After a great week spent visiting ACAC in Ames, IA, I made the short drive to Iowa City, to visit my good friend Don Spellman who’s the head coach for the Iowa City Eels (ICE). On top of watching practices, I got to see a lot of Iowa City and attend a Hawkeyes football game!
ICE currently runs a smaller operation than most other teams I’ve seen before, and it was very interesting to see how Don has set up the club to be successful while not engaging in the numbers game. The smaller size also allowed for some practices with plenty of space for everyone – swimmers either splitting lanes or even having a lane for themselves during portions of the workout!
With smaller numbers, some practices are staggered and at times Don is either running or helping run 2 completely separate groups at the same time. It was not the first time in this trip I saw a set-up that I would honestly be resistant to, working fairly well. There were many things I saw during workouts that impressed me, but the one that stood out the most is how much his HS-aged athletes really embrace the concepts of descending and building – those are terms that nearly every program uses, but Don’s athletes were 100% committed to those gear changes.
On top of being a Head Coach, Don has been actively engaged with the governance side of the sport for many years. He’s got both a deep passion for improving the sport, and a deep frustration about some of the shortcomings that we’ve had on that front. Those were very clear when I got the chance to sit down and interview him for the upcoming podcast. It will be interesting to see what kind of feedback we get from that episode once I manage to release it.
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