B Y - K E N T - H A N N O N

Jack Bauerle has had quite a year: NCAA title No. 2, Olympic glory for himself and his swimmers, plus another NCAA Woman of the Year award to celebrate. Question is, can he top himself? Stay tuned.

ack Bauerle is trying to remember the last time he had a day off. But he's coming up empty.

"Can't count the day after I got back from Sydney," he says, "because I was jet-lagged and basically worthless. Barely had enough energy to play with the kids."

If you believe there actually are times when Georgia's irrepressible swimming coach runs low on energy—when he doesn't automatically roll out of bed at 4:30 a.m. without waiting for his alarm to go off—it's worth noting that it takes an Olympics to slow the former UGA swim captain down.

Particularly this Olympics, which turned into a medal fest for American swimmers. Bauerle (AB '75), whose UGA women's team has won back-to-back NCAA swimming titles, was an assistant coach of the U.S. Olympic team in Sydney. Ten of his UGA swimmers, both male and female, competed in the 2000 Games—six for the U.S. and four for other countries—and several won Olympic medals.

"What happened in Sydney was so incredible . . . and so draining," says Bauerle, "that the day after the swimming competition ended, I went down to Bondi Beach and spent the whole day surfing."

Hear that? The guy's so exhausted he has to go one-on-one with monster waves all day. Need another example of Bauerle's high-octane energy level? How about playing 36 consecutive hours of tennis for charity? Or spending nine hours on planes getting to Kristy Kowal's house in Wyomissing, Pa., then staying up half the night talking academics with her parents while Kristy fell asleep at the table? Same thing happened when Bauerle was recruiting another of his future UGA Olympians, Courtney Shealy (see cover), only Courtney had enough sense to go to bed.

"I remember that night," says Shealy. "I left him talking to my parents before he even got to the swimming part."

Recruiting is what prevented Bauerle from staying in Sydney for the Closing Ceremonies of the Olympics. On this particular Sunday, he is in the midst of a morning-long, three-shift brunch at the Athens Holiday Inn, and it's a little nerve-racking because the 12 athletes he's entertaining are some of the most-sought-after members of this year's recruiting class.

But, hey, no worries, mate, because Gary Hall was right. The Americans did smash the Aussies like guitars. And who better for these recruits to hear the tale of Olympic glory from than someone who was not only on-scene but on-duty?

"We knew swimming was going to be a focal point of NBC's Olympic coverage," says Bauerle. "You could tell because we were given the same kind of protection and surveillance as the Dream Team—police escorts everywhere."

As college sports programs go, Bauerle's is a model

And with good reason. After allowing Australia a gold medal moment on the opening night of the swimming competition, which prompted some air-guitar playing from the Aussies on the medal stand, the U.S. made good on Hall's pre-meet boast. When the final tallies were in, the Americans had nearly tripled the hosts' overall gold medal count in swimming—14 to 5. Those 14 American golds were equally divided between the men and the women, whereas the Australian women captured only one gold. And therein lies an interesting piece of trivia from the 2000 Olympics:

Q: What nation beat the Australian women in swimming gold medals?

A: The Bulldog Nation.

"Incredible, isn't it?" says Bauerle. "We go to a country where the atmosphere for swimming is so electric that Ian Thorpe will probably make $10 million this year and Susie O'Neill $7 million. The Olympic swimming venue has 18,000 people screaming so loud every night that you can't hear yourself think. And four UGA women come home with gold medals in the relays, and Kristy Kowal wins an individual silver!"

Incredible? You bet. Totally unexpected? Not really, given the year Bauerle and his Swim Dogs have had.

n March, the top-rated UGA women warmed up for Sydney by winning their second straight NCAA championship. Leading the way was Kowal, a two-time world champion who won the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke—both in American-record time—plus the 200 individual medley. With seven individual NCAA titles to her credit, Kowal is now the most decorated collegiate athlete in UGA history, surpassing a trio of four-time NCAA titlists: Gwen Torrence and Debbie Ferguson (track and field) and Hope Spivey-Sheeley (gymnastics).

