The air feels cooler at Ted Webster Pool these days.

One reason is the oversized fan Syracuse head coach Lou Walker reeled in to combat the facility’s brutally muggy heat. But the team’s boiling frustration with the program’s pending extinction has also dipped a few degrees.

As the Syracuse swimming and diving teams travel to Seton Hall Saturday, they’ll do so with a renewed reality. As long as they’re around, so is their swimming team. On Jan. 15, Syracuse Director of Athletics Daryl Gross announced that members of the Orange swimming and diving teams may continue competing for the remainder of their eligibility.

The new three-year ‘phase-out’ program wasn’t just a surprise. It was a shock.

‘It was awesome to see everyone’s face when he told us the news,’ junior Peter Gollands said. ‘A lot of kids had the mindset that they weren’t going to be swimming next year. So it’s almost like they have to get reused to the idea of swimming next year.’

Freshman Kaitlin O’Hara is one of the 33 underclassmen that hit the reset button on their Syracuse careers last week. The team’s leader in the 50-yard freestyle (23.97) and 100 free (52.87) was planning on transferring to either Villanova or another school, but will stay at Syracuse as a result of last week’s decision. The announcement instantly triggered a surreal vibe throughout the team.

‘I really didn’t know how to react,’ O’Hara said. ‘I was told since June that I’m going to either not swim or pick another school and when you’re finally told ‘Oh wait, they are keeping swimming here,’ you’re like, ‘Say that again one more time.”

Eight months ago, Gross announced that the men and women swimming teams would be cut after the 2007-08 season. Since then the ‘Save Syracuse Swimming’ movement attracted attention from nearly everyone on the national swimming scene. Driven by alumni, family and friends, the coalition’s interactive website is highlighted by a petition to reinstate the team. The sport’s heaviest hitters have chimed in, including six-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps and two-time champ Natalie Coughlin. As of press date, the appeal had 4,380 signatures – many with an accompanying letter.

The movement’s cyber force was matched with a boisterous domestic effort. The SU Student Association teamed with Orange swimmers for a rally before the Syracuse-Rhode Island men’s basketball game Dec. 8 outside of the Carrier Dome. More than 500 T-shirts were dispersed to the student body, along with informational flyers. The constant pressure from various sources was a key factor in the decision, Gollands said.

‘We knew that the current administration hated the fact that we were not giving up on this,’ he said. ‘We were told to just let it go and accept the fact. There was pressure on administration from all sides.’

The Orange actually caught wind of the three-year extension on the final day of its only meet during winter break. The teams spent eight days in Puerto Rico, winning the Fourth Annual Copa Coqui, which featured a mixture of NCAA and international teams. The vacation/business trip consisted of two-a-day workouts sandwiching visits to the beach, the meet itself on Jan. 5 and one phone call that changed their futures. An SU Athletics administration member informed Walker of Gross’ decision and Walker told his team.

The ‘phase-out’ instantly changed the team’s future, but not its approach to Saturday and the rest of the 2007-08 season.

‘It’s important not to lose our focus,’ sophomore Katelyn Schumacher said. ‘It was great news but we can’t lose our mind frame.’

Walker has stayed relatively quiet throughout his apparent final season coaching at SU. And after his fading program’s pulse received an unexpected jolt, Walker’s message to the team hasn’t changed. He has not spread an ‘us against the world’ mentality.

‘It’s been a very positive atmosphere all season here,’ Walker said. ‘The circumstance that they found themselves in, for young people, sort of strips away all of the nonsense. This is something that’s been a part of their life since they were in single digits age-wise. An appreciation grew.’

Still, the 31-year coach is the spokesman for a program that has floated in disarray since last May. When news of the extension became public, the team’s national wave of supporters flooded his inbox.

Sitting on a poolside table, Walker turned his head toward the water, and his voice softened into a near-whisper.

‘Unbelievable, unbelievable’ he repeated. ‘If you are for a swimming team being here or against swimming being here you have to be impressed by the constituents that care about this team.’

Published on January 24, 2008 at 12:00 pm