As some of the swimmers begin to set foot into the steamy pool area at McMillian Middle School, they begin to converse with each other on the sides of the pool. The returning athletes are familiar with the dense setting and the other people, but there were still a few among the group that were obviously new and still uncomfortable. After all, it was only the second open swim the team has had this year. But not all of these fresh faces are swimmers. Three of them are the team’s new coaches.

Ever since Colleen Durantee, Christopher West, and Maria Perez-Mozaz stepped down from their positions as coaches of the North High swim team last year, athletic director Jim Savio has been searching for replacement coaches. Most importantly he needed a head coach for the team.

“In the case of swimming, we had no applicants on the list,” Savio said. “I had my back against the wall, I lucked out. We were fortunate enough that I knew one person who I knew was very qualified. Sean Froemming.”

Froemming originally began swimming for Omaha Central High School only four years ago. During his senior year, Froemming and his teammates placed 5^th in the 400 and 200 yard freestyle relay at state. This was the first time that Central had an individual medal at state in over 50 years.

“I turned down a few scholarships including one from University of South Dakota because I just wanted to coach here,” Froemming said, “I’ve had some friends talk about how they are going to be engineers, but all I wanted to do was to coach.”

For the swimmers, tryouts are only a few days away and Froemming and assistant coach Lukas Meyer are trying to make them feel as comfortable with swimming as he can.

“With some of the new faces here, I don’t want any of these kids coming in on Monday and feeling all the pressure that sometimes comes with tryouts. I just hope to make it feel natural.” Froemming said.

Last season, eight of the boys on the team ended up placing 14^th in the 200 yard medley relay and 15^th in the 200 yard freestyle relay at state. Seven of those boys were seniors and are no longer on the team. Froemming hopes to go back to state again with some of the athletes but mainly wants to get all of the swimmers to put all their effort into the races.

“Well the head coach was a sprinter at Central and I’m also a sprinter, so I feel like we can relate,” said Cristian Thompson, the one remaining swimmer from state last year.g

“I find the best part of coaching is when you get a kid that doesn’t know their own strength. To get them to swim a meet where they push as hard as they can and get to a point where they are struggling to get out of the pool would be great,” Froemming said.

At the end of the day, Froemming wants what many other coaches want out of their athletes. He wants them to have fun with their sport.

“I can tell that he is very committed by his resume and the people that I’ve talked to about him,” Savio said.