The Phelps Phenomenon, Sending Everyone Into the Pool

Entering the school year, is there a so-called minor high school sport with a higher profile than swimming? It seems as though any kid who ever got a whiff of chlorine or channel-surfed last month was roused in some way by Baltimore area native Michael Phelps winning an unprecedented eight Olympic gold medals.

It's too bad that high school swimming isn't a fall sport, at least coming out of Olympic years, particularly this one. Because if anecdotal evidence is any indication, pools this winter will be more populated as a result of the Phelps phenomenon and dotted with swimmers more committed than ever to shaving seconds off their times (and maybe more hair off their bodies).

"There's always a boost in [participation] after Olympic years, especially in younger kids," said Jamie Grimes, who coaches at Walter Johnson High School and at the Rockville-Montgomery Swim Club.

A boost in interest, too.

Exhibit A: Georgetown Prep senior All-Met Brady Fox was in a Ruby Tuesday restaurant at Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg last Thursday when a waiter spotted Fox's T-shirt from the Olympic trials. The waiter started a conversation about Phelps's accomplishments. "Whenever I've been wearing a swim shirt, I've had someone mention it to me," Fox said. "It just shows that people did see what he did, and they do take what he did seriously."

Exhibit B: Wilson sophomore Callie Fosburgh, a second-team All-Met, watched at least one race while excitedly chatting on the phone with friend Danielle Schulkin, a Whitman swimmer. "We were just screaming to each other," said Fosburgh, who has been inundated with swimming talk from classmates. "I've had maybe 30 kids come up to me [and say], 'Oh my gosh, Michael Phelps, Michael Phelps. Sometimes I wish I was swimming,' " Fosburgh said. "I say, 'Great, join the team.' " Fosburgh would love to see a team sign-up sheet circulated now to take advantage of that enthusiasm.

Exhibit C: Just a half-hour before Varsity checked in with Evan Stiles, who coaches swim teams at Bishop O'Connell and the Arlington Aquatic Club, Stiles had fielded a call from an intrigued mother. The woman's son, a summer-league swimmer but not a year-round competitor, had a wingspan three inches longer than his height. She thought that maybe the boy, with proper training, would thrive in the water. He's 10 years old. They "saw what was going on and realized that he had a similar quality that Michael Phelps had," said Stiles, who estimates that half of the 10 to 15 daily calls he has fielded recently have been spurred by the Olympics.

Exhibit D: Robinson senior All-Met Amanda Kendall said that college coaches have mentioned to her recently how more swimmers are showing up at tryouts. "How can you not want to possibly try to swim after watching something like that?" she said.

Phelps's dominance and thrilling Olympic swimming finals during prime time have inspired a new generation of swimmers and provided reference points for coaches once swimming season starts. One thing they'll point to is his masterful kick off the wall.

"Even the more advanced kids see that it really works," Grimes said. "They hear it from a coach a thousand times a day, then they see it one time . . . [and] it's a better visual."

Another reference point that Georgetown Prep Coach Matt Mongelli will use is one that transcends swimming: French 4x100 freestyle team member Alain Bernard boasting that his team wanted to "smash" the Americans, a statement that unnecessarily provided extra motivation to the American relay.

Here's the funny thing, though: Phelps's unorthodox finish in the 100 butterfly -- he misjudged and went into the wall on a half-stroke instead of a full stroke -- prompted some youth coaches to grimace, because what he did was so technically unsound. Serbia's Milo Cavic, the runner-up by .01 of a second, also had a poor finish.

"I'm sitting there watching, going, 'Great, great,' " Grimes said. "We tell our kids never, ever go half-stroke, and Michael Phelps wins a gold medal doing it."

Even those whose only similarity with Phelps is that they consume 12,000 calories a day might see swimming differently after watching the Olympics. Fox and others say their sport is often dismissed by athletes and sports fans. The hullabaloo over Phelps, with his world records and dramatic finishes, might help underscore just how amazing his eight-pack of medals was.

"No one is going to take a sport that practices in Speedos that seriously," Fox said. "At least that's what people say to me."

Varsity Letter is a weekly column about high school sports in the Washington area. E-mail Williams atwilliamsp@washpost.com.