With his oxygen tank strapped onto the front of his walker, performance consultant Hank Krusen slowly rolled his way across the East pool deck. Under his skinny, black, circular glasses were two exhausted, yet welcoming eyes, heading straight for the spot next to the wooden table behind the starting blocks. The day before, he was lying in a hospital bed, strapped to an oxygen tank after just undergoing a procedure due to heart failure.
Throughout last winter, Krusen visited the hospital 11 times, each lasting between four and five days. But as soon as he was discharged from each hospital trip, Krusen could always be found the next day at 3:30 pm on the East pool deck with the boys swim team.
This was the one time of day when Krusen could forget about his health complications and fulfill his “dream job” since the mid-1970s of being a part of the coaching staff for the East boys swim team.
“These kids are what make me motivated to come here every day,” Krusen said. “They’re the best high school team I’ve coached in terms of attitude and everything else.”
Due to his health complications, Krusen had to miss about half the practices last year and only made it to two meets. Although Krusen no longer needs an oxygen tank and has only missed one day of practice this year, he admits that his health is still not perfect.
“[Being here] gets my mind off of other things,” Krusen explained. “And that’s better for me than sitting at home worrying about my health complications.”
From 2003-2016, Krusen had been content with cultivating his own swim program at Olathe Northwest, as he had formed the first swim program there and was proud of the team he had created. However, Krusen has lived two blocks away from East since 1976 and his daughter graduated from East in 2000. After looking at the number of National Merit Scholars and state qualifying teams back in the mid-1970s, Krusen knew that East students were special.
“I mean just like today, two kids are coming up from practicing for track, and they looked at me and said ‘Do you want to get inside?’” Krusen explained. “I told them ‘don’t worry I’ll knock on the window,’ and they said ‘No, no, no’ and took the time to run around the door and let me in. And they didn’t even know me.”
Unlike other schools Krusen has coached at, he feels that he doesn’t have to “drag the East swimmers up the hill.” Since many East swimmers practice year round with different clubs, they have a stronger swim background when they begin the high school season.
As the performance consultant, Krusen remains seated behind the starting block where he can observe the start, stroke and turn technique of the swimmers. If Krusen notices any issues like a swimmer not getting out of the water enough on a backstroke start, he is able to recommend drills to help them correct their technique.
According to senior varsity swimmer Brian Christian, Krusen is a very powerful presence on the pool deck, as all the swimmers respect that he has coached for over 40 years and has trained four Olympians when he was an assistant coach with the Blazers swim team.
“[Krusen’s] been around the sport a very long time, so he knows just about everything there is to know about swimming,” Christian said. “He’s really fixed my backstroke start and that’s helped me drop time.”
Head swim coach Wiley Wright and Krusen have been friends in the coaching world since Krusen’s team beat Wiley’s by one place at state. The two kept in contact throughout the years, and knowing that Krusen only lives two blocks from East, Wiley told Krusen to just let him know “when he’s ready” and he would be welcome to help out the East boys swim team.
“I finally said ‘Wiley I’m ready,’” Krusen explained. “Being the performance consultant [at East] has been great because I get to come to practices, come to meets and help the swimmers, without having to do all of the planning like the head swim coach. It’s been my dream job since forever.”