Julian Swartz named Assistant at Georgia Tech

[Herman Cain]

Always good PR when an alumni of our program does well.

http://ramblinwreck.com/julian-swartz-named-basketball-assistant-coach/

[GGGG]

Wonderful personal story as well.  Feel good for the guy.

[rocket surgeon]

Didn’t realize his ties to MU.  There is a really good story behind this really good story.  He really is an inspiration to many and not many better to greet these utes coming into all kinds of new pressures and temptations.  Julian is walking the walk, so he can talk the talk.    A huge congratulations to Julian

[brewnewsman]

I was not aware of his story - but found this from the NY Times from March 2003. Glad he is doing well.


Sports of The Times; Road After the Final Four Was His Hardest Journey/NY Times

Julian Swartz sounded upbeat.

He had just arrived at his parents' home in Waukesha, Wis., and was getting reading to dig into Day 1 of March Madness. His Final Four choices were set: Kentucky, Arizona, Oklahoma and Texas. Kentucky would beat Arizona, Oklahoma would beat Texas. Kentucky would win it all.

There was also a sentimental choice in his bracket. Swartz had the University of Wisconsin winning its first two games. Anything can happen. ''When I was in the Final Four, no one picked us,'' he said by telephone.

Swartz was a freshman on the Wisconsin Badgers team that reached the Final Four in 2000. He seemed to be enjoying the ride. He was coming off an outstanding high school career, having been named the Associated Press player of the year in Wisconsin, and was attending his college of choice.

Things seemed good.

But what many of us forget as we watch big-time sporting events is that young college athletes -- as courageous as they seem in the arena -- are humans with human problems. Swartz had a dark and painful side. In the ninth grade, a psychiatrist diagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder, a disease characterized by recurrent and unwanted ideas, images or impulses, and by the urge to do something to relieve the discomfort they cause. For Swartz, the good feeling of the Badgers' run masked his burgeoning anxiety.

''From the outside I put it all in perspective,'' Swartz says now. ''I was just a freshman, I would have my time. But in my head I was panicking and depressed.''

In his mind, he wasn't working hard enough, he wasn't perfect enough, he was failing.

When the team got together for a spring workout, Swartz, in his mind, had a bad practice. That triggered a bout of depression that led to his departure from the team.

He took the summer off from basketball and moved back to his parents' home. The depression and anxiety worsened, and in August 2000 he told the coaching staff that he was in no condition to play. He took the year off.

Swartz had a good summer in 2001. But on the third day of workouts at Wisconsin, he had another bad practice. There was another bout of depression, then Swartz attempted suicide.

He said he tried to flip over his moped while making it look like an accident. He left the university and spent 12 weeks in therapy.

He transferred to Wisconsin-Green Bay for the second semester. But that comeback ended in the emergency room after Swartz consumed 90 pills of two different types of antidepressants.

Swartz says now that the overdose was a result of his compulsiveness, not another suicide attempt.

Swartz never played in a game at Wisconsin-Green Bay; he just filled in when the team needed bodies. But that was enough to reignite his craving for basketball. He moved back to Waukesha so he could play at Carroll College, a Division III school two miles from his home.

This was a final twist to his story. Swartz admitted that coming out of high school, there was no way he would have considered Carroll. Now the college is a life preserver.

Swartz's experience is representative of a persistent blind spot in college recruiting, especially in revenue sports. So many athletes choose the wrong colleges for the wrong reasons. There is self-image, ego, family members, peer pressure. Recruiters convince blue chip athletes that the only way to get to ''the league'' is to play at so-called big-time programs, regardless of whether the college or its program is a good fit.

After all, everyone wants to have a cameo on ''SportsCenter.''

In fairness to Wisconsin, Swartz believes his condition wasn't triggered by pressure. His condition could have flared up at any level, he said.

''People want to think it's the pressure of big-time ball,'' he said. ''It can happen when you're shooting around with buddies and you're not shooting well. It's such a powerful force, a feeling so powerful, it can happen any place at any level.''

Swartz's roommate as a freshman was Kirk Penney, now a senior on the Badger team in the Midwest regional.

''There is a lot of pressure playing basketball in the Big Ten,'' Penney said yesterday in Spokane, Wash. ''If you can't keep it in perspective, it can cause you problems. I don't know if that affected Jules, but I can say from personal experience that the pressure can affect you.''

Swartz played 15 games for Carroll this season. The team finished 7-16 and was ninth in the 10-team Midwest Conference. What Swartz remembers about the season is mustering the courage to get through his first game after a two-and-a-half year layoff. He scored 20 points on Jan. 4 in an 83-79 loss to Ripon.

Swartz called playing that game ''the biggest accomplishment of my life.''

''I got through the game, but it was extremely hard,'' he said. ''The first half of the game was so difficult because I had so much stuff going through my mind; I was miserable, but I got through it.''

Swartz is a Final Four story worth telling again and again.

Coaches, athletics directors and even players spend so much energy trying to achieve their goals that a single seemingly insignificant moment of glory is overlooked in the disappointment over a loss or the rage over a bad call.

Julian Swartz was a hot-shot freshman who reached the Final Four right out of high school. Today, he is happy to be alive, grateful to play Division III basketball on a team with a losing record.

Nevertheless, these next few weeks will be bittersweet. He remembers the spotlight of his Final Four experience, but he also remembers the haunting uneasiness in his soul.

Now he'll settle for peace of mind.

[rocket surgeon]

Good find brew.  Nice story.  Although very understandably, the story didn’t report one minor detail.

His dad didn’t help

[theBabyDavid]

A huge congratulations to Julian

Huge is correct. Julian hit a few bbq joints on his way to 'Lanta.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Huge is correct. Julian hit a few bbq joints on his way to 'Lanta.

I know you're joking, but the weigh gain could be from his meds for the OCD and anxiety.

[Billy Hoyle]

this was a prior article about Swarz's battle with OCD and how he planned to kill himself but had to get the suicide note perfect first. Thankfully it never happened. Props to him using his experiences to help others with a similar illness.  We often downplay OCD, often joking about us or others having it because of certain things (e.g. there was a guy on my floor in McCormick who had an exact place for everything on his desk and his roommate would move things just to watch him put them back).  However, actual OCD is serious, not a joke.

https://www.si.com/vault/2000/11/20/8114663/a-crucial-timeout-julian-swartz-is-taking-this-hoops-season-off-this-school-year-off-he-found-a-way-to-fight-his-condition

[rocket surgeon]

I know you're joking, but the weigh gain could be from his meds for the OCD and anxiety.

Yeah, the weight shame was kinda weird.  One of the kind of comments rocket the victim attracts quite “the crowd”, nothing to see here, move along.  Don’t leave home without it