We had a terrific freshman class. The seniors and juniors came through. If we don’t have Braden Hester diving (and finishing fourth in the state) and all high school (only swimmers), none of it is possible.”
Reprinted from the Marietta Daily Journal (See Original Article)
