Swimming : New Phoenix Facility Has Coach Excited

Dennis Pursley is excited about the Phoenician Resort Swim Team. Understandably so. It’s an exciting notion.

Pursley has been chosen to be head coach at a new swim complex in Phoenix that seems to have all the elements to become the realization of a coach’s dream--an ideal facility, a full staff, a commitment to long-term development, a philosophy that seeks world-class perfection and, most important, the financial backing of a man who shares the dream.

The project was founded by Charles Keating Jr., chairman of the board of American Continental Corporation. Keating was a national collegiate swimming champion and was the founder of the Cincinnati Pepsi Marlins. His son, Charles Keating III, (who swam for Indiana University and was an Olympian in 1976) is on the board of directors. So is Gary Hall, also an Indiana swimmer and a three-time Olympian. Hall married Keating’s daughter, Mary.

The Keating family is based in Phoenix and interested in giving the area a strong developmental program.

“Everyone who hears about this has asked us if this will be like Mission Viejo and Mission Bay,” Pursley said. “Not really. The big difference is the long-term approach. That is not to say that we won’t welcome world-class swimmers who want to come here. We may wind up with a group of world-class swimmers early in the program development.

“We do have the resources to take a Mission Bay approach and attract an overnight team of world-class swimmers and be competing for national championships in six months to a year. But that’s not our plan. Realistically, we’re looking at a three- to four-year building period.

“We’re looking at taking swimmers from the entry level and taking them all the way up through. That’s the idea behind it.”

Bids for the building of the facility have just gone out. Pursley expects the pools to be under construction within the month, and he’s hoping to have swimmers in the water by the first of next year. The complex will feature training courses of 50-meters, 25-meters, 25 yards and 50 feet.

The total program also will include financial assistance programs for world-class athletes as well as a fully equipped weight room and a computerized human performance laboratory.

“It is a coach’s dream,” Pursley said. “Every coach wants to work without restrictions. I can honestly say I’m more excited about this than I have been about anything else in all my years of coaching.”

The Pepsi Marlins, the team founded by Keating in Cincinnati, won the national title in 1980. That team, which included Mary T. Meagher, was coached by Pursley.

Jens-Peter Berndt, who defected to the United States from East Germany in 1985 and who swam for the University of Alabama, will be swimming for West Germany in the ’88 Olympics. He had hoped to swim for the United States and he had the help of U.S. Rep. Ben Erdreich (D-Ala.) in trying to get Congress to expedite his request for citizenship. But when he realized that he would have to wait five years, he turned to West Germany.

Berndt qualified for the Olympics by winning the 400-meter individual medley in 4 minutes 21.40 seconds at the West German swimming championships Wednesday, setting a West German record. The previous mark was 4:24.16, set two years ago by Ralf Diegel.

Berndt still must wait until Monday before he knows for sure whether he is going to Seoul. When the West Germans present their roster to the International Olympic Committee Monday, the East Germans will have a chance to protest. The IOC could uphold the East German objection or overrule it and allow Berndt to compete.

Also in the West German national meet, Michael Gross, 24, won the 100-meter butterfly in 53.91 seconds, indicating that he will be ready to give world record-holder Pablo Morales another great race in the Olympic Games.

Guyana, a country on the northeast coast of South America, doesn’t have a public swimming pool. The last one closed in 1980. But Guyana will have a swim team in the ’88 Olympics--a team made up of Dan and Mark Beatty, swimmers at the University of North Carolina who were born in the capital city of Georgetown while their parents were working as Lutheran missionaries.

According to Dan, 22: “If you are born in Guyana, you are considered a citizen for life. So I wrote to the Guyana Olympic team and asked if I could represent the country in the swimming competition. After reviewing my times, they told me it would be all right.” Mark, 19, was also accepted.