Performance: Novi's Camden Murphy
March 21, 2017
Camden Murphy
Novi Swimming & Diving – Senior
Murphy is an accomplished champion as one of the nation’s top swimmers in his age group. This winter, he decided for the first time to compete as part of Novi High School's team, and finished a dominating run March 11 with Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals victories in the 200-yard individual medley and 100 butterfly – with an all-Finals record in the latter – to earn the Michigan Army National Guard “Performance of the Week” for March 6-12.
Murphy’s winning 200 IM time of 1:48.99 was more than a second faster than the field. But his butterfly time was the stunner – 46.63 seconds, breaking the former all-Finals record swam in 2011 by Battle Creek Lakeview star Clay Youngquist (who went on to swim at University of Texas) by 48 hundredths of a second. Murphy also swam on second-place 200 medley and fourth-place 400 freestyle relays as Novi as a team finished fourth overall. Murphy earned automatic All-America honors from the National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association this season for his IM and butterfly times and also for the 44.78 he swam in the 100 freestyle, while the 400 freestyle relay is under All-America consideration. Murphy will graduate with Novi records in all three of those individual races and as part of the two relays.
This past weekend, Murphy won the butterfly at the National Club Swimming Association Junior National Championships (in 46.58), and he has an eye on eventually making the U.S. national team. He’s signed to continue this fall at the University of Georgia, where he’s considering studying business. He'll leave behind a major impression made in his one high school season – Murphy was named “Division 1 Swimmer of the Year” by the Michigan Interscholastic Swam Coaches Association, but showing his selflessness, said his best memories were watching his teammates hoist a team trophy and coach Brent Pohlonski receive MISCA’s Division 1 coaching award at the meet.
Coach Brent Pohlonski said: "It was an honor to coach Camden this season. For a swimmer of his caliber to be so humble and team-oriented was very refreshing. Each week he was willing to swim whatever events our team needed him to win. He was very open to suggestions from our entire coaching staff, and the guys on our team loved swimming with him. He is very deserving of all the accolades he is receiving. He is a perfect example of great things happening to great people."
Performance Point: “Honestly, the high school state meet … had the strongest atmosphere,” Murphy said. “It was really loud, really exciting. Everyone takes it really seriously, and that makes it fun. I kinda expected things to turn out the way they did, but a lot of it was a surprise. The state meet was a really big deal; there were a lot of people in the stands, and I wasn’t expecting there to be.”
For the Wildcats: “I thought it would be a really fun experience to be on the high school team, represent Novi. And I knew it would be a good experience to do before going into college swimming, because it’s almost the same thing – balancing school and swimming, being on a team representing your high school.”
Thanks Coach: “He’s very motivational, every single day in and day out. Even during the morning practices at 4:30 in the morning, he’s always in a good mood. He’s always wanting us to get better. Even when we’re super tired for a Monday morning practice, he’s always enthusiastic.”
Big deal beating Youngquist: “I had heard his name for a really long time, and I know he was really fast. (But) not until a few people told me who had raced against him, and told me it was a really big deal ... then it hit me.”
Bulldogs and business: “Right now I’m thinking business. I’ve taken a lot of business classes, and I thought a lot of them are really interesting. I might go into marketing or management, but I’m not sure yet.”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2016-17 school year, Second Half and the Michigan National Guard will recognize a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our nation's freedom or protect lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Previous 2016-17 honorees:
March 9: Ben Freeman, Walled Lake Central wrestling – Read
March 2: Joey Mangner, Chelsea swimming & diving – Read
Feb. 23: Isabelle Nguyen, Grosse Pointe North gymnastics – Read
Feb. 16: Dakota Hurbis, Saline swimming & diving – Read
Feb. 2: Foster Loyer, Clarkston basketball – Read
Jan. 26: Nick Jenkins, Detroit Catholic Central wrestling – Read
Jan. 19: Eileene Naniseni, Mancelona basketball – Read
Jan. 12: Rory Anderson, Calumet hockey – Read
Dec. 15: Demetri Martin, Big Rapids basketball – Read
Dec. 1: Rodney Hall, Detroit Cass Tech football – Read
Nov. 24: Ally Cummings, Novi volleyball – Read
Nov. 17: Chloe Idoni, Fenton volleyball – Read
Nov. 10: Adelyn Ackley, Hart cross country – Read
Nov. 3: Casey Kirkbride, Mattawan soccer – Read
Oct. 27: Colton Yesney, Negaunee cross country – Read
Oct. 20: Varun Shanker, Midland Dow tennis – Read
Oct. 13: Anne Forsyth, Ann Arbor Pioneer cross country – Read
Oct. 6: Shuaib Aljabaly, Coldwater cross country – Read
Sept. 29: Taylor Seaman, Brighton swimming & diving – Read
Sept. 22: Maggie Farrell, Battle Creek Lakeview cross country – Read
Sept. 15: Franki Strefling, Buchanan volleyball – Read
Sept. 8: Noah Jacobs, Corunna cross country – Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Novi's Camden Murphy swims the butterfly during a meet this season. (Middle) Murphy, in his only high school season, was named MISCA's "Division 1 Swimmer of the Year." (Photos by John Heider (top) and Brad Emons/Novi News)
Longtime Coach's Legendary Expertise Keeps Manistee Surging
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
November 19, 2021
Name any high school or community pool in Michigan, and odds are Corey Van Fleet has been there.
