Hendrix College

"Coach cares about us as people and wants the best for us. "

"Tony is a great person out of season. He is caring and is willing to build a relationship with the prospective swimmers and/or alumni. In season, Tony is horrible. He is so rude even if he says that he wants you on the team. Tony can be motivational if you are one of his favorites or if you are one of his top scorers, which intern means that you are one of his favorites. During season, he really didn't care about his swimmers. A few times during season, I had been forced to swim even when I needed the time off. A week or two before conference, I was super exhausted from studying and pushing myself really hard. I had gone into my athletic trainer before practice to get treatment done and ended up bawling my eyes out with my trainer because I couldn't keep going. I needed to take the day off and sleep and study. When I went to practice after having my athletic trainer text him, he told me to get into the water and just go slow. He knew that if I got into the water, I would end up being the lane leader, and didn't care. I got in the water and ended up leading the lane, crying and in so much pain. the week after that, I had a really bad migraine, and he was upset with me when I couldn't swim one day because I was really dizzy. He also has called the women emotional. During winter training, he got upset with us before we started practice and threw a clipboard at me. I don't think he was specifically aiming at me, but it came in my direction, which really frightened me. After practice that night, he continued the conversation that we had before practice and ended up putting a ton of pressure on me saying that I needed to win my events or else we would lose the meet. I ended up having a complete breakdown in the locker room, then when I was leaving practice that night, he pulled me into his office and basically gaslighted me into thinking that he didn't do anything wrong. I personally think that out of season, he is great, but in season, he is horrible, and I would definitely not recommend him as a coach."

"10/10 do not recommend. I was not the fastest swimmer on the team and was constantly reminded that I really didn't have a big part on the team. He played favorites on multiple occasions and since I wasn't a favorite I felt like an outsider and like I wasn't a real member of the team. I never felt like I was cared for as a person first, only as an athlete. We never got days off and I ended up sustaining a season ending injury because of this. Instead of being cared for and given the support I needed to get better, I was only ridiculed for not getting better fast enough and not returning to practice. Even when I was injured, I was expected to participate fully in practice like I was in perfect health. Multiple times he let his personal life get in the way of our practice schedule and we had many workouts that were unnecessarily difficult because he was mad. At our last meet, instead of being congratulated for a season well done, we were scolded for not doing our best or putting our best foot forward. Overall, I had a terrible experience with Tony as a coach and it makes me not want to continue with the sport of swimming"

"Tony was great to me and believed in me while I was at Hendrix, but that was because I was the fastest girl on the team. I transferred that year because the team environment was awful. The girls were super catty and would talk behind other peoples backs. Likewise half our team couldn’t even go half of practice without needing to vape in the locker room. Once I left Tony became different he immediately unfollowed me everywhere and cut off all communication with me like he didn’t care about me as a person despite the relationship I had with him. Hendrix were supposed to have this star D1 swimmer transfer from UofA but she had a back injury and Tony held it against her all season. She wanted to quit because swimming hurt her and Tony told her if she didn’t swim he wasn’t going to give her the PE credit she needed to graduate. After I left Tony was hard on a lot of the athletes saying they were bad. I hear a lot of girls are quitting"

"He will answer your questions when asked and will try and help you understand what he wants from you"

"Love him off the court! Depends on the day if I love him on the court. He is very honest with most of his players. He is super intense, so you know he loves his job! Sometimes you just gotta have thick skin with him, but regardless I think he's a great coach and I'm glad I chose Hendrix!"

"Super aggressive, loud, and passionate. Cool off the court and depending on the day cool on the court. "

"By far one of my better coaches. He has a passion for the game that words can't capture. He pushes his team to excel and achieve great things. However, he does have his favorite players and tends to let them get away with a lot. Sometimes his criticism is far less than constructive. But all in all a great guy and awesome coach. "

"Thad is always there to pick you up, and will push you to reach your maximum potential. He shows his love immensely among his players, and goes out of his way to do the utmost for each and every one"

"Hands down the best coach on and off the floor I've ever had. He was accessible to any and every problem we faced throughout college and has been there even more for me since I've graduated. He is a great motivator and I definitely played my heart out for him while at Hendrix. "