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There is coincidence, and then there is no coincidence at all.
Last week Matt Faley got a taste of both.
The business manager at Pocahantas Swim Club, Faley had three inquiries about the club in three days last week, which was unusual for this late in the season, but this time didn’t surprise him. The trickle-down effect from Michael Phelps’ gold rush in Beijing, after all, has been swift, rich and hardly coincidental at swim clubs all over the country; nothing draws people to the pool like a guy who just won eight gold medals, setting seven world records along the way.
What was coincidental was where one of Faley’s inquiries came from.
“One of them was someone who’d just moved to the area,” Faley said last week. “Ironically, she actually came from Baltimore. And they were members of the swim club where Michael Phelps belonged.”
That would be the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, where full morning practices were being held as Phelps made history half a world away. Generally, this is a down time at North Baltimore and most swim clubs, but not this year. This year Phelps Mania rules.
“They’re suddenly starting to think ‘I can be like Mike,’ ” NBAC coach John Cadigan said in an Associated Press story last week.
Gina Snyder, who coaches at Pine Valley and Northwest Aquatic Club Swimming, can attest to that.
This summer she noticed any number of kids showing up at the pool wearing Phelps’ caps, and since the Olympics began, she’s been getting plenty of phone calls in advance of registration.
“I think it’s been great for swimming to have all this exposure, because it’s a sport that isn’t highlighted as much,” she says.
Her husband, Mike, who coaches swimming at both Northwest Aquatic and Carroll High School, agrees.
“Traditionally in Olympic years we look to see about a 10 percent increase in membership initially, but I think it’ll be greater than 10 percent this year,” says Mike Snyder, whose club hosted Olympian Jason Lezak for a clinic two years ago.
“We’re getting all sorts of phone calls to join competitive swim clubs and even just to sign up for lessons. I think there’s definitely more interest this year, because the coverage was unprecedented.”
It couldn’t happen at a better time, either. Faley notes that the surge in interest triggered by Phelps and the goings-on in the Water Cube in Beijing have been a godsend to swim clubs that are struggling, like nearly everyone else, to keep their heads above water in a choppy economy.
“I do think the interest has been heightened, and we plan on capitalizing on that,” Faley says. “I think the swim clubs have been in decline for a while now, as the dollar shrinks and people just don’t have the money for memberships. So we are trying to grab hold of any marketing angles we can take.
“I think that’s more (prevalent) this year than some Olympic years just because there’s been that decline.”
bensmith@jg.net
