October 12, 2006

Lincoln, NE (CSTV U-WIRE) -- Both have had collegiate coaching success and endured the resonating remnants of scandal.

Swimming and diving coaches Pablo Morales of Nebraska and Kim Brackin of Texas have had similar experiences during their careers.

However, the Cornhuskers' 6 p.m. meet tonight against the Longhorns at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Natatorium will mark the first time ever the two coaches face off head-to-head.

That doesn't mean they haven't met each other before.

While Morales was a graduate assistant at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., in 1991, Brackin, who took over as Texas's women's coach in May, was coaching across town at Ithaca College.

Morales said when he first met Brackin, she was employed at a workout gym in downtown Ithaca where he would go to take a break from his law school studies.

"It's kind of funny the paths we've taken," Morales said, "me away from law school and Kim from working at a downtown fitness club to coaching at a small school to elevating herself to becoming one of the preeminent coaches in the nation."

Brackin, who was in her early 20s when she first encountered Morales, said she saw him at a Stanford swimming camp in the early 1990s while he was training for the Olympics.

"He was not hard to look at, let's put it that way," Brackin said. "A lot of people had crushes on Pablo. He knows. I was probably one of them."

Brackin said she is ready to come to Nebraska to face Morales's team even though she has never been to Lincoln.

"I told the girls that I feel like a freshman right now because I'm really excited about my first Texas away meet," Brackin said.

The Longhorns should create plenty of excitement for local swimming fans. They have won the Big 12 Conference title seven years in a row and are visiting the Huskers for the first time in four years.

Brackin herself is no slouch. Before taking a year off from coaching, she helped lead the Auburn women's team to three straight national titles in the last part of her eight-year tenure.

Her success at Auburn is what Morales said he wants to achieve at Nebraska, but with Brackin now at Texas, that will be difficult.

"They've been the standard in the conference for quite some time," Morales said. "In order to improve a program, you need to face teams that represent the direction you're headed."

Before Morales arrived at Nebraska in 2001, the women's squad had won five of the past seven Big 12 Conference titles, but the men's swimming and diving program was dropped because of player suspensions and NCAA violations.

The entire swimming program felt the effects. Morales struggled to field a team his first year.

Brackin also faced problems of an internal nature when she took over at Texas earlier this year. Some swimmers and divers had left the program after the season ended and the two former co-coaches were reassigned in the athletic department.

Fortunately for Brackin, she didn't have to go through what Morales did at Nebraska, which was basically rebuilding the women's program from scratch.

While Brackin and Morales both have had great success, the Husker coach said Texas has always had great coaching, no matter who is in charge of the team.

Brackin agreed, but she said going up against coaches with Morales's background is good, too.

"I was truly in awe of his ability to perform like he did and to be such a great representative of the United States in swimming," Brackin said. "I just had, and still do have, a lot of admiration for Pablo. Pablo has been a great coach already."

(C) 2006 Daily Nebraskan via CSTV U-WIRE