SEASON PLANNING
Swimming
High Performance Coaching

Scott Thacker was announced on April 11, 2022. as the new head men's and women's swimming and diving coach by the VMI athletic department. His first year (2022-23) was an outstanding one for the program, and the Keydets concluded the year by breaking 17 records at the America East Championship Meet Feb. 22-25 in Worcester, Mass.

Thacker came off a highly successful five-year stint as head mentor of the Roanoke College swimming programs. He helped re-establish the program in 2017 and took the Maroons all the way to the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) men's team title in 2021. He earned the ODAC and All-State men's Coach of the Year honors in 2021 and also was named the conference's men's coach of the year in 2019. The Roanoke women's team placed second in 2021.

While at Roanoke, Thacker coached the program's first D3 All-American and the first D3 All-American honorable mention. He had 85 All-ODAC Team selections and 44 conference champions, and his swimmers set five ODAC records. The Maroons' dual meet record in his tenure was 66-15 and Roanoke was recognized as a CSCAA Scholar All-America Team.

Thacker served as the Director of Competitive Swimming for the Shenandoah Marlins Aquatic Club in Waynesboro, Va. prior to his hire at Roanoke. From 2013-15 Thacker was the Associate Director of Competitive Swimming for the Lynchburg YMCA Piranha's under long-time coach TJ Liston.

Thacker's coaching career began shortly after his participation in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in July of 2012. A few weeks after assuming the Associate Director of Competitive Swimming position for the Greater Richmond YMCA Tritons, Thacker was promoted to Director of Competitive Swimming.

Prior to coaching, Thacker was a 17 year veteran of competitive swimming.  Thacker was the 2005 VHSL state champion in the 100 breaststroke, a three time YMCA national champion, has held multiple Virginia Swimming state records, and was a four year member of the Florida State University men's swim team.

While at Florida State, Thacker secured top eight finishes in both the 100 and 200 breaststrokes and went on to compete at the NCAA Championships in 2009. Thacker was a member of multiple FSU team relay records, and was the 2010 ACC Champion in the 100 breaststroke. Thacker's swimming career culminated with his participation in the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials where he competed in the 100 breaststroke

2nd seminar of the day

Season Planning for Coaching a Swimming Team

Speaker is Coach SCOTT THACKER of the USA and VMI

Check in 9:20 pm, Starts at 9:30 pm, PH time

Keydets and Kangaroos

No, a Keydet is not a Kangaroo, although the term "Keydets" has been used over the years to refer to VMI's athletic teams and the kangaroo has become the established mascot.

The story behind the kangaroo is relatively simple. Back in 1947, two VMI cheerleaders saw a picture of a kangaroo on the front of the magazine and realized how uncommon the animal was as a mascot. As one of the mascots was finally procured, a contest was held to give the creature an appropriate name. The prize winning name was "TD Bound."

Sometime later the kangaroo's name was changed to "Moe" in order that he might be associated in all sports at VMI and not just football. So far in history there have been four real "Moes", the last of which was actually a wallaby, the smaller relative of the kangaroo. A kangaroo costume worn by a VMI cheerleader then replaced the live mascot in the 70's so there could be a mascot representative at any VMI contest at home or on the road.

The source and/or meaning of the nickname "Keydets" is not as easy to find. The problem lies in the fact that there is no definite meaning that has been found for the word. There have been plenty of explanations offered, but none have been convincingly substantiated. The United States Military Academy claims that it was a word used to denote the gray of the standard uniform of a cadet. One less factual definition is that due to the Southern drawl of some of the members of the VMI Corps, the common term cadet was transformed into "Keydet".

VMI has had many nicknames through the years. Probably the longest standing name used to refer to its team, especially in football, was the "Flying Squadron." The nickname got started back in 1917 at a football game between VMI and North Carolina. The name stuck and became more popular during the 1920 football season. It wasn't until the 30's that the term "Keydet" came into use in conjunction with the athletic teams.

Regarless of which definition is correct, the word "Keydet" like kangaroo, will continue to identify VMI's athletic teams.

Snip from the Q & A at the end.

 They've got their eyes set on big goals to, score in top eight and things like that. But we really filled out in the sprints and we know that sprints win championships. So that's been a big focus for us is developing our sprint corral and having a lot of people that can swim relays. So that way you're not overloading somebody over that four day meet.

But yeah, they're awesome. They're great. I love them. I don't think I'd ever be able to coach normal people again. Like I said earlier, these kids are super locked in. They're super disciplined. And. And they give me a very enjoyable coaching life and experience.

What about foreign athletes or, people from outside the United States? Do are they able to go to VMI? Are you able to recruit some of those?

Yeah, because we have an international audience. Yeah. So we have a lot of international a lot of international interests and we have a lot of different pathways to get international athletes here and from an academic side, from a school side, from a military side, That's all super easy.

Usually the difficult thing is money. We're not a fully funded program. Our guys are at about one and a half scholarships. So that's pretty low when you can have 10, right? So usually it's money. A lot of And we talked to plenty of domestic athletes, too, that, that need a really sizable chunk of athletic aid.

And we just can't really do that. But the way that we so that's one of the difficulties that I guess that, that we've had. And just consistently attracting them. We have a lot of entrants. Almost probably every day. Someone's reaching out and wants to be a part of our program and wants the academic experience from VMI.

But we've been working like really hard on increasing our scholarships and being able to. Offer this experience more broadly.

And then my last question. Tell us about your meet philosophy. You got some powerful teams, around and driving distance, or do you go up against those teams? Is it, how do you try to balance throughout the college season? 

Yeah, so what I love I want to put my athletes around in front of teams where we have a shot and where we can get better, right?

So that might not necessarily mean going to swim Virginia Tech, but it might mean taking a small group to one of their invites. And letting them race with them. And that way, those, that group can come back and say, yeah, I was there. I was with them. I was in the heat. I was with that power for program.

Same thing. We've got the Cavalier invite on our schedule this year. We'll do the same thing. We'll take a small group to UVA to race. And we also have a couple guys that will be going to U. S. Open. I guess with that, I try to dose it in a way that's healthy, right? We have a, we don't have a super broad in terms of ability.

Like team, they're all pretty, pretty similar, but we, if a guy's going to go 47 in season and 100 free, like it doesn't really need to be next to a guy that's 43. It's not useful for them, but I try to really seek out meets that we, there's some meets like we, we won't win. Because that team's a lot better.

They're a lot deeper. They're farther in front of us. But I mix it between meets that we have a shot at, meets I know that we can win, and then meets that are going to make us better. And then look for opportunities to with things like going to Virginia Tech's invite last year or going to the Cavalier invite.

It's, at a baseline giving people an opportunity. To race before conference, but it's also allowing people to get in a position that could maybe help them build confidence in themselves and just not being afraid to race. If you're, we had a guy that was doing fly next to Yusef Ramadan, last year, and he's a defending NCAA champion.

And it's Hey, you race next to him. There's no one else to be afraid of, right? Like you raced against the champ. And that, Developed a lot of confidence in him, just stepping on the block and helping him stay in his lane and stay focused. And so that's how we do it. I'm not afraid to suit up during a meet.

Honestly, I think all teams should suit up for every dual meet. You're going to race in it at the end of the year. Football players don't. Not wear their cleats and pads to a football game. So like we should wear our cleats and pads. We don't always do that, but I love to race. I think racing is training and it's a great way to know where you're at and where your athletes are and to build confidence in