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The indoor 50 metre pool completed in 1995Meadowbrook fitness centrebeen involved in. So he thought about it, and aftergoing back and forth on the matter through ourrespective attorneys for about six to seven months, wecame to an agreement.”“I have the greatest respect for MurrayStephens. Not only has he built swimmersfrom the age grouper up, but he has alsoput it all on the line by building his ownpool and making a go of it.There are many coaches who havepassed through USA Swimming, butMurray has stayed and proven himselfand his program over at least threedecades. He has stood the test of time.He has remained a club coach which isthe backbone of the sport of swimmingin the United States.”Don Gambril,Head Coach, U.S. Olympic Team, 1984.Assistant Coach U.S. Olympic Teams, 1968,1972, 1976, and 1980.Although the deed of sale agreement was notfinalized until August 1987, Stephens had borrowedmoney and started sandblasting the paint from thewalls and floor of the pool. He did a complete overhaulof the pool, starting in December 1986 and continuinginto the spring of 1987.Stephens said that after he had invested $50,000to $60,000, maybe even more, on pool repairs, withborrowed money on credit cards, etc., they agreed tosell the pool to him; otherwise, they would have hadto reimburse him for the work he had done in the pooland the significant repairs he had made. They werealso tired of dealing with it and Stephens’ attorneyactually persuaded them to reduce the sale price from$395,000 to $295,000.Throughout the renovating process, Stephenskept in touch with the former members of therecreational centre, enlisting their support andexplaining that the new facility would be a vastimprovement over the previous one.All this time, while he worked to finalize thelegalities of the titling and other legal documents,Stephens continued to run the pool. Obtaining thebank clearance didn’t occur until the end of July1987. By that time, Stephens had run the pool for 60days (the better part of the summer) and had spentmost of the operational money.“Our main source of income came fromeliminating any salary for ourselves, from my teachingsalary, and from whatever money I was making fromthe NBAC swim team. Every year, we managed toincrease the membership and to bring in more income.We kept pouring the money back into the project topay for repairs and thus build more equity; the nextyear we replaced the 57-year-old filtration system andinstalled a stainless steel gutter, a project that costseveral hundred thousand dollars. The next step wasto take whatever income we derived from the newSTEPHENS’ RECIPE FOR SUCCESS“A successful swimmer builds on experience andsuccess and can maintain sustained periods oftraining and improvement. Carrying over successfrom one season to the next is helpful. A fast startto training in the Fall often will result in a Fall,mid-Winter and Spring triple time drop, or at leasta big double time drop. Take, for example,breaststroke star Anita Nall, who swam 2:35 in thesummer of 1990, 2:30 in early December, and byMarch was down to 2:27.”“Successful swimmers dream big goals andhave a good sense of achieving practice markerswhich affirm their steps towards each goal.”“Successful swimmers have great pride andfeel for the mechanics of their stroke. They aregood at self-analysis or, at least, can quickly pickup on cues from the coach.”“Anita Nall, Beth Botsford, Patrick Kennedy,Casey Barrett, Theresa Andrews, and WhitneyMetzler were all hard workers who knew how toget down to business. All could swim fast inpractice. Almost all were great kickers and very fit.These components plus the ability to stay positiveand success-centred helped them to be winners.“Our NBAC swimmers realize from a youngage that practice time is precious and that wasteof time is just that. Most of our swimmers carrychallenging and disciplined academic loads andmove through their day in a workmanlike manner.Enjoying the process makes this all possible;otherwise the work needs to be supplemented byfrivolity for which they have little time.”enterprise and use it to raise a bank loan of $600,000,which we used to install new locker rooms and dressingareas.”Each year thereafter, Stephen’s cash flowimproved and he repaid the bank as much as he couldafford. The property value increased, and so didequity with the bank. Soon, the property value wasclose to $1 million, at which point Stephens started toseriously consider building an indoor pool.By 1994, when five years had passed and at least$100,000 had been spent on workplace studies, onlawyers and engineers’ fees, Stephens managed toobtain the building permit for the new 50-m indoorpool. The building of the pool took from September1994 to June 1995. To this day, his colleagues referwith awe to his staying power in bringing thisenormous project to completion, particularly atconsiderable financial risk. “The whole enterprisewas a very big undertaking, but, in the end it was allworthwhile,” says Stephens modestly.26SWIMNEWS / JULY-AUGUST 2002
