Ray Looze - Media Day Press Conference Transcript
7/11/2016 4:40:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving
Ray Looze
Indiana Head Swimming Coach
Team USA Assistant Women's Swimming Coach
Opening statement…
Looze: "Well I'll be honest, I never thought I'd be at a press conference at Henke Hall. I really want to thank my wife and my two children Bryce and Mackenzie for being here. Without my wife Candace, I don't get to do this at all. It is just a thrill for all of us to be going to the Olympics. I don't think anyone's feet have hit the ground necessarily but we definitely know it's coming. We're 25 days out and this has just been wonderful to be a part of. To have 11 swimming and diving athletes and two coaches – it's been a long time coming for this program, it's been since 1976 since we've had such a comprehensive group and a good group that has a chance to do special things in Rio and I couldn't be more thrilled to be a part of it. I want to thank our administration, Scott Burns, Eric Neuburger our sport administrator, Fred Glass and really the entire team. The culture is what really makes something like this go, but without the student-athletes, we're not doing any of this."
On what it means to program to have this group going to the Olympics…
Looze: "As the (Golden State) Warriors say "Strength in Numbers." To have this many people going, it gives you a chance to do something. They're fairly well ranked in the world so we're going in with a chance to do good stuff beyond just having 11 people – they have a chance to do special stuff and that's kind of the main thing now. We're trying to stay really focused on doing better once we get to Rio and that'll be going up against the best in the world, it'll be a challenge but I think we're up for it."
On the key to doing well at the Olympics…
Looze: "The key right now is for these guy to not get too spread thin. One of the important things with the media was to do one day so that we could keep the rest schedule for training as normal as possible. When we had the United States Olympic team meetings, (Michael) Phelps coach Bob Bowman said you need to keep it simple, you need to say no to family, friends, people who come out of the woodwork. I have friends on Facebook that I didn't know I had and I'm just a coach, I'm not putting on a Speedo. I can only imagine for them it must be pretty crazy. So just trying to keep it simple, in essence it's just another meet. It's a big meet but it's still another meet and you have to keep things as normal as possible."
On Lilly King's chances in Rio…
Looze: "I think her chances are good. Lilly is a performer but one of her better traits is she is a competitor. I think a lot of our athletes learned how important confidence is and Lilly is a very confident person. She expects to do well. Having that kind of natural born optimism where going in she thinks she's going to be successful, that's the most important thing at the highest level, getting to a point mentally where you believe in yourself. Now anything can happen once you get into a race but her best attribute is that confidence."
On if he expected King to be this good this quickly…
Looze: "I predicted it all. No, you never know. She had some really good attributes but for a variety of reasons she wasn't fully developed until she got a chance to do the kind of stuff we do. Lilly was a good opportunity for us to start at a higher level, just like Cody Miller was, and Kennedy Goss. We're really good developers of talent. In many of the cases of the kids sitting in back here it was to do it at a high level. Blake (Pieroni) came in as one of the better swimmers, coming out as well, and two years later he is joining the Olympic team. I knew there was a chance to do really good stuff, the timing was right being in an Olympic year."
On what it means to spread the swimmers thin, what aspect?
Looze: "Physically, mentally, emotionally. Coming off U.S. Trials, that's a tough meet and you just have to get back into the swing of normal things. It's important to just not let people get spread thin as far as their energy level because you only have so much. For example, when Lilly went out to eat right after trials, we learned right off the bat that she needed some help to get to dinner because she had to go out in public. If you win a medal at the Olympics, life's going to change. It's already changed for them being Olympians but in a big way if you win Olympic medals it really changes you. That's the pinnacle of our sport, so just trying to anticipate some of those things and do a good job of managing it. Everybody that's here can go to Rio and have a great chance at success and that's my job."
On the concern of the Zika virus in Brazil…
Looze: "You definitely want them to be healthy. I was just in Brazil two months ago with Vini Lanza, one of our male swimmers, and I felt perfectly safe. I was there in their summer, there were no mosquitos during the day. It's in the tropics so the sun goes down in about 10 minutes and when the sun goes down, mosquitos come out. But if you wear bug spray, you don't get stung. I was on a bus with hundreds of mosquitos and thought to myself "If it's going to happen, it's going to happen right now." I didn't get stung. If we all wear bug spray which we've all been given a duffle bag worth of, you should be just fine. You cannot be stung if you just plan a little bit ahead, it's like wearing sunscreen to prevent sunburns. I'm not as concerned because I think we have a good plan but the U.S. team – we have two training camps, we were going to leave tomorrow for San Antonio and then we were going to go to Puerto Rico but we switched it to Atlanta. So the second training camp is going to be here because of the Zika concern. I was just talking to a recruit that I have Puerto Rico and he said "I know of no person who lives in Puerto Rico that has Zika. They were disappointed we canceled that but we've taken every precaution you could imagine, at least on the U.S. front."
On how big of an impact this has on recruiting…
Looze: "It's already had a good impact. I met with some kids at the trials when the swimming was done and they were talking to me when they hadn't returned an email. They were like "You guys swam pretty well, and I want to talk to you guys." I think it could have a real positive effect because people want to swim with successful people and this was one of the things we had not done and it's had significance. Now the next thing is to go down to Rio and do a good job for Egypt, Canada, the U.S., Slovenia, wherever we're representing - Australia in James' case. I talked to (Head Diving Coach) Drew Johansen and I said any advice? And he said "Do better in Rio." Pretty simple advice but I'll take it."
