The boys and girls swim team this season welcomed new trainer, Justin Murphy.

Head coach Rick Balcam hired Murphy because of the trainer’s track record. Balcam said, “I’ve heard of Justin through the Med Tech program, and a couple of the athletes spoke highly of him. Then I looked around and talked to many different people and heard he does great things, so I asked him if he wanted to work and he said, ‘yes’.”

Trainers enjoy seeing the athletes improve and express their enthusiasm for the sport. Murphy said, “[Balcam] presented the opportunity which I was really intrigued by, and it’s pretty interesting to see the traditions, the training style of the sport, and the demand of the sport that swimmers actually go through, as well as what a teenager goes through nowadays. I had to combine those things to create a program to make students better athletes overall overtime.”

Balcam believes Murphy manages his abilities well. Balcam said, “Murphy is able to communicate what he wants with the athletes, and the athletes are able to follow through. He is able to correct them if he needs to and does a very fine job.” 

By developing a customized program for the swimmers, Murphy evaluated the effectiveness of his work. He said, “I try to keep shoulder rehab and shoulder health in mind since swimmers put so much demand on their shoulders when swimming and because of the demands of the team. For example, overall strength, and developing that base level, squatting, pull-ups, bench press, and rows. Those are general movements to build strength, and get faster.”

Senior swimmer, Elise Holfeltz, appreciates Murphy’s training style. She said, “He connects with us in a great way. He is funny and just a great person to be around.”

In addition, to being a trainer Murphy is also a great motivator and gives advice to all swimmers. Holfeltz said, “One thing he’s helped me with is to push myself to keep trying harder at what I do by adding more weight since he knows my strengths. He just encourages me to keep trying.”

Aside from being an important coach on the team, Murphy is a great educator according to Holfeltz. She said, “My favorite thing about Murphy is that during workouts, we are able to work out hard and have fun doing it. He focuses a lot on stretching, which is a good thing for warming up before workouts.”

Above all, Murphy’s favorite thing about training with the swim team is the culture. He said, “I like seeing kids improve in their performance, but I also enjoy just the day-to-day, like communicating, hanging out, and seeing the team’s enthusiasm for swimming. It is fun and contagious to be around.”

Balcam considers Murphy as part of the team. He said, “Absolutely he is one of the coaches and he’s very good at what he does and everybody on the team respects him.”