He might not love it, but Marmion's Pircon sure can swim

All through the offseason, Marmion boys swim coach Bill Schalz and Cadets senior Matt Pircon had a sort of running commentary on the time left before the start of the 2009-10 season.

"He'd pop his head to say hi and I'd say 'it's just a few weeks until swim season,'" Schalz said. "And he'd say 'yeah, whatever.'"

Those brief exchanges say much about the Pircon-Schalz relationship - as well as the Pircon-swimming relationship. Pircon and Schalz have always gotten along very well - but Pircon has never been completely in love with swimming. In fact, the Marmion senior wasn't at all sure he wanted to participate in his final season with the Cadets.

That season comes to a close this weekend at the state meet in Evanston. Prelims begin at 3:30 p.m. today with the finals taking place on Saturday. And Pircon is indeed back, ready to cap his fourth season in the Cadets program.He is qualified in four events, the 50-yard freestyle, the 100 breastroke and as part of the Cadets 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay teams.

Trying to figure how he will finish is difficult based on seedings. But he enters the meet with the 12th-fastest seed time in the 50 freestyle and will be expected to challenge defending champion Dominik Cubelic from Glenbrook South again. Last year, Pircon finished second to Cubelic in the event.

"In the 50, he's a dark horse, but if he's got a lane in the finals, you never know," Schalz said. "He's done a good job of working on his starts and his technique. I would certainly expect him to get into the Top 6, and once he's there, I would expect him to swim to win. He is a racer - you give him a lane in the finals and then you watch and see what happens."

The 50 freestyle is the ultimate text of nerves. As many coaches say, there are only three things to worry about - the start, the flip turn after 25 yards and the finish. But mess up on any of those three, and your chances of victory are finished.

"In the 50, you're putting everything on the line," Pircon said. "One small mistake can cost you two places. It's very intense and very emotional. It's only 20 seconds long, but it feels like an hour when you're swimming it."

For his other individual event this year, Pircon competes in the 100 breaststroke, which is a bit of a departure from the classic freestyle sprint "double" of 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle.

"The big difference is that freestyle is a 'long axis' stroke and the breaststroke is a 'short axis' stroke," Schalz said. "A lot of freestylers are good backstrokers because the stroke is similar. Breaststroke swimmers are a little bit of a different breed, but then Matt's not your typical sprinter. He swims a hard 50 free, he does not finesse it at all. No one will ever accuse his 50 free of being a thing or artistic beauty. He just attacks it. It's almost as if he swims the 50 free the way a breaststroker would do it."

That idea of attacking a swim stroke is something that Pircon got from his other sport - football. It is his love of the gridiron game that caused him to consider not swimming in the first place.

"In the beginning of the year, I didn't think I was going to swim," Pircon said. "Then things happened. I didn't have a standout year. I opened my eyes and I wasn't stubborn and I looked at what would be the most beneficial to my future. I could go and play football at a Division II school or I could go to a larger school and swim and get a great education."

When Pircon was considering a collegiate football career, Schalz helped with his recruiting video. But when Pircon decided to return to the water, that was certainly aquatic music to the Marmion coach's ears.

"I've had a lot of kids over the years tell me that they don't think they're going to come out for the next year," Schalz said. "I always felt he might come back. The thing is, I've known Matt since he was 5 or 6 and if he didn't want to swim, I'd say 'fine.' I wouldn't have been happy, but I wouldn't have thrown a temper tantrum."

Pircon acknowledges the long time he's known Schalz. His older sister, Michelle, swam for Rosary and as an Academy Bullets club swimmer. Matt Pircon was also a club swimmer until the last couple of years.

"I love (Schalz)," Matt Pircon said. "He's another father figure in my life and he's always been there for advice. My sister swam for him and he came to my sister's graduation. I definitely do not hate him and I think he's been a great coach."

It's just been swimming that Pircon hasn't always enjoyed. That relationship has changed as well, and Schalz gets an assist in that transition.

"He changed the workouts so that we're in the weight room maybe two or three times a week," Pircon said. "We're trying to get as much muscle built up before the sectional and state meets arrived. It varied my days and right now, I can't wait to experience college sprinting."

The ironic thing, according to Schalz, is that college sprint work is very similar to what Pircon has been doing with Marmion this year.

"He's said 'I don't want to swim - I want to spring,'" Schalz said. "There are a lot of programs where there are big-time college sprinters who spend a lot of their time in the weight room pushing weights in order to crank out the speed and to be fast."

Given the unsure nature as to whether he would swim or not this season, Pircon didn't do much off-season work in the water. In one sense, that left him fresh entering the season. On the other side, he was short of fitness and badly short of technique. The season has been a race to catch up on both fronts.

"I think the difference between me and some guys is that I'm out there moving my arms as fast as I can and a lot of guys are all-technique," Pircon said. "But the other thing is that I can't kick as well as they do and I don't have their technique. You need a bit of both."

However he swims, Pircon brings a football player's mentality to the pool. He has referred to the time on the starting blocks as "go time" - much like a running back just before he receives the ball. And his sense of competitiveness is unmatched.

"You have to concentrate on every race, just like you have to concentrate on every play in a football game," Pircon said. "I'm very competitive - it puts a fire in my gut. I really don't like losing, and it was the same in football. I think that taking that attitude into swimming has helped us bond a little more than we have in the past."

Certainly that attitude can be heard, if not felt, wherever the Cadets have competed this winter.

"He has that "Grrr!" and that emotion that you get with a football team, and that's good," Schalz said. "We don't have that all the time at Marmion. We have done loud, screaming cheers this year. Guys I didn't know had vocal cords are yelling at the top of their lungs."

But Pircon's lasting legacy will always be his speed. Schalz said both relays on which he swims are a second faster with him swimming.

"We were able to swim both the medley and the 200 free relay without anyone wearing a fast suit at sectionals," Schalz said. "If he hadn't come back, we would have had to put everyone in fast suits. It would have changed this season it part of a two-year process for next year. Now, we go into next year where we don't have Matt, but everyone is back from those relays and they should be bigger and faster and stronger. Because of his unselfish decision, we were able to swim for this year."

And 'this year' ends this weekend. "Go Time" is just around the corner.