Today: Mar 28, 2024

quill helps swim team’s success

Edward RudmanSports Writer

As a coach of a university athletics program, experience is highly valuable; something swimming Head Coach Tim Quill speaks much of.

Quill has been around the sport of swimming for much of his life, having had his first lessons at the Waterbury Boy’s Club at the age of 9.

While he attended Sacred Heart High School, he swam for the Waterbury YMCA throughout high school and after, he swam at Alfred University, a Division III school.

“I like to believe that I’ve taken bits and pieces from every coach that I’ve had throughout my career. It has helped me develop and it has made me the coach that I am today,” said Quill.

Before becoming head coach of the Owls swimming program, Quill went back to his YMCA roots and coached the Cheshire YMCA swim team, implying those years of experience of trial and error played a role in his ability to coach athletes at the highest possible level.

Assistant Coach C.J. Moran, a Southern alumnus and former four-year member of the swim team, said he has known Quill for many years and has learned much under his tutelage, as he was one of his swimmers during his coaching tenure at the Cheshire YMCA.

“It’s almost a 30-year history now. Our relationship is interesting in that he was my first coach ever because I didn’t start swimming until I was 14,” said Moran. “We kind of came full circle, his first year of being a coach at Southern in 1998 was my senior year and I’ve been fortunate enough to work with him for a total of 11 years once I became a coach.”

The program during Quill’s tenure has become a powerhouse for the Owls. Quill is a 23-time Northeast 10 Conference Coach of the Year winner and the men’s and women’s programs have won 25 NE10 championships combined.

During his time there, Quill has coached a total of 118 NCAA All-American selections, 63 of them men and 55 women, including 16 NE10 swimmers of the year. After 21 years as head coach, the program is still going strong as the Women’s won the NE10 conference championship last season and the men finished as runners-up.

Long distance freestyler Evan Bombery, a senior, is about to embark on his fourth year under Quill and is grateful to have that caliber of a coach helping him become a better swimmer.

“I think when it comes to training, he’s helped me the most with working hard. When you come into practice every day and you see the set that he has made and it looks very hard, but then he gives us that motivation we need. Then you get done with the practice and you did it and to me, it would be different without him,” said Bombery.

In regard to the expectations for the upcoming season and how it will play out due to the environment created by the COVID-19 pandemic, Quill is excited and ready to work hard to continue the program’s success.

“This is a season like no other,” said Quill. “There are a lot of variables in play right now, but we are just going to take one step at a time. I cannot say much about it as of right now, but I will say this, our program is founded on built, not bought. Talent only brings you so far, it’s the hard work that brings you the rest way and we have one of the hardest working teams in the conference.”

Photo credit: www.southernctowls.com

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