Making Pool Space PayStephens realized that the increased pool spacecouldn’t be used entirely for competitive swimming.He needed to attract lap swimmers and fitnessswimmers to help pay the mortage and operationalcosts. With this in mind, Stephens installed dividerbulkheads in both outdoor and indoor pools. In thisway, in each pool, four short-course lanes were createdon either side of the dividers, leaving two long lanesfor 50 metres lap swimming on each side of thebulkhead. He said that the club swimmers never havethe full use of the 50 metres indoor pool, and winterand summer club swimmers are always sharing lanespace with the fitness and master swimmers.The Logistics of a Privately-Owned PoolFrom what Murray Stephens has said, it seems clearthat, in order to finance a privately owned pool, theoperation would need to be involved in a great deal ofbeginner teaching. In addition to the competitiveswimming program, provision and space has to bemade for lap and master swimmers, the latter peoplebeing the “ones who pay the bills,” as Stephens says.Stephens said that he knew of only two otherteams that are independent operations; one in Atlantaconducted by Chris Davis, and the other in Virginia.The Atlanta organization has three or four 6-laneindoor pools in which the coach conducts swimteams and teaches beginners, and finances the entireoperation from both these activities. In such a case itis possible to gross several hundred thousand dollarsMeadowbrook indoor 50 metre poolSWIMNEWS / JULY-AUGUST 2002Cecil ColwinMurray and Patti Stephens worked together in building the NBAC organization. Stephensfirst met Patti in 1985 when she was chosen as the Potomac Valley’s women’s coach for the USA SwimmingSelect Camp (14-16-year-olds) where Stephens was the Head Coach. They were married in August 1986.and use the swim team program to pay for theoperation. Of course, in warmer climates, heatingand operational costs are much lower.Stephens said that he was almost at this stagenow in the Harford County facility where he leases a6-lane indoor pool built by the owners of a scubashop. Originally they had a small pool for their scubadiving training, and later decided to build a six-lanepool in the back of their building.“They brought us in to operate and managethe pool for them, and we use four lanes and pay asignificant fee to lease that part of the facility, andwe have the lesson program in the teaching pool.They have some other programming income andthey keep two lanes available for fitness swimmers.So we share that pool, and the pool itself brings inroughly something like $1.2million. With a goodmembership of probably 130to 140 swimmers paying toplevelfees and a respectablelesson program, that facilitycan pay for itself.”Discussing the coachingfees paid at his maincomplex in Baltimore,Stephens said that the 8- and9-year-olds pay just over$1000 per year, and the mostadvanced swimmers pay$1800 per year, whereasmost of the swim teams inthe area pay at most twothirdsto half of these fees.“Once you start cutting feesto $600 or $700 or $800 ayear per kid, there’s notenough income to pay forthe facility. So you have tobe able to charge top dollarand be competitive in thearea, as well as provide atop facility.”27
Page 1 and 2: COMMONWEALTH GAMESPAN PACIFIC CHAMP
Page 3 and 4: N. J. Thierry, Editor & PublisherMa
Page 5: ABOUT THIS ISSUEOur biggest issue o
Page 8 and 9: ZIMBABWE’S FIRST GOLDNikki Dryden
Page 10 and 11: MAKING A DAILY DIFFERENCE,CHANGING
Page 12: Multi Disabilty 100 free Canadian m
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Page 19 and 20: 4 1:09.63 White Tarnee,81,AUS5 1:09
Page 21 and 22: 7) 26.99 Jennifer Porenta,17,MMST-T
Page 23 and 24: 4) 53.43 Daniel Petrus,84,UBCD5) 53
Page 25: COLWIN ON COACHINGALL ROADS LEAD TO
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Page 32 and 33: 322002 US SUMMER NATIONALSFort Laud
Page 34 and 35: TOP AGE GROUP TIMESBOYS 11 Years of
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Page 42 and 43: taking the lead on the last length.
Page 44 and 45: 44German star Thomas RupprathSweden
Page 46 and 47: 2002 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPSBerlin (
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Page 51 and 52: Five medals for soon-to-be doctor J
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Page 55: SWIMNEWS / JULY-AUGUST 200255

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