This week, SwimmingWorld.TV was at the ASCA World Clinic. If you haven't watched the videos yet, do yourself a favor and go here right now. Then come back and continue reading these blogs. The interviews made me think about a topic I've been mulling over for a long time: there is an amazing generation of college swim coaches that is reaching retirement age without any sign of slowing down.

Take a look at the mainstays on the NCAA championship scene over the past 20 years excluding Auburn, the anomaly in this respect. The short list includes Eddie Reese, Jack Bauerle, Frank Busch, Richard Quick (may he rest in peace) and Skip Kenney. Eddie Reese (68 years old) and Frank Busch (58?) bookend this remarkable generation of coaches.

In an interview this weekend, Garrett asked the question that has been on many coaches minds for a few years now: When is Eddie going to retire? Some coaches want to know because they are eyeing the job in Austin. Others are yearning for the day that they stop getting so thoroughly outcoached. Yet some, like myself, simply take heart in the fact that Eddie is "still doing it" and hope that we can maintain our prime well into our 60s.

This weekend made me reflect on their remarkable careers. In that effort, I'm putting down one thing a young coach can learn from each of their careers:

1. Seize Opportunity- According to Frank Busch's bio, he got his first crack at coaching when he was 16. His summer league team was left without a coach on the first day of practice. Frank stepped into the void and seemingly never looked back.

2. It's ok to follow your childhood dream: Some people dream of being firefighters, lawyers or doctors in their young age. A 12 year old Richard Quick dreamed of being a swim coach. I'd say it worked out pretty well for him

3. You never know it all: Eddie Reese, even at this stage, is constantly tinkering. He's tinkering because he never completely believes that he has this swimming thing entirely figured out.

4. Persistence pays off: It's easy to forget because his teams are always in the hunt now. but Jack Bauerle coached the women's team at Georgia for 20 years before he won an NCAA title. For a young coach, it can be easy to look at the landscape and think that if you just had the right situation, you could be more successful. Bauerle made his own situation.

5. You don't have to be a great swimmer: One of the most frequent anxieties for young coaches is coaching swimmers that are better than you were. It never seemed to bother Skip Kenney, who didn't even swim competitively.

I'm sure there are many more takeaway lessons to be gleaned from this crew as the years go on. Here's to another year of the golden generation of American swim coaches.