Future's So Bright: Swim Melbourne Masters Magical Growth: Coaches Trinity & BJ Graham, EP 232

Welcome to the award-winning Champions Mojo hosted by two world record-holding athletes. Be inspired as you listen to conversations with champions and now your hosts, kelly Palace and Maria Parker.

Hello friends, welcome to the Champions Mojo podcast. I am your host, kelly Palace, and, as usual, I am with my co-host, maria Parker. Hey Maria, hey Kelly, it's great to be with you here today. Yes, and Maria, this is a special edition of Champions Mojo from the pool deck and we have a great interview for you today. It's brief, it's short, but it's powerful.

Yeah, and we. I wasn't there, but I was able to listen to the interview and some great takeaways yeah, we hope you'll stick around and catch the takeaways.

And here we go. It's the final on deck interview at the 15th annual Rowdy Gaines Master Swimming Classic, and I am with Trinity and BJ Griem. They started the Swim Melbourne Masters how many years ago, guys 2019. Yeah, 2019. So they are now the dominant team at the Rowdy Gaines second year in a row. The first year, last year, you won by 2,000 points and this year you won the team title by almost double 2,400 points or something. So tell us, how did this great team get launched? Like, where was it? Was it out on beers? Was it coffee? What happened? How did somebody say we got to do it?

It was an open water swim. What beach were we?

at Paradise Beach, paradise Beach.

We were training floor swim around Key West and we ran into friends of ours, including Mike Murda, who was a coach for Swim Melbourne age group team and he had recently secured pool space at Sherwood and was interested in starting an adult swim club. And BJ had in mind he wanted to at some point start a Master's seat and he the year before had actually gotten certified UFMF level one. Just thinking in the future, that would be something great. So had a great swim afterwards, just catching up. It'd been a while since we saw Mike and he's like, hey, I'm thinking about starting Master's team. And BJ said, hey, I was thinking about starting a Master's team. And Mike's like I don't really want to coach but I've got pool space. Bj's like I want to coach but I don't have anywhere to swim. And literally weeks later was our first session starting, I think May 2019.

Yeah, Two weeks later, yeah.

So I count myself lucky to be part of this team and I know first year was like 19 people right Roughly.

I believe it was the number of the first year.

And give me second year, third year and fourth year numbers.

Second year I think we'd broed 50. I think we were like 51, 52. And then the third year is when that really exploded. We hit 130 registered with USMS. And then this year we're at. I haven't checked in the last couple of days, but we were at 151 last week.

Wow, those numbers obviously helped us. When the rowdy gains me, what do you think some of the Mahi magic is?

It's everybody. It's not any one thing. It is just all the people that are passionate about swimming and love swimming and want to see a team in our area and swim well and go after me when he's in records.

And I think your passion and your I always call you a swim nerd Love it, your love of the sport, I think, set the tone. And then we had amazing people show up and everybody's there for different reasons and we want everyone to be there, for whatever reasons, driving them right. And we want to work hard but we also want to have fun and I think there's a big element of that that resonates with people. You could come to a practice and we could just slaughter you and you may never want to come back, but we want you to keep coming back. And it's more than just a workout session. Right, it's really a club, it is a community, it is a group of people that we've seen really amazing bonds form and it's really significant the impact, I think, just the community people have had in each other's lives. I don't think you can extract those two components.

Yeah, and I think to BJ is so humble. I have to point out that he was first selected as a one to carry O'Brien coaching award, which is a US Master's very high level award, and the Florida LMSC coach of the year. From the perspective of being somebody that comes into practice and sees you guys is, I feel like our team is so welcoming, whether they're a fitness swimmer and they're scared to swim a 50, or they're former Olympic trials to Olympians like we have on our team. So when you think of your five years, did you think at five years?

