When head swim coach Mark Schmitt sat down to talk to the Chronicle for this article, he specifically asked that the article focus not only on himself, but on the team and his assistant coaches as well. He didn’t want all the credit for the team’s improvements.
That should tell you all you need to know about the newest men’s and women’s head coach for swimming and diving at North Central.
It’s a new year, a new team, and hopefully a new path for the swimming and diving teams. Schmitt, an ’06 graduate of NCC and a national champion in the 200-yard backstroke, applied for the job six months after he had moved to Colorado, and once he found out he had the position, moved right back to Illinois.
“It’s a dream come true for me,” said Schmitt. “This has always been my dream job, so I’m living the dream.”
Schmitt started his college career as a walk-on swimmer for the University of Iowa, but didn’t feel like the school was the right fit for him. He came back home to Naperville, where he started taking classes at the College of DuPage before a former assistant coach asked him to take a tour of campus. The rest is history- Schmitt won the national championship, was a five-time All-American and excelled in the smaller school setting.
North Central felt like home for him, and now that he’s back as a coach, he wants his swimmers to feel the same way.
“I’m trying to make it enjoyable for the current swimmers,” said Schmitt. “I’m looking to build a family of dedicated athletes that all have the same things in common and the same goals to support each other, and be there for whenever times get tough.”
Times have certainly been tough for the NCC swim team for the last few years. The team has been small, swimming in a pool that was built in 1931, and hasn’t been competitive for the last few years. When Schmitt swam for NCC, he says, the team was totally different- more dedicated, more successful and more tight-knit. That’s why he came back, he says. He wants to restore the program to where it was before.
“It’s very enjoyable to be able to guide the program in a certain direction, the direction that I wanted it to go when I was a swimmer here way back in 2006,” said Schmitt.
Schmitt said he came to North Central looking for “redemption” when he was a student. After leaving the University of Iowa, he knew he could do more, and he did. That mindset hasn’t changed now that he’s the head coach 10 years later, and the team has already seen incredible improvements. The achievement that Schmitt is most proud of is how his group of swimmers have come together and become a true team.
“When we go to meets now, we are the loudest team,” said Schmitt, smiling. “Even though we are the smallest, we are the loudest in terms of cheering for each other and supporting each other, which is more important, because that means that people are having fun and they want to be a part of the program.”
It’s that family culture and atmosphere where swimmers want to go to practice and give their all for themselves and their teammates that Schmitt wants to be his legacy. Even though he’s only halfway through his first season as head coach, all signs indicate that his team is already there. His motivation and the team’s dedication were a match made in heaven for the NCC swim team.
He knows the team has a long road ahead of it to get back to its former glory, but that’s ok– Schmitt says he plans to be here a long time.
