By Emily Frey
For the 23-24 season, the Susquehanna swim team hired new head coach Rachel Drosdick-Sigafoos, who has hopes to bring some relief to the team after having an empty position. Drosdick-Sigafoos is not new to SU, with several years of assistant coaching under her belt. However, for the past 7 years, Drosdick-Sigafoos took a break from coaching and has been working heavily in the mental health field. She is hopeful to bring some of her knowledge into the realm of athletics and be open with her athletes about what they’re feeling.
“I know that some of the athletes in particular have said, ‘I feel I have room to actually be honest about how I’m feeling because there’s no judgment, there’s no stigma around it,’” said Drosdick-Sigafoos. She also shared her thoughts on the lack of mental health awareness in athletes.
She has observed swimmers coming into her program who only base their wellness on whether they succeed how they wanted to. “For some of our swimmers, it’s foreign; the idea that your wellness predicates your success, not your success predicates your wellness. In other words, you need to be able to walk around to be healthy in your daily life and from that, we can build success,” shared Drosdick-Sigafoos. “I think that reinforces a fear based principle and a fear based model of training that is counterproductive, and I think that one of the reasons that that’s foreign for swimmers is because they’re coming from programs where this mentality would have been described as weakness, or softness… there are some less polite words that people would apply to it, but again, that’s working on a fear based model,” said Drosdick-Sigafoos. She hopes to discourage this mentality and reiterate to her athletes that resting is 100% ok.
But where does a head coach get inspiration to be this type of coach?
Drosdick-Sigafoos’ inspiration has come from the past coaches that she has worked with. Including former SU head swim coach, Jerry Foley.
“He took me under his wing. That was something that he, as a coach, didn’t have to do…But all these coaches that I’ve worked with along the way have helped grow me up to who I am now,” said Drosdick-Sigafoos
Reading has also been an inspiration in the type of coach that Drosdick-Sigafoos wants to be. From reading about Tony Dungy to John Wooden, she hopes to use the knowledge of great past coaches, plus her own experience, to form an idea of what she wants to see in the team in the upcoming season.
Drosdick-Sigafoos was a D3 athlete herself, and has always coached D3, and she shared how closely knit teams in this division tend to be.
“I’m watching people who are conference champions, and people who have seen some of the highest level of Division Three swimming, and potentially could compete at nationals, get behind some of our folks who would maybe be described a little bit more as newbies, and I love that atmosphere. And I think that speaks to the atmosphere, culture and stewardship. It’s just a lovely thing to see, and I hope that if people do stop by meets that they can identify that this is a team that is first and foremost for each other,” said Drosdick-Sigafoos when asked if there were any themes she thought applied to the team. She encourages people to come to the meets and see what the Susquehanna swim team is all about. The first home swim meet will be Saturday, Oct. 28, at 1 p.m. versus Elizabethtown College.
