Herbie Behm sustaining standard of winning for Sun Devils swim and dive

PHOENIX – When Arizona State coach Herbie Behm swam for the Sun Devils, he recalls having to sell raffle tickets during winter breaks so the swim and dive program wouldn’t be cut by the university. 

More than a decade later, he has led the Sun Devils to back-to-back Big 12 titles on both the men’s and women’s side, and the men’s program has emerged as a national powerhouse. 

“It’s fun to be a part of the growth (of the program) the entire way,” Behm said. 

ASU swimming has grown exponentially from where it was when Behm was churning out laps in the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center pool from 2010-2013. 

“I specifically remember being at meets and that first relay, myself and my roommate were behind the blocks and we look up in the stands and it was just his mom and dad watching,”  Behm said. “We’ve gotten a little better.” 

Have they ever. ASU broke the collegiate swimming attendance record at the Sun Devils first dual meet of the season against UNLV, drawing 2,867 spectators. The stands were so full that some fans had to watch from nearby parking garages. 

The roots of this rapid rise can be traced to former coach Bob Bowman, who took over the program in 2015. 

“The process was tremendously satisfying to know we could get to the very top level of the sport,” said Bowman, who coached Michael Phelps during his earth-shattering Olympic career. “Then, by the time we got there, the culture of the team was built to last.”

Bowman left ASU two years ago to take over the Texas swim program after leading the Sun Devils to a national championship in 2024, and to a second-place finish in 2023.

“I think I’m most proud of the fact that we took a program that had basically been cut and built it up slowly over nine years to a point where it could be at the very top level,” Bowman said. “There were many years in there where the only people who believed that could happen was just our small group of coaches.”

The ASU program has won back-to-back women’s Big 12 Conference championships, four straight men’s conference championships – across time in the Pac-12 and Big 12 – and is responsible for producing the most Olympians of any sport at ASU. 

Behm said having Sun Devils represent their countries on the world stage is one of his biggest sources of pride – a representation of what the swim and dive program has become. 

“In our office, we have the caps from everyone who has made an Olympics or world championship with their country and their name on it,” Behm said. “That’s what we want to keep growing. That’s the pinnacle of our sport and we want ASU to be represented at the highest level.” 

Those caps include Léon Marchand, the French superstar and former ASU swimmer who was the face of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Mona Plummer Aquatic Center may need another office constructed if the Sun Devils keep churning out Olympic-level talent.

Just last summer at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, ASU had 10 athletes representing countries from all over the globe – including Marchand, the four-time Olympic gold medalist in Paris. He won gold again at the world championship with the fifth fastest 400-meter individual medley time ever. 

“We had, like, a whole team representing their different countries,” Behm said. “That’s what we want.” 

Whether swimming in a gold-medal race or an October dual meet, Behm and the ASU coaching staff specifically harp on upholding what they often refer to as “the standard.”

“One of our philosophies is ‘How you do anything is how you do everything,’” Behm said. 

It’s something Behm pushes his swimmers to maintain in every aspect of life, in the pool and out of it.

“Making sure the standard of what we are doing is high,” Behm said. “That’s in the classroom, how we sleep, how we eat. And if we are raising the bar on that, the bar for swimming is going to rise naturally. It’s cool seeing people have high-value lives, and I think the byproduct is performing well in the water.”

Behm applauded this year’s senior class for maintaining that standard and being leaders for the rest of the team – even if they weren’t the highest recruits out of high school.

“So much of coaching is, in a way, gambling on who’s going to be the best in two, three or four  years.” Behm said. “It’s like, ‘OK , I’m certain that one who might not be there yet, he’s going to get there because he’s doing all the steps to grow and make himself get better.’

“I’d way rather be betting on that person’s success than someone who might be half a second faster in a 100 right now but doesn’t really care and who isn’t focused on all those little details. Those little details make a big difference over time. It’s making sure everybody has that standard. Our senior class right now has been exactly that.”

It is a senior class that includes several athletes who have been around throughout what has become a golden age of Sun Devil swimming. 

Senior Jonny Kulow, a 13-time conference champion and current member of the USA Swimming National Team, remembers how much a conference championship meant to the seniors on the 2022-23 team when he was just a freshman.

“Being able to (win a conference title) all four years, and now me being a senior and looking back and being like, ‘It’s the freshmen’s first time, but I’ve been able to do this three other times.’ It’s really incredible and kind of surreal,” Kulow said. 

He knows success doesn’t come easily but sees winning as a byproduct of the culture the Sun Devils have created. 

“I think it’s all the environment and atmosphere here,” Kulow said. “Everyone wants what’s best for the team. The collective goal of fighting for the team and representing ASU has really carried it away.

“The standard is giving 100% when you are only able to give 80. Giving 100% of that 80%…Whatever you’ve got today, just laying it all out there.”

Behm has had a front-row seat to how far Kulow has come during his time at ASU.

“He dropped a second and a half in an 18-second race,” Behm said. “That is something that very few people do.”

ASU’s men’s team finished 10-0 in meets this season, and the men and women captured Big 12 titles. Bowman’s Longhorns finished atop the final College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America rankings, with the Sun Devils second. The Sun Devil women are ranked 18th.

Now, as the Sun Devils look toward the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in Atlanta – the women’s tournament runs Wednesday through Saturday; the men compete March 25 through March 28 – the standard doesn’t change. It is about trusting the years of work the athletes have put in and knowing the results will follow. 

Kulow described every win this season as “another brick on the pile” in building towards the NCAA championship. 

“Our paramount goal has always been NCAAs and so every win along the way, every dual meet win, this Big 12 win is just part of the process that we all have in our minds of how we are going to get to (the NCAA Championships) and how we are going to perform at the end of March,” he said.

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