"It was my last race at Georgia," says Kowal of her 200 IM victory, in which she bettered her own American record, "and I really wanted to enjoy it."

There was more than enough fun to go around at the NCAAs, as Kowal and Shealy teamed with Keegan Walkley and Maritza Correia to win the 4 x 100 medley relay—and in world record time (3:57.46).

"World records in relays are set by countries, not by colleges," says Bauerle. "But don't tell that to these girls."

Shealy and Kowal were also part of the American wrecking crew that flattened the Aussies and the rest of the swimming world in Sydney. Shealy, a senior from Irmo, S.C., won a pair of golds, and was part of another world record when she teamed with Olympic veterans Jenny Thompson, Dara Torres, and Amy Van Dyken to win the 4 x 100 freestyle relay in 3:36.61. Kowal broke the American record in winning a silver in the 200-meter breaststroke. And two of their Georgia teammates, Kim Black and Julia Stowers, each won a gold by swimming in preliminary relay heats.

On Oct. 15, Bauerle and Kowal flew to Indianapolis for the NCAA Woman of the Year banquet, which honors the female athlete who best exemplifies the ideals of scholarship, leadership, and community service. Also in attendance were the parents of the late Lisa Coole, who was an All-American at Georgia and NCAA Woman of the Year in 1997. No school in the country had ever produced two winners of this coveted award. But when Kowal's name was announced, the Georgia swimming program had its second. "It was so special because Lisa's parents were there and I was able to share it with them," says Kowal. "She was my captain and my leader when I was a freshman, and she really helped me get through that year."

Coole was killed in an auto accident while attending vet school at the University of Illinois. As a senior, she was one of four Georgia swimmers to be named an NCAA Post-Graduate Scholar, which includes a $5,000 scholarship. No other school produced four post-graduate scholars that year, but UGA swimming did. See a trend developing?

Says Kowal: "Jack tells us the same thing every day when practice ends—'go out and get some A's!'"

"We start with incredible student-athletes, and we remind them how important academics is to their future," says Bauerle. "We've had 16 NCAA Post-Graduate Scholars in the last 14 years, including Kristy Kowal and Jennifer Mihalik this year. We also have two kids—Kim Black and Brandon Rocque—who are Rhodes Scholar candidates."

These kids compete with a vengence

ack Bauerle was a Bulldog diehard even as a kid growing up in suburban Philadelphia. His next-door neighbor was Cincinnati Reds pitching great Bucky Walters, who taught him how to throw a curveball and kindled his interest in all sports—including SEC football.

"I loved Bill Stanfill and Jake Scott and all of Erk Russell's Junkyard Dogs from the 1960s," says Bauerle, a prep All-American who was hell-bent to swim for Ohio State until he got a recruiting letter from Georgia. "I visited Athens in April—just after the Masters," he recalls, "and it took me, oh, maybe two hours to make up my mind to come here."

Once here, he never left. He captained the swim team as a junior and senior (1972-74) and once held the school record in the 200 butterfly and the 1,650-yard free. "Print those times today," he says, "and I'd lose all credibility with my team!"

After getting his degree in English, Bauerle stayed on as an assistant coach for both the men's and women's teams before being promoted to head coach of the women in 1979.

"I always thought he was destined to win an SEC championship and maybe the NCAAs some day," says athletic director Vince Dooley. Truth to tell, so did Bauerle, though it didn't look that way back in '79.

"We were horrendous—badder than bad," he recalls. "When we beat Brenau, the team threw me in the pool."

The fact that it took 20 years to beat the rest of the country can be explained in two words: Stegeman Hall. Not Stegeman Coliseum, the newly named basketball arena, but Stegeman Hall, the dark and dank World War II-era facility that had water in the pool but little else going for it.

"In its day, Stegeman was fine. It was a fast pool—and hey, they held the '56 Olympic Trials there," says Bauerle. "But I remember saying to lots of recruits as we drove to the airport, 'Aw, gee, we forgot to leave enough time to show you the pool.'"