Oh no, never. No, really, I didn't know what to expect coming into it. I just wanted to have a group of people that enjoyed swimming and will do some swim meets and have fun but, like you were saying, the welcoming nature of the group. We have a lot of people being in Florida. Snowbirds will come down and visit people just traveling for work and they'll come in and do a drop in workout with us and I often get people emailing me back saying, wow, that was not what I was expecting. I was wanting to just get in my lane, do my workout and then get out and leave, but you guys were hanging out before and after and were a lot of fun. That's part of that Mahi magic you're talking about.

Yeah, I think that's it. I think that, having traveled around and been to a lot of different master's practices, that you just allow us to have fun. Nobody's saying, hey, get in the water or hey, stop talking while I'm giving a set, but you still give that set. So I would just love to get in a little bit quickly into both of your background, because if I just love the way that you guys met, you don't have to tell the whole story. Met, but your relationship is a true swimming love story. So you guys swam in high school.

So we drew up age group swimming. My mom was actually your coach for a brief period of time, but he started really swimming club around age 15 or so.

That's when I got serious about swimming.

yes, and he was really shy and so really shy, so we just coexisted just kind of hey, whatever. And then it wasn't until senior year I ended up his prom date.

Okay, you kind of tell the story, because I know it, how you had the nerve to ask Trinity out. The team needs to hear this.

Of course, being very shy, no competence, high school or Trinity. I knew it was way out of my league and she had agreed to go to prom with one of my friends For a different school For a different school For a different school.

We went to different schools.

And that was the motivation I needed. I was like maybe there's a chance I should ask her and the rest is how long have you guys?

been together, married 22. Together 27.

Yeah, we've got a heat sheets actually from when I was an eight and under and Trinity was a six and under.

At the Cocoa Beach Pool.

Cocoa Beach Pool. This one made.

Oh my gosh, I love those stories. I love those stories. All right, so just in the format of what we love to ask is both of you guys are very accomplished swimmers. You're fast, you have beautiful strokes, you're a little bit of a swim nerd trend.

He is a swim nerd, I go habitated I pay attention.

Yeah, yeah, Listen. I like to know that spiritual side of swimming for each of you. So trend here at Rowdy Gaines. She just swam the best that you've swum in years. I want to hear from each of you what it means when you're in the water.

So I took about a 20 year hiatus. I didn't swim in college, high school. That was it for me and I never thought I'd swim again, wasn't interested. That's a whole other really good story later. So coming back to swimming after being 20 years into adulthood lots of crazy twists and turns to life. When I got back in the pool it was amazing to do something your body just knew how to do. It was like I love that.

And BJ, you're amazing. I mean in the water. It's like when I watch you it's no wonder you're a swim nerd. So what does it mean to you when you're in the water and you're feeling that feeling?

Real, similar to what Trinity said. It's just something I've always enjoyed my whole life being in the water, whether it's in the pool swimming laps, we're just playing around in a backyard pool surfing, open water swimming. I just enjoy being in the water and moving in it.

I would like to expand upon that just from my observation with him and this came from maybe a year ago. There was a time practice ended early and both you and Mike were in just a lane next to each other and there was not a set going on or anything and the two of them were just delighted. You could see the joy on their face. They were like hey, check out the strila. And they were just no Tap Hat, it was in the top of the list. They were just existing and doing what they loved together. It was just. It was a really cool moment. That's always been what I've seen with him with swimming and water. Existence is joy, yeah.

Okay, so now I gotta ask the question because we love being Mahis, but Mahi was strategically picked because why that was branding that Mike did yeah so for that he loved it. He loved it. It's faster than any fish, or something like that.

No, there's there's our in-laws up in Jacksonville, the WAH, who's periodically remind us that their fish is faster than ours, oh, okay, oh latching it.

Yeah, you're right. All right. Well, their fish didn't come to the rowdy games.

I think ours is the prettiest.

Oh, it's definitely beautiful Multiple colors. If you don't know what a Mahi fish looks like, you gotta check it out. All right, and if you guys were gonna give some advice because I know US Master of something will get on me if I don't ask you this To somebody thinking about starting a club, you guys, literally I have a lot of friends at US Master of something and they're always like what are you guys doing? What is BJ Trend? What are they doing? What advice would you give to somebody thinking we gotta start up a master's program because it has been an exponential growth? What would you recommend for them?

