Herbie Behm wasn’t planning to get emotional when he called an “emergency press conference” inside his Mona Plummer Aquatic Center office on Monday following Bob Bowman‘s departure to Texas. Then the new Arizona State head coach began reflecting on how far the Sun Devils have come since his swimming days in Tempe from 2010-13.
“This is the biggest honor of my entire life,” Behm said. “I started here as a swimmer in 2010, was on the team when we had nothing — literally. When I was on the team, every Christmas break, we used to sell raffle tickets to try and get the team not cut. If we didn’t sell enough raffle tickets, the team got cut.”
Six years after the program was cut in 2008 and then miraculously saved by alumni a couple months later, ASU established a permanent endowment to support the team. Fast forward another decade and the Sun Devils completed a remarkable rise from the ashes last week with their first national title, snapping a decade-long streak of NCAA crowns won by either Cal or Texas.
“This is not my team,” Behm said. “This is our team. Everyone is a part of this — everyone helped build this.”
Just two days after winning NCAAs, Bowman was announced as the next director of swimming at Texas and Behm was promoted from associate to head coach at ASU.
“We just had the greatest weekend — I mean literally the highlight of my whole life 48 hours ago, at least I thought it was until I got even better news today that you guys had faith in me to be a leader,” Behm said. “That’s something that I’ve dreamed of since I started here as a swimmer, and I just wanted to let you know how excited I am to get started.”
Behm said he has worked his butt off to get the Sun Devils’ program where it is now, before stopping to acknowledge Bowman’s contributions and congratulate him on his new gig.
“Bob Bowman has helped this team so much,” said Behm, a sprint specialist. “I could not be more happy to have had his mentorship and I wish him the best of luck at Texas. I know they’re going to be great.”
Behm also squashed the rumor that he might be following Bowman to Austin.
”I’m staying here for very likely the rest of my life, unless I get fired,” Behm joked.
Watch his full comments below:
Herbie – What organizational arrangement will you have? Director of Swimming? Concentrate on sprinters? Bring in a secondary coach to cover 200s and up? Men/Women split of coaching? What?
Herbie could quite literally create the greatest sprint regime of our time
Unrelated but Noe Ponti just went a 50.16 in prelims in the 100 fly with a 26.34 back half
Jesus Christ, are we on WR watch now? He will surely go 49 in finals.
I hope he’s got more in the tank for Paris and isn’t blowing his taper on this meet… No disrespect to the rest of the Swiss swimmers but there is no need for him to be this fast now. Unless he’s got more to show in Paris of course. I’m so excited!
All the best to Herbie—he deserves his shine and he’s going to be a fantastic head coach! ASU is lucky to have him.