Join us as we chat with returning Class AA diving state champion Ashley Mouyenga of Wayzata. Hear about her journey in the sport, advice she has for those coming up and what her plans are post high school

Great conversation with Shakopee's Lexi Tippie! Hear what is driving the squad to success this season, the importance of role models, and much much more!

Swimming gets faster when dryland gets smarter. Strength coach Jack Standal breaks down the biggest myths holding swimmers back, from overdone mobility routines and random band work to the idea that bigger always means better. If you're a coach, parent, or athlete trying to build speed without wrecking the body, this conversation is packed with practical answers you can use right away.

Two coaches that have been around a while and take on the topic of swim meets. Why are they less fun, more expensive and more time consuming? It not hard to find people that think this is true, but much more rare finding people that are willing to do something about it. Great conversation on where we are, how we got there, and what can we do to get back on course.

Before bringing the series home, Mark gets honest about what could stop this. In episode eight of The Long Course: four real barriers between the sport we have and the one we want — that change is hard even when we agree with it, that a calm pool hides a drifting sport, that good coaches clam up on things they're unsure of, and that nobody actually owns the health of the sport. None of them are villains. All of them are really the same thing: heads down. And not one is fatal — unless we let it be. Keep your heads up.

Parents get handed exactly one tool: the scoreboard. So of course they fixate on it — it's the only window they've got. In episode seven of The Long Course, Mark opens the third and final room: the family's. It's built on a counterintuitive bet — that giving parents a genuinely good window into their kid's swimming actually lowers the urge to pry, because most prying is just a parent grabbing for any signal when they feel out of the loop. So the Fan Zone gives families a real way to follow the team — the schedule, the results, the recaps, the season's story — without the firehose of data that only feeds the fixation. And following your own kid? That's gated on purpose: they get the code, they approve it. Even a parent comes in by invitation. Three rooms, one idea: you at the center, the world on your terms, your space protected. Keep your heads up.

Coaches got into this to develop people — then drowned in paperwork. In episode six of The Long Course, Mark opens the coach's room: built to take the admin grind off your plate AND make it easy to recognize the stuff that never shows up on a results sheet. It's also the pipe that finally lets a coach's best work escape their own pool and count. Not more work — less of what you hate, plus a way to be a steward of the sport, not just a coach of your team. Keep your heads up.

The always-on scoreboard doesn't just hurt the slow kids — the ones at the top are often the most anxious of all. In episode five of The Long Course, Mark opens the first of MSV's three “rooms,” the athlete's Locker: a private, personal space where a kid gets to be more than a time. The results aren't information — they're a verdict. This is about giving kids the other side of the sport, on equal footing. Keep your heads up.