Batesville Swim Team Coach Alfredo Aleman (center) speaks at the recent unveiling of a new trophy case for the state championship team. (All images by Jennifer Rodgers)
By Andrea Bruner, White River Now
When Jeff Owens recruited Alfredo Aleman to lead Batesville’s swim program, he promised him all the equipment and support.
The only thing he forgot – a place to put all the hardware.
On April 29, the city finally corrected that oversight, dedicating a new trophy case to house a legacy that now includes five consecutive state championships.
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A trophy case might seem like a given for a facility home to such a powerhouse program, but this wasn’t an overnight installation – it was a decade in the making.
It started with a visit from Batesville Alderman Fred Krug, whose granddaughter, Sophie, had joined the swim team a few months ago. Krug said he had gone to talk with Aleman about the swim team’s schedule, and he couldn’t help but notice the volume of trophies stacked in Aleman’s office, on the floor in front of his desk.
Aleman said the late Jeff Owens, who served as Batesville’s parks director for 14 years, had wanted to build a trophy case where everyone could see them, but sadly he died before that could happen.
Krug responded, “Well, let me see what I can do.”
He turned to a friend, Don Sullivan, who has a construction company. “I told Don the story, and he said, ‘I’ll help you out, Fred, I’ll build you one and won’t charge you anything but materials – no labor.”
Batesville Alderman Fred Krug (center) speaks to the crowd at the unveiling.
True to his word, Sullivan charged the swim team’s booster club a total of $300 for materials.
“Don Sullivan was very kind to the swim team, and he’s real big on youth because he umpires all the time (girls’ softball games),” Krug said.
The journey to being a regional powerhouse in swimming began with humble roots, fueled by the ambition of athletes like Seth Bailey. Before eventually signing with the University of Tennessee Volunteers, Bailey set the standard for the program as a multi-time state champion and state record-holder.
“He needed to have a high school team to get a recruiter, so his mother is the one who helped get (the team) started,” recalled Julia Allen, whose son Jack was part of the program even before Aleman came to town.
“It was somebody helping from the high school, and they appreciated it,” she said. “But when Alfredo came … I remember that first meeting with him, and I was thinking, ‘Ooo, Jack, you’re going to have to work now.’ And he was willing. I mean, there were some ups and downs, as in any year, but they had a really good team that year, and Alfredo’s very encouraging.”
By Jack’s senior year, the team won state, barely concluding the season before Covid hit.
“As a senior, he got a ring, and he wore that ring at graduation, which was in July, but, you know, I mean, he wore it very proudly,” Allen said.
Aleman said the program at the time was very small, but there was a lot of room to grow. Batesville opened the new community center in 2017 and won the conference championship that year. Before then, the few swimmers the city had on the team were utilizing the indoor pool at Lyon College.
Owens set about recruiting a permanent coach, and that’s how Aleman met him.
In 2018, Aleman was living in New Mexico but was hoping to move closer to his family in Florida and his wife’s family in Mississippi.
When Owens approached him about coming to Batesville, he told Aleman, “I’m going to give you whatever you need to make this program successful.”
Aleman asked, “Are you sure about that?” and again Owens said, “Yes, whatever you need, we’re going to do, because we want to see this program do well. There’s potential here.”
“He saw that,” Aleman. “He stayed true to his word. Whatever we needed, from the very beginning, in the very early stage of the program, all the equipment that we have was purchased by the city. He went to every single swim meet, and the first time that we won conference, he jumped in the water with the kids.”
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Batesville currently has about 50 kids in the program, with the youngest being age 5 (who is Aleman’s daughter). He said anyone can join as long as they can swim the length of the pool, but even if they can’t, swimming lessons are offered year-round.
“We’ve got kids who have competed at national swim meets, but these kids are so loving and so welcoming to everybody that comes into the program, that the kids who don’t know how to swim are not intimidated by these big superstars. We do have some superstars in our program,” Aleman said.
Batesville Parks Director Lowen Lermitte said his 9-year-old son, Tyler, joined the swim team last season.
