Meet Coach Andreu Swasey
March 31, 2004
By Tracy Gale
Coral Gables, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) – Spring is in the air…spring football that is! With practice underway at the Greentree Practice Fields, here’s a look at one of the components leading to UM’s extraordinary success each fall: the strength and conditioning program, led by Coach Andreu Swasey.
As all football fans know, preparing for a 12- or 13-game season is a year-round task. To get an idea just how integral the overall conditioning program is to having a great season, Coach Swasey explains it this way:
“The strength and conditioning aspect of a football team is the engine of the program. Without an engine you can’t drive, right? And you’ve got to keep the engine fine tuned, keep the cylinder heads cleaned and everything. Fresh spark plugs means you’ll run smooth for a long time and have great explosion. And that’s what we want to do on the field: we want to run smooth–maybe run over you-and we want to do it with great explosion!”
If you are a Hurricane much is expected of you: in the classroom, on the field, in meetings and in conditioning sessions at the Hecht Athletic Center. Swasey and his staff of four assistant strength coaches determine just what type of strength and conditioning work each player must complete. So important is the ongoing physical development of each player that the coaches ask for his input during the recruiting process.
“UM’s athletic program has an expectation level, a demand for excellence,” Swasey says. “I am involved in position meetings during the recruiting process, and I can help assess potential. But once the players report in August is when we get to work.”
‘Getting to work’ means setting up comprehensive physical records and workout regimens for the 100+ members of the Hurricanes football squad. When a player first arrives at UM Swasey and his assistants begin an extensive photographic and text history.
“I take photos of each player, overhead squats, wingspan shots, etc. Then I meet with the player. We discuss growth potential, teaching methods and how we want to develop them. A player’s first semester as a Hurricane…well, it’s really ‘Swasey 101’,” laughs the Coach. “I teach them how and when to train and I teach them that we’ll never have a problem if your expectations for yourself are high because mine are definitely high.”
After the initial incoming evaluation, players learn that their progress will be measured annually, based on spring-to-spring measurements. Players are tested on power clean, verticals, shuttle squats and a variety of speed and explosion running drills. There is a board which hangs outside the Hurricanes locker room at the Hecht Center. It lists the top eight finishers in each strength and conditioning category. Players know that if they finish in the top-eight their names are up on that board for a full year, so the competition to ‘get on the board’ is fierce.
“When we are conducting the spring-to-spring evals,” says Swasey, “players are all crowding around, wanting to know how much weight somebody lifted and if their own numbers are going to hold up.”
In addition to the big annual evaluations, players are required to weigh in daily during each training cycle. Logs are kept of each player’s strength and conditioning routine, along with body fat test results, which are conducted every six weeks. Coach Swasey says that the cycle players just completed, which began after the FedEx Orange Bowl and ended just prior to the Spring Practice conditioning cycle, is about building body mass.
“This eight-week phase is the cycle coming off of a long football season. We are trying to put on as much body mass and build their size back up. After a four and a half month football season it’s time to get big again!”
Players have good and bad days on the field, and in the weight room too. While the hours a scholarship athlete has to commit to their sport can sometimes make it feel like a ‘job’, they are still required to take a full load of college courses, and deal with many of the stresses other undergraduates deal with. Coach Swasey works just as hard on the mental aspect of conditioning as the physical preparation. While he takes the Hurricanes on a physical development journey from their first August camp to when they graduate, it is the emotional maturity and life lessons players gain from Swasey that leave the strongest impression.
“There are family problems, relationship problems, financial troubles-everybody has them,” Swasey points out. “I tell the players, ‘perfection is hard to strive for. Each day is a new day, and you need to try to really capture that day. Focus on just that one day, mentally commit yourself to the day. We have a season of days-so seize each one! That’s true for football, and for the rest of our lives, too.”
UM players have the reputation of being bold and brash. While this attitude still surfaces in some players, it definitely does not play out in the weight room. Swasey has many things to say to a player if he sees that type of behavior.
“Players want me to be proud of them. If they get in to the newspaper for the wrong reason I talk to them. They need to hear how what they do and say is interpreted by others-by people whose opinion matters to them. I talk a lot on presentation, separating what is fashionable from what is important in how you carry yourself. “
It sounds like Coach Swasey is also Preacher Swasey and maybe Dad Swasey sometimes…three big titles to be carrying when you are just 32-years old. But the triple-role he can be to UM athletes is a big part of why he loves being a member of the Hurricanes staff.
