Yahoo Sports’ PAT FORDE, best known for his college-focused “Forde-Yard Dash” and “Forde Minutes” columns, found himself in a unique position this week. As he prepares for his busiest stretch of the year, his 16-year-old daughter BROOKE is competing in the World Junior Swimming Championships in Singapore. Forde made the 26-hour trip from his home in Louisville to cheer on Brooke, who was the top American in the 400-meter IM earlier in the week, finishing fourth overall, and who finished eighth in the 200 IM earlier Friday. SportsBusiness Journal caught up with Forde while in Singapore to talk about the experience and how he balanced the beginning of the college football season from halfway across the globe.
Q: Most of the time you’re watching athletes you don’t know or marginally know compete. How does it compare to watching your own daughter compete?
FORDE: This is better than any Iron Bowl, better than any Kentucky-Louisville basketball game, better than any Kentucky Derby. For one thing, it’s not work. I’m not sitting here thinking, “What’s the column?” The emotional investment is far different. It’s pure joy -- OK, with a little stress mixed in -- to see your kids compete doing something they love, and to have their hard work rewarded. It’s not just watching Brooke in Singapore; it’s watching my oldest son swim at the University of Missouri and my younger son compete for his club team (Lakeside Swim Team, same as Brooke) and his high school (St. Xavier). They all have their own goals and all have dedicated a lot of their young lives to the sport. My wife and I can’t be more proud of all of them.
Swimming has become what we do -- it sets our schedule (including a lot of early mornings, mostly for my wife) and tends to be what we talk about at the dinner table. Our kids have made lifelong friends in the sport and received wonderful coaching and mentoring at every level -- from the neighborhood summer team where they started to national and international competition. We have been very lucky. ... I covered MICHAEL PHELPS winning eight gold medals in Beijing and never thought I’d see anything that exciting at a swimming pool. But I hate to tell him, watching my kids compete is much cooler. When the taxi brought me to the very nice venue here in Singapore for the first time, I will admit to getting a lump in the throat. It’s a long way from seeing her swimming 25s at age 5 as a Douglass Hills Hurricane.
Q: On the same day of the race, or close to it, you were posting stories on Yahoo Sports. How are you able to do that?
FORDE: I did my best to work ahead of my departure Sunday (Aug. 23) for Singapore, filing a few things for use this week. Also, it took 26 hours to get here (brutal), so there was ample work time on the planes. It also helps that my bosses have been very supportive and accommodating of me taking this little junket on the eve of football season.
Q: Is college football’s preseason your busiest time?
FORDE: It’s pretty hectic -- I was at Ohio State, Notre Dame and Georgia Tech in one week. But honestly, the really busy time starts next week when I begin writing the “Forde-Yard Dash.” That consumes the entirety of every Monday, plus a lot of thinking time Sunday night. And I’m adding a new but exciting item to the to-do list next week: a daily, football-centric podcast with Yahoo colleague DAN WETZEL that, in theory at least, will be available first thing every morning Monday through Friday for listeners. Yes, that is a shameless plug.
Q: Brooke qualified for the world championships earlier this month at the U.S. Nationals, which left less than three weeks until Singapore. Because of the late timing, how much of a logistical juggle was it to get there and who went?
FORDE: It was pretty crazy. We didn’t know Brooke was going until she made the U.S. Junior National Team in San Antonio on Aug. 6, I think it was. USA Swimming handled all her travel, and I got to work on my end of it. I had to move some stuff around, clear it with the office and with my wife, but it came together surprisingly well. Best way to put it: Loyally flying Delta and staying at Marriotts helped make this much more cost-effective than I anticipated. I am here solo. My wife is a teacher and missing a week at the beginning of the school year would have been very difficult. My sons are back in school as well, so they couldn’t go. Lakeside is fortunate enough to have two girls on Team USA, so another swim dad is here with me from Louisville.
Q: Are you staying in touch with college football headlines, like the episode with USC coach STEVE SARKISIAN?
FORDE: Definitely. The Sark stuff broke while I was in the Detroit airport, and I read a lot about it while flying from there to Tokyo. I feel a bit disconnected because my reading habits and ability to call people are both compromised by time and distance, but the Internet remains a marvelous thing for keeping up with what’s going on thousands of miles away.
