[9/07/2001]After a few weeks of practice, Kenny Milligan is ready to get his feet wet as a swimming coach.

Milligan, who served as an assistant football coach at Chamberlain-Hunt for the past three seasons, will make his debut as Vicksburg High’s swim coach Saturday at the 10-team Warren Central Invitational meet at City Pool.

“I’ve been swimming all my life, but this is the first time I coached it,” said Milligan, who swam competitively in New Orleans as a teen-ager. “I guess I remember enough to keep them afloat.”

Milligan said Tim Heinen, coach of the Vicksburg Swim Association’s Coke Racers, and City Pool manager Sylvia Gurtowksi have helped ease the transition from football to swimming. But it’s his swimmers who have helped Milligan the most, he said.

“They’re pretty knowledgeable. They know what to do and what not to do. It makes it a lot easier … ,” Milligan said. “They worked hard and are disciplined … couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Except maybe a few more.

VHS has only 14 swimmers. Warren Central, with 18, and St. Al’s girls, with four, can relate.

Although there are talented individuals on each team WC is led by year-round swimmers Anna Miller and Jacob Fischenich, while VHS has Lee Artz and Bonnie Lee the low numbers will make it hard for the Warren County teams to compete for team titles against deeper squads like Madison Central and Clinton, both of which will be at Saturday’s meet.

“We’re a little slim on the boys’ side. We only have seven, so that hurts us on the team score. But the seven we have are very strong, so we’ll do very well individually,” WC coach Andrea Fairchild said.

The format of the meet should shift the focus away from the team competition anyway. With 10 teams and only eight lanes, teams will be limited to just two swimmers per event. Several heats will be run in events like the 50- and 100-meter freestyle, which typically draw more swimmers.

“It really helps most of the teams simply because most of the people don’t have an opportunity to have an additional program,” Fairchild said. “So it gives those of us with smaller numbers a more competitive ability.”

St. Al already has that ability.

The Flashes, who host their own meet Sept. 15 at City Pool, finished fourth in the team standings at the state meet last year. Coach Bruce Ebersole said his boys’ team, nine strong, could challenge for a state title again.

“I want to see where they stand in relation to the (state) qualifying times,” Ebersole said. “We want to do well point-wise, but that is not really my objective right now.”