The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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MAY 2015 ■ 63 times due to a series of choices and steps that fell perfectly into place, beginning with what he considered the most impor- tant decision he was going to make. "That was hiring the staff that I hired," he said, referring to a group of assistants that include associate head coach Todd DeSorbo and assistant Mallory Houchin, both of whom have been with Holloway since the beginning. "That was very big in our journey," Hol- loway continued. "We work as a unit. I believe in my coaches. They believe in me. That's been a very main part of our rise up." Holloway also needed leaders to buy into the program. For the women, he found that in the familiar face of Marifrances Henley. Holloway had actually recruited the Memphis, Tenn., native as an assistant at Virginia Tech prior to taking the job at NCSU. Henley — who set multiple school records in freestyle races and relays, and was All-ACC in the 200 freestyle relay as a senior — brought the intensity that others followed into changing the culture toward what Holloway wanted. On the men's side, it was a more un- likely candidate in Jonathan Boffa. Unlike Henley, Boffa possessed a quieter person- ality according to Holloway. His example, though, was what got his fellow swimmers to buy into Holloway's program. Boffa dropped his best 100 freestyle time from 44.65 seconds as a freshman to a school-record 43.05 seconds as a sopho- more during Holloway's first year at the helm, breaking a 19-year-old mark. Boffa would go on to become a seven-time All- American, including in the 100 freestyle as a junior. "He started swimming fast right out of the gate for us and doing things that people thought were unheard of, and it trickled down," Holloway recalled. The results steadily improved. The men's team stunned UNC in Chapel Hill during Holloway's first season and won a surpris- ing relay ACC title from lane seven. The women saw more swimmers and divers competing in the league championship's night session finals than in previous years. By year four, the men won 10 of 21 events at the ACC Championships, includ- ing four of five relay swims, and set 24 school, conference, meet or pool records during the weekend in Atlanta. "Four years ago we were eighth in the ACC," Yow recalled. "This year, we finished eight in the nation and won the ACCs. He is an amazing leader, who our teams have rallied around." Holloway believes the women's break- through is next. "In their defense, they were probably lower when I first got here than the men were," Holloway noted. "The men prob- ably had more firepower and talent than the women had on their roster, so the jour- ney has been a little bit slower just because they were starting from a little bit further down. "Plus historically the women have not had the tradition that the men have had. They were in the process of creating that. For them, it's a good time to create this tra- dition, their own tradition, and for the guys it's more about rekindling their tradition." Future Ambitions When Holloway arrived, one of his first steps was convincing his team to change their mindset. "Basically, it was getting their minds to believe you're fast or you're good at diving and you can do it," Holloway said. "That was probably the first hurdle of our journey. "The second hurdle is if you want to be a champion, if you want to talk the talk and you want to walk the walk, you got to do it outside the pool. You got to do it in the classroom, you got to do it when you're eating with nutrition. You got to do it by making good decisions on the weekend. It's a 365 days a year process to become elite." Holloway had to give himself that same challenge. This was his first collegiate head coaching job. "I challenged myself that we can win here, and we're going to win here," he said. "I knew I had to do that. If not I shouldn't have taken the job. That's kind of how I looked at it." Now he is moving forward with building the NC State swim and diving program with another ambitious goal: establishing an Olympic-level system. "Expanding globally is something that's a piece of the puzzle for us to move for- ward," he said. "If we're able to help peo- ple to perform very well at their Olympic Trials, it's just going to create another draw for prospects to look at us." Naturally it takes quality recruiting to pull that off, and Holloway's track record in the pool is aiding his efforts there. He In just four years, Holloway orchestrated a turnaround that saw the Wolfpack men go from plac- ing eighth in the ACC to finishing eighth in the nation. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN "The rise to national prominence of our swim program under Braden's leadership is nothing short of stunning." ■ Athletics director Debbie Yow