By DIANE GASPER-O’BRIEN
Special to Hays Post
Members of the Hays High School boys’ swim team were introduced to their third head coach in as many years last October.
And an amazing thing happened.
Tyler Stein, a Fort Hays State University student now with the title of Coach, has the Indians believing in themselves and their talent—so much so that the small squad of 11 hopes to make history next month.
The Indians will battle other Western Athletic Conference teams with much larger squads on Feb. 13 in Garden City for the league title.
Stein, a former all-state swimmer from Great Bend, was hired late in the game—only a few weeks before the start of the 2024-25 season—but he dove in without a splash.
“Coaching was not something I thought I’d be doing,” said Stein, a finance major at FHSU. “But I love the sport, so once I had this opportunity, I jumped on it.”
He immediately laid out his philosophy of what it takes to be successful in the pool: hard work, discipline, routine, conditioning and correct diet—to name a few. And he was right there to help them better their techniques.
“I made it very clear from the first day that I wasn’t there to be their friend. I told them, ‘I’m here to be your coach,’” he said. “My job is to push them and to make them better than the day before.”
It took only a couple of meets for the swimmers to realize their coach knew what he was talking about.
From the get-go, the Indians started bettering their times at each successive meet.
Hays High gave its fans an exhilarating treat at its home meet on Jan. 21. The Indians won eight of the 11 events while bettering their previous-best times in all those championship performances.
“It’s normal to have a couple of PRs throughout the season,” Stein said. “But to consistently drop times like they have been is amazing. It makes me so proud of them as a coach.”
Due to a lack of numbers, small teams often struggle to place as high as larger schools in high school swim team competitions.
Therefore, the Indians didn’t win the team title at their home meet, but Stein thinks that’s a possibility at a larger meet, where points are spread out more.
He is working to put his swimmers in the correct events to make that happen at WAC.
“In a way, it’s like a puzzle,” he said. “I have to make the correct lineup, put them in the events they can excel at while making sure they have enough rest in between events.”
Senior Marshall Sook has goals of breaking Stein’s 50-yard freestyle WAC record of 22.81 seconds. Sook’s career-best in that event is 23.46.
“I’m pushing him to get him there,” Stein said. “As cool as it was to set that record as a swimmer, it would be even more enjoyable as a coach to see one of my swimmers break it.”
Sook has automatically qualified for state in the 50-yard freestyle while also leading the 200-yard freestyle relay to a state-qualifying time. Joining him at state on that relay team will be juniors Chase Zadina and Karsen Flaska and sophomore Cedric Durr.
Sook, who started swimming competitively in seventh grade with the local swim club, said Stein is easy to “trust because he’s put this philosophy to practice before as a swimmer.”
“He’s got everyone wanting to do better and wanting to work hard,” Sook added, “and we’re seeing the results of that hard work.”
Whatever the outcome at the WAC meet, the Indians’ ultimate goal is to qualify as many swimmers as possible for state competition.
With three meets remaining on the schedule, Sook has already hit state-qualifying times in two individual events while also helping the 200-yard freestyle relay team qualify for the Class 5-1A state championships Feb. 20-22 in Lenexa.
HHS has reached state-consideration times in several additional events, and Stein thinks he will be taking a van load of competitors to the season finale.
It’s something he plans to get used to. He is on board to coach the HHS girls’ team this spring—and then come back for another year in 2025-26.
“It’s been a great learning experience,” Stein said. “I know a lot about the sport, but I had to learn about getting the team transportation and setting things up.”
“I’m learning as I go,” he added. “The parents help out a lot, and so do the swimmers.”
And it’s been an enjoyable ride for all involved.
Other seniors with whom Stein has relied on for leadership this year are Christian Miller, Justin Reeves and Bryton Unsworth. Juniors Zadina and Flaska are joined by classmates Levi Crisenberry, Noah Schaeffer and Jude Hileman. Rounding out the roster are a pair of sophomores—Durr and Alex Leiker.
Sook also has hit state-consideration standards in the 100-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly, as have Zadina (50-yard freestyle) and Flaska (100-yard backstroke), as well as both the other Indian relay teams (200-yard medley and 400-yard freestyle).
The Kansas State High School Activities Association sets automatic qualifying times and adds the fastest consideration times to fill out each event.
Flaska, whose main sport is baseball in the spring, didn’t start swimming competitively until his freshman year at HHS.
He said he thinks swimming helps with conditioning for baseball. But right now, the spring season can wait. The Indians have plenty to accomplish yet this winter.
“It’s been a pretty exciting year,” Flaska said. “And I think our success is a 100% coaching. He definitely pushes us, and it’s fun to see how far it takes us.”