Anderson University, IN

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Anderson University Swimming

Inaugural Season: 2016-2017

Head Coach: Conner Snare

Tell us about your swimming and coaching background:

As a swimmer I swam for four years at Carroll High School in Fort Wayne, IN under John Gibson. I went on to swim at Ball State for four years under Bob Thomas, earned varsity letters all four years, and was Team Captain my senior year. I have been coaching summer leagues during the summers, as well as Northwest Aquatics Club in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Now I am blessed with the opportunity to start the brand new swimming program at Anderson University.

In your interview, what is the University’s vision for the program?

We see this program as a chance to provide swimmers another opportunity to pursue their dreams of competing at the collegiate level, while pursuing a fantastic education in any of our 60 degree programs. We see it as a way to increase the diversity of our athletic portfolio, as well as increase the esteem of our athletics programs at Anderson University.

What is your vision for the program?

My goal for the program is to become a place for students to continue to pursue their passion of swimming in a Christian setting, where the focus is not just on performance, but on the quality of the person. We want to be a team that is less like a group of people occupying the same space, and more like a family that acts as each other’s biggest cheerleaders. Through our recruiting efforts, I’d like to see the program grow in the coming years and become one of the more noted DIII programs in the Midwest.

What are some of your strongest held coaching beliefs?

Personally, I am a huge stickler for technique; if we are not getting through the water as efficiently as possible and with the correct mechanics, we are wasting energy and risking injury. That being said, quality yardage over quantity will always be our focus. If I can keep the swimmers mentally engaged with what I’m asking them to do, they will put forth the effort that I ask them to.

Do you have scholarships? And if so, how many?

Anderson University is a DIII school, so we do not offer any athletic scholarships to our athletes. However, we do have financial aid packages available to every student who applies with differing levels of aid package that are determined by test scores and high school GPA.

What conference are you in, and who are the other teams in it?

Our University at large belongs to the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference with teams like Franklin, Rose-Hulman, Manchester, and Transylvania. However, due to NCAA regulations, we do not have a Conference championship for the HCAC. At the moment we are in the process of petitioning a few conferences in the hopes of becoming part of their championship meet.

Let’s look out three years from now. Describe the program you have built.

I see a program that is bigger and better than when it began. Of course, Anderson University will still be in its baby stages, but seeing steady improvement in time from each member of the team and growing in roster size. We hope to be a tight knit unit of individuals united in a common goal: to be the best versions of ourselves that we can be. And with that, we hope to be increasing our competitiveness consistently.

Who are you searching for? Describe your ideal recruits.

When I think of my ideal recruit, I see an individual who is confident in their accomplishments in high school, but feels they have more work to do, and bigger goals to achieve. I want a student who is willing to wake up every day, give it 100%, and then be ready to do the same the next day. More than anything though, I want swimmers who know what it means to be part of a team and the sacrifices that are sometimes required for the good of the team.

How can LemonAid add value to your job, and help you build your program?

I think that LemonAid would be invaluable in helping to match the athletes to coaches and schools that may not have had the opportunity to meet on other sites. By giving a voice to the people that coach the athletes, it provides an extra insight that a college coach is looking for outside of a time and a test score. In a program whose concern is the people we bring on board, the extra insight provided by LemonAid will be critical to the recruiting process.

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