“I try to be humble and work very hard to instill that same humility in our players. One theme I focus on is teaching unity. If someone is trying too hard to focus attention on himself I tell him that the “U” on the helmet stands for US-not YOU. It’s all about US, we’re a family. A lot of players coming to UM were the best on their team, maybe the best player in their county. They are used to being the ‘big fish’. And some of these kids, because of personal situations where they grew up, certain behaviors were reinforced. I get them in here and explain to them that what they do, on and off the football field, affects them. It affects the perception people have of them. I preach loyalty. Loyalty to both of their families: their biological ones and their UM family.”
Swasey’s approach harks back to a different era, one where coaches on a football staff were also perhaps teachers in the college of education as well. Swasey’s ‘power of positive thinking’ phrases are having a huge effect on the ‘Canes physical development, and leaving a lasting impression on their psyches.
This is probably most evident to fans who’ve attended the annual football banquet, where each senior gets a chance to stand up and address the audience. All of the players give special “props” to Coach Swasey. Some are overcome with emotion when they start talking about the influence he has had on their lives. After one particularly moving speech by all-world safety Ed Reed in 2001 brought many in the audience to tears, Head Football Coach Larry Coker got up and jokingly said the players had to stop talking about Coach Swasey so the audience would stop crying.
“I remind the players that great people want to be disciplined, and they should strive to become disciplined in all phases of their life. It is really satisfying to me when I hear a junior or a senior saying ‘be disciplined’ to a younger player. I love seeing the personal growth of the players, their maturity into men. It’s the best part of my job.”
Another hallmark of the Hurricanes football program is how many former players hang out on campus during the off-season. It isn’t uncommon to find a half dozen or more pro football players working out at UM on any given day. They often bring pro teammates with them; many of whom comment on how their schools don’t have that ‘family forever’ atmosphere. Coach Swasey has his own take on why so many Hurricanes stay in close contact with the program after they graduate.
“When you leave home and go off to college, what’s the first thing you do when you get a break? You go back home and see everybody, see what’s stayed the same and what has changed. It’s the same thing here. For four or five years UM is your home. Then a lot of guys go to the pros. But the feeling they have for their time at UM never leaves them. And when they come back they all ask for workouts! There’s a reason you want to hang out with your family: they love you and welcome you back no matter what. It’s the same with us here.”
It isn’t all about the first-round draft picks at UM. Whether you are a walk-on or a blue chip recruit, you get the same commitment from the strength and conditioning staff. Asked who personifies the goals of the program Swasey doesn’t mention one of Miami’s stars, although he certainly could. The player that the coach points out is reserve offensive lineman Brad Kunz.
“Kunz solidifies what we as a program stand for. Our mission is to help a student-athlete develop his potential to the fullest, mentally and physically. Brad Kunz is exactly the type of person you want on your team and in your weight room. He is completely trustworthy; he hustles on and off the field for field goals. That is his job on our team and he takes his responsibilities seriously. He also does great work in the classroom. And as far as adhering to the strength and conditioning program we laid out for him, Brad is over the 500 lb. plateau on squats. After five years in our program he is breaking the huddles-Brad is like another coach out there. I am so proud of him.”
Swasey went to Baylor University, where he played cornerback. After graduating in 1995 with a degree in Sociology Swasey spent two seasons as a high school assistant coach in Texas before moving on to the college ranks. Swasey then spent two seasons as an assistant strength coach at Miami before taking the defensive backs coaching job at the University of Houston. In 2000 UM lured him back as co-head strength and conditioning coach, before a promotion to head strength and conditioning coach in 2001. A Miami native, he and wife Monica are raising two daughters, Ashlinn and Jaela, in their Kendall home. The Swasey family also includes a teenage son, Andrew.
“When I was offered the opportunity to be a part of the UM coaching staff I did the research,” Swasey says. “I wanted to learn the history of the athletic department. I talked with [former head strength coach] Brad Rolle and [equipment manager] Bobby Revilla, people who go back many years with the department. I wanted to know what had worked before and what we could build on. I learned that Miami had a reputation for speed-UM killed people with speed but could be porous up the middle. So I thought I could build on that, increase the strength and first-step explosion up the middle. If I could help do that then I could build on the great tradition we have here.”
With his positive demeanor and quiet strength, it is clear that Coach Swasey is a contented man.
“Every day I am here, I want people to think ‘Swasey loves his job’ when they see me. I hope the players all sense that. My only concern is for their care. When one of them thanks me or compliments me I say, ‘you influence me as much as I influence you.’ I feel overly blessed to be here.”
