Episode #102 or Heavy Or Not, The OG Swim Guide hits Buffalo, NY, and asks for a favor with a link

Join the WAFSU Movement: Simple Code Adds Support Button to Any School Website

Mike Switalski’s Swim Project Tackles Security, Not Safety, in Buffalo Communities.

In episode #102 we hear from Buffalo high‑school teacher and nonprofit founder and swim coach, Mike Switalski, then dive into a new AI‑powered swimming grant and a quick call‑to‑action for coaches.

• Mike’s testimony on Buffalo’s security challenges vs. traditional safety approaches.

• Impact numbers from the City Swim Project (500 kids served, $350K budget, national swimmer stats).

• Introduction of the Moonshot AI grant partnership with Remake Learning & the Grable Foundation at Arsenal Middle School.

• “Cannon” analogy: AI as modern power for community‑focused swimming programs.

• How to add the WAFSU logo code to your website to support coaches – no cost, just a click‑through to https://wasu.org.

Heavy or Not — Episode 102

We’re going to hear from Mike in Buffalo, who gives public testimony. Then I’m going to tell you about the Moonshot grant that we’re going to operate here in Pittsburgh with the help of Remake Learning and the Grable Foundation. And then lastly, I’m asking for a favor with some recycled electrons.

Mike Switalski — Public Testimony

Mike Switalski:
My name is Mike Switalski. I am a member of the University District, a resident of Buffalo. I am also a high school teacher in Buffalo, and I run a nonprofit called the City Swim Project.

I have watched over my time of 30 years here in Buffalo since I moved here from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and I constantly feel like we want to treat symptoms, not the illness.

I don’t believe we have a safety problem in the city of Buffalo. I think we have a security problem in the city of Buffalo.

I think we have a problem giving Buffalo residents job security. I think we have a problem giving city of Buffalo residents security in the mindset that they can own their own home.

I think we have a mindset in providing security to our youth that my young men in my school, if they are a person of color, can walk into a convenience store with their hood up and not be suspected of being a criminal.

I think we need to ask ourselves more questions — not about safety and the investment in the police department. I think we need to ask ourselves a question of how can we build a community without community centers?

How do we — being in the swimming world — I serve on the USA Swimming National Committee for Club Development. I hear Mayor Ryan talk about our lifeguard situation. How do we create a healthy community if we are not opening up facilities for people to get healthy in?

How do we expose kids to water safety and learning how to swim if our pools are not open to them?

How can they become secure in the mindset that they can be strong swimmers enough to save somebody else’s life if they never get the opportunity to be in the water and learn to love the water?

Over my 10-plus years since I started my nonprofit, I started with 15 kids and $500 of my own money in 2012. I now have a $350,000 budget, and I have served up to 500 kids a year, of which 80% of those kids here in the city of Buffalo swim in my program for free.

Because I have found a way.

My program by itself, from 2020 to 2022, had 4.5% of all the Black swimmers registered with USA Swimming nationally.
2.5% of all the low-income swimmers registered with USA Swimming nationally were in my program.

We can make this work.

We just need the opportunity to treat the illness, not the symptoms.

Thank you.

Moonshot Grant Announcement

Mark Rauterkus:
Hey, this is Mark Rauterkus, and I have some announcements to make.

I’m here with this big honkin’ piece of military might. It’s a cannon. The cannon from back in the Civil War days, but it is here as a sign of influence, a sign of power, and a sign of might.

And these days, it isn’t like cannonballs are gonna fly out of here. But what it is — is AI.

AI is power.

And right beyond this is Arsenal Middle School. And we’ve got a grant from Remake Learning using AI and leveraging the kids and fun and swimming at Arsenal Middle School to create a Coaching Wizard.

I hope you follow along on our journey.

Remake Learning Days has just begun, and announcing the grant with some other powerful people like Carnegie Mellon University, entertainment and education, an intermediate unit is in this, as well as Junior Achievement.

Hey, we’re going to network and have a lot of power and fun — boom — with AI here at Arsenal.

Let’s make it happen, and hopefully you’re along for the ride as well.

A Request for Support

Mark Rauterkus:
OK, this is a special request.

If you have a website — especially if it’s a website that allows for code, primarily if you have a team website or a school website — and you want to support WAFSU, the World Aquatic Federation of Schools and Universities, I’m asking for a favor.

We want to get more people involved. And we want to get more people aware.

So there’s a little code, and I’ve made it larger here so you can see it. If you drop this code snip into your web page, it will deliver the WAFSU logo.

Now I’ve magnified my screen a bunch, so it won’t look this big. When you’re really talking about putting it on, it’s going to be a nice little button.

And when people click on the WAFSU logo — “Hey, what’s this thing about?” — they’re going to be taken to the homepage of WAFSU.org, where there are always a lot of awesome informational seminars.

So you get this code by going to a website called Web.SwimISCA.org.

And I’ll also put this code now onto the WAFSU site.

So this is a way to show support to WAFSU, pay nothing, and just allow for some recycled electrons to help promote the cause and mission of supporting coaches.

Thanks for the consideration.

If you need some help, I’m always available with an email.

Today’s Fortune Statement

“You need to keep track of what you are doing and not doing. So keep a journal.”

This comes from the book Mental Skills for Young Athletes, written by John Hogg, a sports psychologist from British Columbia.

The idea here is simple but not easy.

Reflect on it, then write about how it applies to where you are right now.

The book and the online course are available at SwimISCA.com.

Future episodes of Heavy Or Not are going to feature Hall of Fame coaches.