Indiana Head Swimming Coach
Team USA Assistant Women's Swimming Coach
Opening statement…
Looze: "Well I'll be honest, I never thought I'd be at a press conference at Henke Hall. I really want to thank my wife and my two children Bryce and Mackenzie for being here. Without my wife Candace, I don't get to do this at all. It is just a thrill for all of us to be going to the Olympics. I don't think anyone's feet have hit the ground necessarily but we definitely know it's coming. We're 25 days out and this has just been wonderful to be a part of. To have 11 swimming and diving athletes and two coaches – it's been a long time coming for this program, it's been since 1976 since we've had such a comprehensive group and a good group that has a chance to do special things in Rio and I couldn't be more thrilled to be a part of it. I want to thank our administration, Scott Burns, Eric Neuburger our sport administrator, Fred Glass and really the entire team. The culture is what really makes something like this go, but without the student-athletes, we're not doing any of this."
On what it means to program to have this group going to the Olympics…
Looze: "As the (Golden State) Warriors say "Strength in Numbers." To have this many people going, it gives you a chance to do something. They're fairly well ranked in the world so we're going in with a chance to do good stuff beyond just having 11 people – they have a chance to do special stuff and that's kind of the main thing now. We're trying to stay really focused on doing better once we get to Rio and that'll be going up against the best in the world, it'll be a challenge but I think we're up for it."
On the key to doing well at the Olympics…
Looze: "The key right now is for these guy to not get too spread thin. One of the important things with the media was to do one day so that we could keep the rest schedule for training as normal as possible. When we had the United States Olympic team meetings, (Michael) Phelps coach Bob Bowman said you need to keep it simple, you need to say no to family, friends, people who come out of the woodwork. I have friends on Facebook that I didn't know I had and I'm just a coach, I'm not putting on a Speedo. I can only imagine for them it must be pretty crazy. So just trying to keep it simple, in essence it's just another meet. It's a big meet but it's still another meet and you have to keep things as normal as possible."
On Lilly King's chances in Rio…
Looze: "I think her chances are good. Lilly is a performer but one of her better traits is she is a competitor. I think a lot of our athletes learned how important confidence is and Lilly is a very confident person. She expects to do well. Having that kind of natural born optimism where going in she thinks she's going to be successful, that's the most important thing at the highest level, getting to a point mentally where you believe in yourself. Now anything can happen once you get into a race but her best attribute is that confidence."
On if he expected King to be this good this quickly…
Looze: "I predicted it all. No, you never know. She had some really good attributes but for a variety of reasons she wasn't fully developed until she got a chance to do the kind of stuff we do. Lilly was a good opportunity for us to start at a higher level, just like Cody Miller was, and Kennedy Goss. We're really good developers of talent. In many of the cases of the kids sitting in back here it was to do it at a high level. Blake (Pieroni) came in as one of the better swimmers, coming out as well, and two years later he is joining the Olympic team. I knew there was a chance to do really good stuff, the timing was right being in an Olympic year."
On what it means to spread the swimmers thin, what aspect?
Looze: "Physically, mentally, emotionally. Coming off U.S. Trials, that's a tough meet and you just have to get back into the swing of normal things. It's important to just not let people get spread thin as far as their energy level because you only have so much. For example, when Lilly went out to eat right after trials, we learned right off the bat that she needed some help to get to dinner because she had to go out in public. If you win a medal at the Olympics, life's going to change. It's already changed for them being Olympians but in a big way if you win Olympic medals it really changes you. That's the pinnacle of our sport, so just trying to anticipate some of those things and do a good job of managing it. Everybody that's here can go to Rio and have a great chance at success and that's my job."
On the concern of the Zika virus in Brazil…
Looze: "You definitely want them to be healthy. I was just in Brazil two months ago with Vini Lanza, one of our male swimmers, and I felt perfectly safe. I was there in their summer, there were no mosquitos during the day. It's in the tropics so the sun goes down in about 10 minutes and when the sun goes down, mosquitos come out. But if you wear bug spray, you don't get stung. I was on a bus with hundreds of mosquitos and thought to myself "If it's going to happen, it's going to happen right now." I didn't get stung. If we all wear bug spray which we've all been given a duffle bag worth of, you should be just fine. You cannot be stung if you just plan a little bit ahead, it's like wearing sunscreen to prevent sunburns. I'm not as concerned because I think we have a good plan but the U.S. team – we have two training camps, we were going to leave tomorrow for San Antonio and then we were going to go to Puerto Rico but we switched it to Atlanta. So the second training camp is going to be here because of the Zika concern. I was just talking to a recruit that I have Puerto Rico and he said "I know of no person who lives in Puerto Rico that has Zika. They were disappointed we canceled that but we've taken every precaution you could imagine, at least on the U.S. front."
On how big of an impact this has on recruiting…
Looze: "It's already had a good impact. I met with some kids at the trials when the swimming was done and they were talking to me when they hadn't returned an email. They were like "You guys swam pretty well, and I want to talk to you guys." I think it could have a real positive effect because people want to swim with successful people and this was one of the things we had not done and it's had significance. Now the next thing is to go down to Rio and do a good job for Egypt, Canada, the U.S., Slovenia, wherever we're representing - Australia in James' case. I talked to (Head Diving Coach) Drew Johansen and I said any advice? And he said "Do better in Rio." Pretty simple advice but I'll take it."
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