The Hobie Factor

I am rather disappointed in the character and the common decency of the people in charge of the recent LRP meetings held in Minnesota and California. I named this article "The Hobie Factor" to focus on the "Man" and the purpose of those meetings.

The LRP in someone's eyes is supposed to be a blueprint for winning Olympic Gold Medals. Hobie was there, if for no other reason, to express his opinion and give his view on winning medals. That after all was the purpose of those meetings. My guess is that Hobie may have been invited to give some credibility to the occasion. To me his name and reputation would do just that. Just the fact that he was there could lead some to think that he was in agreement with the LRP and the direction USD wanted to go. However, no one listened when he had the chance to speak. Only one brave sole stood up and said something on his behalf.

In my mind Hobie should be considered a National Treasure. He probably should be considered the Father of Modern Diving and Coaching in this country and maybe even in the World. He has given so much to so many of us in different ways that it is almost impossible for me to put into words. How can we repay him for all the things he has done by being so discourteous and ignorant or arrogant as to not even listen carefully to what he had to say? He is Diving's Good Will Ambassador to the World. When I think of diving, the very next word association is "Hobie".

The leaders of USD have been focused on winning Gold Medals for so long now that I don't believe they could get one if it jumped up and bit them in the posterior. The present board can't see the forest because there's a tree in the way. Hobie does have the answers to our medal problem and he's had those answers for many years. All you have to do is look at his track record. He didn't inherit an Olympian. He made all of them and he did it on several occasions. My high school teammate, Ken Sitzberger, was one of those lucky kids to have Hobie as a coach. His last Olympic Gold Medallist was a wrestler. Hobie made him an Olympic Champion in very short span of time. Since that time, the USA hasn't come close to having another Olympic Champion. If you want to win gold medals, you go to the "Master" for advice and that's "Hobie".

I use to think that we were a highly intellectual organization. Maybe we are but we allow lapses of stupidity to surface occasionally. The Hobie Factor happens to be one of those obvious lapses. If winning Olympic Gold Medals was a mathematical equation, it couldn't be solved without "The Hobie Factor".