U.S. Navy photo by Journalist 1st Class Preston Keres |
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| Army World Class Athlete Spc. Bill Tavares, women's bobsled head coach, works with the team on a makeshift ice track just west of the Utah Olympic Park in Park City, Utah, Feb. 7, 2002. The women's bobsled take to the track Feb. 19, in the 2002 Olympic WinterGames for the first time in Olympic history. | ||
| Brian
Lepley Olympic Correspondent U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center Public Affairs PARK CITY, Utah (February 12, 2002) — Spc. Bill Tavares began his coaching career in 1998 like many former athletes do – working for free. Rising from that humble beginning, the U.S. Olympic women’s bobsled team coach and Army World Class Athlete Program soldier preps his team for its Olympic debut. The two-person sleds, one of which is driven by WCAP’s Spc. Jill Bakken, compete here Feb. 19. On the Olympic team with Bakken is her pusher, Vonetta Flowers, driver Jean Racine and her pusher Gea Johnson. It’s been a long but fulfilling road for Tavares, a 1992 Olympic luge team member, from competing in the games to coaching.
“I knew what I was getting myself into. The opportunity arose (in 1998) and I knew the money wasn’t there,” he said. “I went through all my savings that year but I did that to be ready for this year.” Tavares and his assistant coach, WCAP’s Sgt. Tuffield “Tuffy” Latour joined the Army program as women’s bobsled coaches in May 1999. “Coaching the women has been one of the hardest jobs I’ve had but it’s been the most rewarding,” Tavares said. “I’ve always been with the male-dominated sports. I played football, ran track, been with the men’s bobsled team and coaching them. “It’s been a big adjustment for me and it’s been a big adjustment for them to get used to me.” Latour, Tavares’ cohort from the men’s national bobsled team, is also making the move from competing to coaching. “I finished one spot out of the 1998 Olympics. I drove the fourth-place sled at the trials and they took three,” LaTour said. “I figured coaching would be my way to get to the Olympic games, to get my dream. My grandfather was in the 1948 Olympic Games as a bobsled driver.” His first coaching experience was in the U.S. Juniors program at Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1998. His primary duties here at the Olympics are making the Racine and Bakken better drivers. “These ladies already know how to drive the sled, I’m just trying to enhance their abilities. I’m seeing little things maybe that they’re not feeling, watching them in the curves and transitions,” Latour said. “We walk the track and maybe I can read the ice a little bit better.” “It’s worked out well. I’ve got eight years’ driving experience and I get along well with the ladies.” The U.S. National women’s bobsled team has been in existence since 1994. Bakken is the last remaining original team member. Eight years later, the team makes its Olympic debut in its homeland. The “P” word looms large. “I think the pressure’s behind them. Making the Olympic team is the hardest thing you’ll ever do in your life,” Latour said. “Going to the Olympics is just like racing in a world championship or a World Cup race. You’re racing against the world. The toughest competition is when you’re racing against your own teammates to make the team.” The head coach has mixed feelings. With the Olympics on American soil, expectations are on the home team to medal. “These athletes have so much pressure put on them,” Tavares said. “Maybe right or wrong from us, the coaching staff, we put even more on them this year. “I think I have more pressure on myself than on them. They’re going forward with what they have to do. I’ve told them their job is to get in the sled, push it, drive it; mine is to make sure everything is ready for them.” The team trained and raced in Park City since the trials in late December except for a week in San Diego for dry-land training. Latour says the women are as strong and fast as they’ve ever been. “Their driving right now is incredible,” Latour said. “I expect some really great things out of these ladies, really fast starts, and the good finishes are just going to happen.” WCAP is one of more than 200 Morale, Welfare and Recreation programs the Army provides soldiers and families worldwide through the U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center in Alexandria, Va. For more information, visit www.armymwr.com. |
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