A Sit-Down with Coach Colella

DURHAM, NC – Duke head swimming and diving coach Dan Colella sat in front of the camera today to give his thoughts after his team's first meet at Florida State.

"We couldn't ask for a better start," Colella said. "It was a real huge team effort. You know it was something that we talked a lot about that. It wasn't going to be on the shoulders of just a few, everybody needed to really step up. For the first meet the times that we posted, I think, were incredible."

Colella praised the freshmen in his squad on their performances during the Florida State meet. Two freshmen won events, Brendan Driscoll in the 1,000 freestyle and Emma Shuppert in the 100 backstroke, and their times placed them in the top-10 in Duke history for those events.

"You never know how they're going to respond during the first meet," Colella said. "They were absolutely terrific."

In addition to praising his student-athletes, Colella also discussed the culture of the Duke swimming and diving team. He acknowledged their willingness to work and get better day in and day out.

"Team culture is everything," Colella stated. "It's something that you can't take for granted. You've got to cultivate it. I think it's something that we, over the years, have made a kind of practice of selecting our captains in the spring for the following year so that we, the coaching staff, have the opportunity to work with them during the summer and talk about what things we can tweak in the program to make the experience even better.

"If people were there to watch and see the kind of spirit and energy that's on the sidelines throughout the course of the meet, it's just evidence of how important that all is and how much fun swimming fast and training hard can. Our team really loves being a part of Duke swimming and diving."

Up next for the Blue Devils is Georgia, who comes to town for the two programs second all-time meeting and the first since 1981. The meet will be Saturday, Oct. 26, in Taishoff Aquatics Pavilion. Diving will begin at 10 a.m. with the swimming events starting at 11 a.m.

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