LJ water polo/swim: Conditioning coach Tudor Lacey, from South Africa

Tudor Lacey, La Jolla's conditioning coach,

sits among the team chairs at the Vikings'

second game back in their renovated

facility at Coggan Aquatic Complex

Oct. 24 against Bishop's.

By Ed Piper

Tudor Lacey is the long-time conditioning coach for the La Jolla water polo and swim programs. These comments were made prior to the Viking boys water polo team's 12-6 win over visiting El Segundo Tues., Nov. 14, in the first round of the Southern California Regionals.

An Associated Press newspaper clipping online from Feb. 23, 1963 reports that Tudor Lacey, then a freshman at Southern Methodist University (SMU), won the 400-yard individual medley on the first day of the Southwestern AAU swimming tournament. Lacey won the 200-yard freestyle alongside his SMU teammates, all of whom dominated the event, winning nine of 11 races. That makes Coach Lacey about 78 years old at present.

His name appears with Tom Atwell's below the scoreboard at Coggan Aquatic Complex.

Q:  Tudor Lacey, strength and conditioning coach...

I work with the team for conditioning, and I have been working with Coach (Tom) Atwell for about 18 years.

Q: How did you survive that? Just kidding.

Actually, we get along really well.

Q: It looks like it.

We really do.

I'm happy with the conditioning. So we'll see how we do today.

Q: Coach, do you do weights in addition to swimming? How does water polo do that?

Coach Atwell does the weights. I just do the swimming. Depending on the week, for half an hour, three quarters of an hour, if we have a game two times a week...

Q: How long have you been a swim coach? How many decades? (laughing)

I don't know.

Q: When did you start?

I started coaching when I was in college.

Q: Which was where?

SMU. In Dallas.

Q: Are you a Southerner?

No, I'm South African.

Q: Where were you born?

In Zambia. Just south of the Congo. Ten miles south.

Q: Was your dad a businessman there?

Yeah.

Q: What type?

He was a jack-of-all-trades. Insurance, mainly. And he was also born in that part of the world.

Q: Any memories stand out?

Lots of them.

Q: What was it like?

What can I say? It's all I knew. It was great. It was all I knew. Wild, and we had a place 40 miles out of town on a river that was really, really wild. Elephants, hippos, crocodiles.

Q: Sounds pretty exotic. Did you swim there?

Yes, I swam in high school. I swam after... After high school, I went to college there. And then I got a scholarship to SMU. I swam there.

Q: Thank you, and I hope to continue the conversation.