When you attend a BYU swim and dive meet at the Richards Building pool for the first time, there are a few things you'll notice.
There's the obvious stuff, like the water and the lifeguard stands; the humidity; and the massive LED boards that overlook the diving platforms and swimming lanes. None of this is particularly unique to BYU's swimming and diving facilities.
While all that is fine and good, what will likely stick with you long after the meet is the student athletes who line the pool cheering on their teammates. The entire time.
The electric band of blue-clad swimmers and divers pour out their support for each other again, and again, and again.
And who is there leading the cheering? Their head coach, Tamber McAllister.
The Big 12 took notice of this and incredible swimming performances from stars like Mackenzie Miller Lung, the national runner-up in the 200 breaststroke, and awarded McAllister the conference women's swimming co-coach of the year.
Growing up, her mother was a swim coach at a pool 40 minutes away from their Northern California home. Her love for the sport of swimming had a significant impact on McAllister at a young age.
The first in her family to get a degree, McAllister has been a Cougar since she swam as a breaststroke specialist for BYU from 2000 to 2004.
"I had actually committed somewhere else," McAllister said. "And then BYU reached out, and I thought I'll give it a shot, and just immediately when I came on my visit, I could feel the difference at BYU."
The difference she identified in that visit was the ability to do what she loved as a swimmer while also living what she believed as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ.
Coaching wasn't part of her plan until a conversation after her graduation with her head coach, Stan Crump.
"He had an opening and asked me," said McAllister. "He was like, 'I think you'd be good at this. Come try it out.' And so I did, and I immediately fell in love with working with the college-level athlete and trying to help mentor them in this important time of their life."
Out of her twenty-year career as a swim coach, three of those years were not at BYU. As she put it, "I kind of bleed blue now."
McAllister was named head coach on May 8, 2024. There are a few things that her coaching philosophy focuses on, particularly empowering her athletes.
"In college, coaching becomes more of a partnership with each individual athlete," she said. "I like to empower them to speak up on the things that they need and communicate with me in a way that is helpful for me to help optimize their talent."
That partnership has been felt by her athletes even before they arrive on their official visit as high schoolers.
Freshman swimmer and fellow breaststroke specialist Lucy Warnick recalls her relationship with coach McAllister while she was getting recruited by BYU.
"She's known me since I was a junior in high school, sophomore maybe, and she's always just been so nice to me," Warnick said. "I remember on my recruiting trip, she was always there and always checking up on me.
"At the start of the season, I was kind of nervous with the transition from club swim to college swimming," Warnick added. "She just listened to everything I had to say. [She] makes adjustments on what I feel I need and what she thinks, and we just collaborate very well together."
Those relationships were the hallmark of the Cougars this last season. Time and time again, the thing the swimmers remember most fondly is the connection they have fostered with each other throughout the season.
For their coach, nothing exemplified that quite like the experience at the Big 12 conference championships.
"It really was fun to see the athletes supporting one another at such a high level," said McAllister. "They were fully invested in their teammates' races and by the side of the pool just really cheering them on.
"After each race or each success, the athletes would come over to the side of the pool and everybody would just be giving hugs and celebrating, and I think that team camaraderie between races was really exceptional."