WATERLOO, Ont. - It's no secret the media landscape surrounding university athletics in Canada is different from what's seen in the United States.
That said, there are countless publications, social media accounts, and departmental websites like this one working hard to provide coverage for our student-athletes.
Last season, Marty Konecny provided coverage of the OUA Swimming championships for Laurier Athletics all while participating in the event himself. He'll be doing the same this year.
Already a gifted athlete, Konecny has an overflowing passion for swimming that extends beyond the pool, and it's what pushed him to start his own Instagram account covering U SPORTS swimming; @UniSwimCanada.
"I just love swimming," he said. Konecny cites SwimSwam – which covers various swimming events and competitions including NCAA – as an inspiration. "I was like, "man, I wish we had something like that in Canada."
Enter UniSwimCanada. Modeled after swimming sites like SwimSwam as well as independent Canadian sports media labels like PRSVRE, Konecny's goal was to cover every U SPORTS swim meet, country wide.
"I debated a bit, because that would be a big, big commitment. So, the first year, I only did the OUA."
Covering an entire conference as a one-man operation is of course still quite a "big commitment."
"I went on to [every team's] athletics sites and I wrote down all of their schedules, when every team is swimming, all the championships," he explained.
"Then I needed to go on to Photoshop and make a template for my posts. I went on Google, found some inspiration for that, and made my template. Then every time a meet would roll up, I'd find the results for it, punch in the numbers, and I'd make my make my post."
If that sounds like a lot of work, now add in the fact that often Konecny would have to extrapolate the scores from very little information.
"Sometimes teams are really good with posting scores. Sometimes they'll even use a certain app called MeetMobile, and sometimes that will also automatically show scores, which is great.
"But if it doesn't, I would find the results from Swim Canada about a day later, and I had an Excel document. I'd punch in all the numbers and then do all the math to calculate the scores myself."
"I have to go through every single event, type in all the numbers, figure out all the teams' scores, and triple check the math because I don't want to get a score wrong. It was a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun too."
By the end of the first year, Konecny had enlisted the help of his friend Evan Moore, who'd review his posts to double check spelling and formatting.
Starting this summer, Moore's been joined by Konecny's Golden Hawks teammates Kelton Langman and Daniel Romagnoli on the UniSwimCanada team. Konecny says their feedback is extremely helpful, if only in different ways.
"Kelton's super passionate, just like me, and I bounce ideas off him on ways to do things," he said. "Whenever I tell [Daniel] what I'm doing, he's always very critical. Like "you're doing that wrong, you should do it this way." And that is something that is so beneficial to have on an account like this."
"We've been going through every team, looking at all of their recruited athletes, everyone who's committed. And we're using personal best to determine who are the best of the best. I told Daniel my thought process for it, he said "that's wrong" ... and now we're doing it his way," Konecny laughed.
"And he was completely right! That's why it's so important to have him on this team."
In addition to the rankings posts, @UniSwimCanada kept fans updated over the offseason by posting every recruit signing post made by U SPORTS teams on their story.
Konecny's ambition for the account goes beyond just keeping people informed on results and signings. In January of this year, UniSwimCanada made five posts detailing why prospective student athletes should accept their offer of admission to different OUA schools, with information sourced from current coaches and student-athletes.
"I remember shedding tears, I was just so torn over who to decide," he remembered. "I thought there are probably so many other future swimmers in that situation who are debating and debating, maybe even shedding tears over it like I did."
Konecny has already started to expand UniSwimCanada's coverage beyond the OUA, and hopes to continue that throughout the 2023-2024 season; "this year, it is my intention to cover every conference."
Since giving this interview, Konecny has added Montreal Carabins alum Tatyanna Goyette to the team as an RSEQ expert.
Having recently passed the 900-follower mark, the account has been growing consistently, even throughout the offseason.
"The long-term goal would be something similar to PRSVRE or SwimSwam here in Canada; cover every meet, every athlete, and be able to really break it down, but for that, you need to make money," he said.
"I would love to monetize the account one day. It's just going to take time to do that."
For now, Konecny is confident in the direction the account is heading.
"If we can cover every swim meet that happens in the whole country this year, then there are bigger things on the horizon for sure."
The Golden Hawks have already got off to a fast start on their 2023 season, and they'll look to keep that momentum going tonight when they host the battle of Waterloo meet at the Athletic Complex pool. The first race is set for 7 p.m.
