Nomination from Ray Looze
Mike and I have coached together for ten years both at Indiana and Pacific. He has a strong passion for swimming and some would even call him a "swim freak". Mike has had an important impact on our program in his role as Assistant Head Coach for both Men's and Women's swimming. He is a wonderful on deck coach who gets the most out of his swimmers through supierior realationship building.
As my right hand man he keeps everthing on track with regard to team chemistry, academics andenabling me to recruit at a high level for the betterment of our program. His main administrative duties are recruiting coordinator and men's academic contact. – Ray Looze
Nomination from Ryan Downey
When Ray asked me if I would write a letter to you regarding Mike’s nomination to be the assistant coach of the year I was a little apprehensive because I wasn’t sure if I could do Mike justice in this short letter.
I was a distance swimmer for the past four years at Indiana University. I am not a well-known swimmer, and was not given an exorbitant amount of talent in the sport of swimming. As a high school swimmer I was not really recruited but when Mike was scouting a National Swim event in Orlando and saw me swim, he told Ray that he saw something in me and because of his endorsement I got a chance to swim at Indiana University. Under Mike’s coaching I dropped nearly 20 seconds in the 400 IM, 10 seconds in the 500 freestyle, and 47 seconds in the mile.
These types of time drops in the Indiana University distance group, due to Mike, have become commonplace. Two other great examples of guys on the team that have dropped a lot of time under Mike’s coaching are Jimmy Barbiere and Ryan Hinshaw. Both swimmers came into college as middle of the road recruits and both ended up scoring points at NCAA’s. I think that what Mike has done so well is make ok high school swimmers into great college swimmers, and great high school swimmers into the best swimmers in the Big Ten Conference. The reason why Mike has been able to help swimmers grow is because of the values that he imparts to his swimmers. Hard work, heart, determination, toughness, and being emotionally invested are just some of the values that Mike has demonstrated and given to us through his example.
It is easy to tell that Mike lives by these values when watching him coach a swim practice. He uses everything he has in order to make the men and women on his team both better swimmers and people. Indiana University’s success this year has everything to do with Mike’s coaching. Although Mike is a great swim coach the most important reason why he deserves to win this award is because of the content of his character. He is one of the few people that will leave a lasting impression on my life in more ways then just swimming. His emotional investment in this program and in me has taught me that if you work hard and treat people with respect you can achieve success.
Mike has the great talent of leading through example with compassion and integrity. Making Mike proud of my effort was truly the only reward I needed because if I did that, I knew it meant something. I hope that this letter with my testimony has shown you that Mike Westfall unequivocally is the assistant swimming coach of the year. He truly deserves this award and will deserve it for the rest of his coaching career.