Can you image Dooley recruiting Herschel Walker and not showing him Sanford Stadium? And yet, Bauerle produced All-Americans in waves, including four in just his second year as women's head coach. In 1983, after posting a 27-7-1 record, he was also entrusted with the men's program. In '88, the men made it into the weekly top 20 polls for the first time in their 63-year history, and the Swim Dogs have been a force on both sides of the aisle ever since.

"Jack's the model," says senior associate athletic director Claude Felton. "If you were designing an intercollegiate sports program, this is the way you'd draw it up."

And when Gabrielsen Natatorium opened in 1995, giving Bauerle a state-of-the-art facility he could actually show off instead of hide, it was almost like he had an unfair advantage when it came to recruiting.

"Gabrielsen was open and Stegeman was about to be demolished when I was being recruited," says Kowal, who wasn't swayed as much by facilities as by personality. "Jack had been my coach at the Pan-Pacific meet in '95, and he has this way of reaching out to you on a personal level. When I got home, I told my parents, 'I'm gonna swim for this guy.'"

Kowal's parents said, "Don't be silly. Take your recruiting visits."

"So I did—five of them," says Kowal, "and then I came to Georgia. Keep in mind that I didn't walk in as a national champion on a national championship team. Jack built us into national champions."

How many college athletes call their coach by his first name? The fact that Georgia swimmers do is a reflection of both their close relationship with Bauerle and his unique combination of wisdom and boyish enthusiasm.

"Jack has this uncanny ability to make other people feel better just by being around him," says his long-time assistant coach Harvey Humphries, "and his energy is contagious."

Bauerle is also a good listener—a skill that's in short supply these days—and he seems genuinely interested in what other people have to say. It's an engaging quality, say his swimmers, and, as a result, the only form of address that makes any sense when they're talking to him—or when anyone is talking to him—is Jack.

"I guess salesmanship is one of my best attributes," says Bauerle, who comes by it naturally. His dad is a manufacturer's rep for the plastics industry and, though well past 80, is still posting record sales years. "I learned the value of hard work from my dad," says Bauerle. "But he traveled a lot. When I wasn't playing sports, I was with my mom. I may have inherited her intuition, which gives me some insight—with an emphasis on the word some—into what makes female athletes tick."

wimmers get up in the middle of the night to practice, and spend a lot of time with their head in the water—toiling, mile after mile, in silence. There's also the dry-land stuff—weightlifting, agility drills, medicine ball work, biometrics, and good old-fashioned running—all of which taxes mind and body. Those who take to this regimen willingly and swim faster as a result are among the most reliable and self-motivated people on the planet.

"These kids are so nice and so smart," says Bauerle. "But you should never be deceived by their demeanor away from the pool. When they compete, they compete with a vengeance. If I were an employer, I would definitely hire these kids."

After what they've accomplished this year, who wouldn't?

"That's what was so nice about the Olympics," says Bauerle. "Whether they competed in the Olympics or just watched it on TV, the kids on our team will always associate this year with Sydney—and with 110,000 people erupting when the American team came walking out of the tunnel at the Opening Ceremonies."

Bauerle marched in the Opening Ceremonies and was so thunderstruck by the experience that he called Dooley and said, "I have very little understanding for any football player who ever takes a lazy step in front of 80,000 people because all of us in Stadium Australia felt like we could run through a wall." He also called his mom on his cell phone and told her he was standing 50 yards from the Olympic torch. "The Olympics can make you feel pretty darn sappy," he says, "and my mom helped me get where I am today."

But what about tomorrow? Will Bauerle be in Athens, Greece, for the 2004 Olympic Games—and will he be there as head coach of the U.S. swimming team, should Olympic coach Richard Quick decide to take some time off?

"It's possible," says Bauerle, "but so many things have to break right for you. For one thing, you have to put a lot of swimmers on the Olympic team in order to be named one of the coaches—and I might never have another year like this one. I'm gonna try, but I might never do this again."

You could be right, Jack. But what worries the rest of the collegiate swimming world is that you might be wrong.

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