Frank Busch’s named popped up on my cell phone Tuesday at 1:12 p.m.
“I’m standing a few feet from Caitlin Leverenz at the medal ceremony,” said USA Swimming’s national team director. “She has a bronze medal hanging around her neck. Do you realize how far she had to come to get here?”
This is how far: In September of 2002, 11-year-old Caitlin Leverenz entered her first swimming event of national significance, the La Jolla Rough Water Swim off the coast of San Diego. She swam 250 yards, finishing third in the girls’ 11 category.
Busch handed his phone to Leverenz’s college coach, Cal’s Teri McKeever, who is the head coach of the U.S. women’s Olympic swimming team. It was McKeever who flew into Tucson in the summer of 2008 and successfully recruited Leverenz. At the time, McKeever said Leverenz was possibly the top recruit in the nation.
Now, four years later, it’s clear Teri McKeever knows her business.
Read this entire column in Wednesday's Arizona Daily Star.
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