Of course, at The University of Texas, preseason goals always involve winning and championships, but this year, all of the women’s head coaches wanted to strive for something more.
“We want a sense of oneness among all of our sports,” Women’s Swimming and Diving head coach Kim Brackin says. “It drives home the sense of family we already have at Texas.”
When UT takes on rival Texas A&M on Friday night at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center -- in yet another installment of the State Farm Lone Star Showdown -- the Longhorns will actually be wearing something that shows off that commitment.
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Texas Swimming
The UT women prepare for the Aggies.
 
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Back in August, Brackin and volleyball head coach Jerritt Elliott were sharing ideas about how teams deal with certain pressures and expectations -- Brackin’s squad is fresh off its fifth-place showing at last spring’s NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, and the volleyball program has been ranked No. 2 all season.
Through all those conversations, Brackin and Elliott kept coming back to that idea of togetherness, of making all the sports feel like they are just part of one big team, and the State Farm Lone Star Showdown, the annual all-sports points race between UT and A&M, provided the perfect avenue to do just that.
Brackin and Elliott dreamed up a T-shirt that features the Showdown trophy on the front, and a schedule on the back. The team that is currently competing in a Showdown event wears the shirt that day, afterward marks the point earned -- or unearned -- on the back and then passes it on to the next team on the schedule.
“All of us take pride in trying to win that title back. It should be a meaningful thing, if, after match, you write down whether you earned that crucial point or half-point,” Brackin says. “It’s not going to be fun for teams that don’t beat A&M, but that’s also a sting – that’s reality.
“By no means is our point guaranteed, but I’m prepared to have my team deal with the sting of knowing we didn’t help The University in that goal.”
Both UT and A&M are among the top teams in the nation and have their goals focused on peaking in March for conference and NCAA meets. But a meet of this magnitude this early in the season -- particularly between rival schools -- provides an extra motivational push in training.
“I like having a high-pressure meet that just asks, “What do you got, ladies?’” Brackin says. “I like having the girls forced to step up and concentrate on winning races versus how fast they’re swimming. It’s (about) getting their hand on the wall first.”
Regardless of the outcome, the Longhorns will then gather at Brackin’s house for a team dinner, with their Showdown T-shirts and markers in hand.
“At the team dinner, that will be one of the things that we do -- either we write plus-one, or a zero,” Brackin says. “We’re going to take the time to recognize that’s important, to us and to everyone at Texas.”