Perhaps it is true of any pool in the United States.
He might have even helped build it.
And, a little more odds. If the pool hosted an MHSAA Finals meet, one of Van Fleet’s teams likely participated. Although he won’t have any qualifiers making the trip to the Division 3 girls meet Friday, he’s been to championship weekend lots of times with Birmingham Seaholm and Manistee. His 1962-65 Seaholm boys teams won four straight Class A Finals, and his Manistee boys team is coming off a Finals trip last winter and its best season ever.
Van Fleet, now 85 years young, is in his 68th of coaching swimmers. He’s spent the last 13 with the boys and girls teams of Manistee High School. He started the program after helping build the pool.
The school utilizes the Paine Aquatics Center named after Bill Paine, who presented a proposal to the City of Manistee, the Manistee Area Public Schools and Van Fleet. Paine’s proposal called for the pool, which opened in July 2009, to be attached to the high school facilities.
“So I’m sitting in my office one day and this tall, lanky guy (Paine) walks in and closes the door and says my wife and I want to donate an aquatics complex in Manistee, and Sandy Saylor says you know something about swimming,” Van Fleet recalls. “‘Will you help me build it?’
“We talked about it for a while and I said yeah, I’d help him,” Van Fleet continued. “So we ended up with a nice eight-lane swimming pool in Manistee.”
Van Fleet, who also had coached at Florida State, coached and served as athletic director at Oakland University and then served as AD at Long Beach State (Calif.) during an illustrious career at the college level, took the next step naturally.
“The superintendent of schools at the time (Robert Olsen) said you build the darn thing, you might as well get some programs started,” Van Fleet recalled. “That was 13 years ago, and I’m still at it.”
At it, Van Fleet continues. He plans to stay with it until he just can’t do it anymore.
“I am still fairly healthy,” he said. “If I can find six people that can carry me out of church, I can think about quitting.”
During his tenure at Manistee, Van Fleet’s teams have dominated the Coastal Conference and produced multiple academic all-state swimmers. The boys team captured the 2020 academic all-state title with a 3.82 team grade point average.
“I am most proud, I think, about our academic progress,” Van Fleet said. “We take great pride in passing some classes.”
Van Fleet is also filled with pride when he reflects on all the swimmers he’s seen go on to become lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers and coaches.
“I am pleased with the number of kids who have gone on to do some pretty big things in the world off our swimming programs,” he said. “I’d like to think they might have learned lessons about goal planning and sticking to it and hard work and all that stuff.
“That’s what lights me up.”
Van Fleet’s initial high school coaching job was at Madison Heights in 1959. He’s coached at camps all over Michigan, including his first at Burt Lake in 1954. Today he owns and operates a summer swimming camp in Irons, 30 miles southeast of Manistee. He also built it.
Jeff Brunner, a veteran MHSAA official in multiple sports including swimming, and father of former members of the Traverse City high school swimming co-op, is among many singing praises of Van Fleet’s impact on the sport.
“Corey has a wealth of information that he has accumulated in his coaching career,” Brunner said. “If I was a high school swimmer, I’d want to learn all I could from him – swimming for him would be such a unique opportunity.”
Andrew Huber, principal of Manistee’s middle and high schools, agrees with Brunner.
“We're humbled to have had Corey as part of our school and community,” he said. “His wealth of experience, knowledge, and relationship building has helped create a foundation of well-being for students and adults alike.
“His enthusiasm for swimming is infectious, and his energy is amazing for anyone regardless of age,” he continued. “It's been truly impressive to observe him connect and inspire students for the many years he's been in Manistee, and realize his impact is generational.”
The Manistee boys swim team starts practice next week. The Chippewas, along with their girls squad, have battled through COVID. The pandemic is one of many changes through which Van Fleet has guided his athletes.
“We’ve seen changes in training methods,” he said. “We’ve seen changes in diet.
“We’ve seen changes in philosophies in terms of what’s important and what’s not important,” he went on. “Kids have changed, and parents have changed.”
Training methods have been modified the most, along with new multi-lane pools popping up in Michigan, Van Fleet noted.
“Swimming is more technical now,” he said. “The science of swimming has become paramount.
“It is not just going in and kick a few legs and swim a few hundreds and go home — we’ve gone the gamut,” he continued. “It is very specific now every time you want a kid to do something, and now our swimming pools are showplaces – they are magnificent.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Corey Van Fleet (far right) visits with his Manistee girls team the wall honoring him at Oakland University. (Middle) Van Fleet is in his 68th year coaching swimming. (Photos courtesy of the Manistee girls swimming & diving program.)