“He had never been on a swim team before, even though I grew up swimming, and I always wanted him to be involved. His first swim practice, he did not want to get in the water – like not at all. He swam halfway across, didn’t know what he was doing, and got worried about the whole thing. So one of his coaches, Coach Trey (Moody), came over, spent like the whole rest of practice with him just talking with him, just pumping him up, trying to make him feel comfortable. By the end of the practice, he got back in, started swimming with a big smile on his face, just loving it. That speaks to who is part of the program that Coach Alfredo runs; he has people who care about kids.”
He said Tyler’s first swim meet, he had another situation where he didn’t want to get into the water.
“Ty was crying, and one of the older girls, Bridget Lewis, just came over and put her arm around him, and was like, ‘Hey, it’ll be OK. You want to come with me? I’ll take you over to your starting block.’ He didn’t really want to, so she kind of backed away for a minute, but she hung around, and then she came back again.”
With a little more coaxing and promises to stay by his side, Bridget was able to convince Ty to go to his starting block, sharing some pointers and more promises to cheer for him. Sure enough, as Ty started swimming, she went to the other side so she could be there when he came up out of the water and was able to walk him back to his spot.
“That’s how encouraging the team is because it starts at the top,” Lermitte said.
Krug said he attended his first state swim meet this year and was proud to see how well represented Batesville was, especially with first place awards and new state records.
“There were like 20 school districts here, teams from Russellville, Little Rock Christian, all these big schools there, and I heard our name on the intercom over and over and over. I was pretty proud of those kids.”
Again, there was more to the meet than awards. Krug went on to say, “I’ve never seen kids cheer each other on like this. When one kid was swimming in his race, the whole team was there cheering him on. After we won the meet and they were taking pictures, I could see those kids really, really loved each other. I know it sounds corny, but they did. It was an experience. I can’t wait till next year to go there.”
“Not only did the team step up,” Lermitte said, but also “the coaching staff stepped up. That’s the program, from the top down, caring about kids and caring about how they’re going to succeed in life. This was one swim meet, just one race, but I think it’s really a testament, too, where he (Aleman) tries to point all of these kids in life.”
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Lermitte and Aleman noted that not every community has the partnership between a city and school to build and maintain a strong athletic program like this.
Aleman also said he appreciates the support of the mayor and city council he’s had since Day 1.
“I think it is unique,” Aleman said. “We just have the right people in the right position to make this, what you see here, then to those people, that’s what we got, what we got.”
Lermitte said what sets the Batesville swimming program apart from other communities is the coach. “He’s got a proven track record of his programs doing well. He sets very reasonable expectations, but he also expects that they’re going to buy into the program, and when they do, they see the result. And so, he’s not there for the accolades or anything. He really cares about the kids. And I think that’s one thing that helps them buy in is that they can understand and they feel that he just really does care about them.”
As the trophies stacked up, no one could decide how to showcase the team’s accomplishments.
“We started with the banners to show off the kids’ accomplishments, but then the trophies started accumulating,” he said.
So when Krug showed up, Aleman was happy to get someone to lead the project.
Aleman said while there’s still some room in the new trophy case, it may not be but a few more years, and they’ll need another one. Krug said Sullivan has already found another wall inside the community center for the next case.
Aleman says it takes more than kids who just want to swim. These swimmers embrace the hard work and discipline; they buy into the whole philosophy that “we are not just winning championships – we are also developing great human beings.”
“As long as the kids are on board with that, I think that, yeah, we’re gonna need two or three more of these cases,” Aleman said.
Aleman said ultimately, trophies and banners are not what’s important; it’s the lessons they learn to carry with them beyond high school.
He said his team arrives at 6 a.m. five days a week to practice and lift weights. “They’re developing the mindset of a champion,” he said. “Whether they decide to go on swimming college or maybe one day go to the Olympics … they are going to do great things in life, regardless of whether they win a state championship or not. They’re just setting themselves up to be successful.”
And that, he said, is worth more than any trophy.
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