Season 3 of the International Swimming League (ISL) is almost upon us, with the first match among the Energy Standard, Toronto Titans, DC Trident and Aqua Centurions set to take place August 26th & 27th.
Just one day later, additional teams are in action for match #2, including the Tokyo Frog Kings, marking the squad’s 2nd season in the league since having entered last year.
We’re familiar with the Frog Kings’ roster from an athlete perspective, with the likes of Takeshi Kawamoto and Vlad Morozov among the retained swimmers. Daiya Seto also enters the scene for the team after having represented Energy Standard in season 1 and not having competed in season 2.
However, the Tokyo Frog Kings‘ coaches have been under wraps thus far, with fans left to assume Dave Salo would continue at the helm, flanked by general manager Kosuke Kitajima.
Indeed the TKF organization has confirmed to SwimSwam that Salo and Kitajima will continue in their vital roles. However, the additional coaching staff has been built out to include head assistant coach Coley Stickels and assistant coach/home coach Kathie Wickstrand.
Stickels comes to the squad after having served as the head coach of the University of Alabama’s men’s and women’s swimming and diving program. He was in that role for 18 months before resigning mid-season. He then focused on training specific athletes for this year’s Olympic Games, though many of those, including former ISL participants Margo Geer and Ian Finnerty, retired prior to the Olympic Trials.
As for Wickstrand, she brings a hefty coaching resume to the Frog Kings, having coached at Northwestern, Purdue, and Illinois. She has also served as a consultant to Cal women’s coach Teri McKeever.
Although the Frog Kings had engaged Japanese assistant coaches in season 2, the squad sees season 3 as a chance to rebuild the team from the ground up.
They plan on bringing Japanese coaches back into the fold slowly in the next few years after a solid foundation has been built with this new collection of leaders.
The Tokyo roster was majority-Japanese last season, but this year has only 8 home nation swimmers on the 33 swimmer roster.
Tokyo advanced to the semifinals of last year’s ISL season but ultimately finished 3rd in Semifinal A to be eliminated from title contention (only the top two advanced to the final).
This year’s season got off to an inauspicious start when the Frog Kings saved by far the fewest number of swimmers from last season’s roster, and then drafting errors by head coach Salo left the team forfeiting 3 of their selections.
I know coach Kat has helped a lot of high level coaches with perspective over the years- hopefully coley can learn something in this opportunity!
Hopefully he’s able to control himself around the isl team managers.
This mendacious narrative is getting old. Got a name, Kachow?
Agreed,@Lindsay Stickels. The baseless comments on here aren’t fair to the coaches who (due to student athlete confidentiality, terms of legally binding documents, etc.) aren’t able to defend themselves/communicate the context and/or actual truth.
Maybe it’s time to exit the sport, until he can learn to be civil around swimmers, other coaches, managers, etc.
Coley is a talented coach when it comes to the X’s and O’s of sprint training, but is his own worst enemy. What a tragedy…
You are spot on. I’m sure there is a job outside of this sport that he would excel in.
Hi @David and @Truth. Kindly share your name and profession so I can go recommend to your industry, colleagues and peers anonymously that you change professions based on nothing but baseless and misguided information. Thanks, have a great day.
The humor is that Lindsay doesn’t know how often her husband posts in the comments, anonymously, attacking other people.
I get that he doesn’t like the criticism he receives. I wouldn’t expect him to. But what I don’t like is how he works so hard to play victim, when he’s just as guilty of the same.
But you have knowledge of how often Coley posts, anonymously. You should be working for the CIA! Leave the man alone. Do you feel better about yourself for taking shots at him? Sad statement about you.
Wow! From now on can you reply to everyone’s posts with their real names, including your own since you seem to have inside info?
That would actually shatter Coley. He’s obsessed with the idea that the only person critical of his coaching style is Jonty Skinner, and if everyone posted their real names, he’d have to accept the reality of the situation.
What I find interesting is that everyone (except his wife) seems to know Coley’s motivation, what he posts (anonymous or not), and interests.
If ‘everyone’ started using their real names the reality of the situation would be that most of the malicious comments here are likely the same person(s) using multiple user names.
Try not to get your panties in a wad over this. Coley did this to himself.
Lol. Yeah i think one of the best coaches in the world should just quit the sport entirely because you heard he was mean to someone once. Sound advice.
I wonder why this “mendacious narrative” keeps coming up.
Exactly do you have any proof or a name? Typical of the swimswam comments section on where anyone is allowed to log accusations with no proof.
American frog kings
I love how many coaches like to disparage Coley but can’t produce the results that he has over the years. A pro team is the exact right spot for him.
How does training in the ISL work… as in, do all the athletes train together in one city? Are they all over at various locales and only come together for meets?
As a former athlete of Coley I think this is a good move! I know it was hard him to be at colleges because of all the different administration but I think he should have freedom to coach how he wants on the frog kings. Looking forward to how those athletes do!
It’s not like they do a whole of coaching?z
Awesome! Congratulations Coley
Looks like a college commitment post from Coley!