I say it takes a village. It's not just the two of us, but at the beginning it was the two of us and Mike, and then everybody that joined has some say or we listen, we hear the feedback, we see what's happening, we try to grow and adjust and adapt. So I would say for someone starting out, us MS has some amazing support structure in place. We didn't necessarily know about that in time, but we were lucky to have people around us and knew enough and were passionate enough about swimming to stumble our way through.

Yeah, I'd definitely echo that we were very fortunate to have some people that had a lot of experience with master swimming.

Join our club, perxena Kelly.

Mark, yeah, and I think that's another thing that I would say from an outside observer is that you guys allowed people to do stuff. You delegate it. Can you do these? Can you do the records? Can you do this? So I think that people think they gotta take it all all on by themselves, but, like you said, it takes a village.

So Absolutely does.

Congratulations to us, mahis, on winning Rowdy Game 2 year in a row. Will 2024 be on our?

On our. Hey, absolutely, we're already preparing relays, I think.

All right guys. Thanks for being on the show.

Thank you, kelly, thank you.

Stay tuned for the takeaways.

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And now the takeaways.

Swim Melbourne Masters Mahi's. We had just won the meet by over 2,000 points.

That's so amazing.

Congratulations. Thank you, yeah, it was such a great team effort and just really a lot of fun. We had 58 relays and it's only an hour away from our home area, so we just had a wide range of people out and it was just so fun. And it's always fun to win, but that's the second year in a row that we won the title, so to talk to Trent and BJ, who started the program, was great. And, maria, what was your first takeaway?

Well, I've met BJ. I don't think I've met Trinity, but my major takeaway is like you can lead this amazing program that grew from 19 to 52 to 130 to 150 in just a few years and you don't have to be extrovert, you don't have to be this huge salesperson. Bj is very quiet, but I've been to a practice and he just does a great job. So I guess that takeaway for me is maybe you think you got to have certain things to start a program or even to become a swimmer. You don't necessarily have to have those things, maybe just the desires, all that you really need. That would be my takeaway. What do you think?

Yes, bj is the head coach and Trent does assistant coaching and obviously is one of the co-founders of the team with BJ and I think their personality styles are different, maybe in addition to one is definitely not an extrovert, trent is definitely more of an extrovert, so maybe having an assistant that balances you is a good thing too. But I agree with that. I don't think there's any one personality type that necessarily makes a successful coach. I think they're extroverts, I think they're introverts, I think they're highly technical coaches, I think they're more cheerleader coaches. They're all kinds. But that was a great one that sometimes you just think, oh, if you're going to be a coach, you got to be up there bellowing on deck and that is just not BJ.

Or if you're going to be in anything, I think you should have to put away any preconceived notions about what qualities you have to have to be something. I think BJ is proven. You can in Trinity, that you can do whatever.

Yes, and my takeaway for this section is that they're so welcoming we talked about the Mahi magic, and it definitely starts with Trent and BJ that they're so friendly and welcoming to everyone that's on deck and that they're likable. We all like them so much that we want to see them succeed. So, then, we're welcoming to people. So we see them be welcoming, we're welcoming, it just spreads. It's like if you get welcomed in your first week, then the next week, when somebody else new comes, you welcome them. So it's almost like we pass the baton. So everybody welcomes everyone and it's not just one person. But it definitely starts with the leadership there, which is they make everybody feel welcome, whether you're you know. We've got ex-Olympians on the team, two brand new swimmers, and they all get the same, equal welcome, and I think that's a key to the Mahi magic.

Yeah, yeah, I agree, my practice there was like that I was welcomed and invited, of course, by you, but then, once I was there, I felt totally welcomed by everybody that I was with so great job.

Yay, so finally got them on the show, so thanks.

Maria, another great one. Love you, love you, bye-bye.

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