, the winner will meet Sunderland in the quarterfinals

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Somewhere in Wayzata, Minnesota, a bunch of teenage boys are plotting when and where theyll next sing Happy Birthday to their coach.The high school swim team tradition started as a random goof, when the boys sensed the best way to get to their modest mentor was to make him the center of attention. So theyd get the song going at a fast food joint and encourage the whole place to join in. Theyd bellow it out on the bus coming back from a meet, or in any public place. David Plummer would just shake his head.Plummer wont turn 31 until October, but the new Olympic 100-meter backstroke bronze medalist is likely to be serenaded before that. Its part of a gift that has been a long time coming.Monday, he and winner Ryan Murphy continued the Americans dominance in the event, extending a gold-medal streak that dates back 20 years and spans six Olympic Games. Murphys gold-medal time of 51.97 seconds was an Olympic record. Plummers 52.4 was a milestone of a different kind.The Oklahoma native, one of four brothers, qualified for his first Olympic team at the U.S. trials last month in Omaha, Nebraska. In the long annals of American swimming, only one older Olympic rookie has stood on the podium: Edgar Adams, who won a silver medal in 1904 for an event called plunge for distance, in which swimmers dove into the pool and floated motionless as far as they could.Plummer, his salt-and-pepper hair still damp, told reporters he didnt have the ideal race but still felt elated.[Murphy] is going to be one of the best of all time and already is, Plummer added. Just to be a little part of his journey is a really cool thing.Along with having no visible ego, Plummer has no agent and no sponsor other than a relationship with Mizuno that provides him with competition suits. He logged the mileage that got him to Rio as a husband, a father of a 3-year-old boy and an infant son, and a coach at two different Twin Cities area high schools -- gigs that keep him on the pool deck at least a couple of hours a day from August through March.He is so down-to-earth and dedicated that its hard to picture the younger version of himself he has described as arrogant and prone to party a little too hard. But Plummer says that less disciplined era doesnt account for the 0.12 seconds that cost him a slot on the London 2012 team. He was hopeful enough of making the team that he cleared his calendar for late July and early August.After that painful near miss, Plummer took off on a monthlong driving trip west with his German shepherd mix riding shotgun, camping, visiting national parks and spending time with friends and extended family. From the outside, it looked like a purposeful voyage to introspection. Plummer, with characteristic self-deprecation, says he simply wanted to avoid hanging around and driving his new bride, Erin Forster, crazy.He returned with renewed commitment, despite the odds stacked against an athlete his age staring down a four-year tunnel. Doubt continued to afflict him any time I had a bad practice, he said. Is this right, is this what Im supposed to be doing?His wifes support was indispensable. Plummer and Forster met on a recruiting trip to the University of Georgia; she enrolled there and he chose the University of Minnesota, but two years later she transferred and they chose each other. They married just before the Olympic trials four years ago.When David weighed whether to continue swimming, she told him, Youd be cheating yourself if you dont. Theyd both finished school with no debt and knew they could stay afloat on what Erin, a physician currently doing a fellowship in neonatal medicine, earned early in her career.We were so lucky it was realistic and we didnt have to struggle with finances, Plummer said.The most intriguing question about Plummer may be when he finds time to sleep. Hes a volunteer assistant for the Minnetonka High School girls team in the fall, working with his close friend and fellow former Gopher Dan Berve.He knows when to challenge them, when to praise them, Breve said. Hes not the kind of guy whos going to blow up on you. He loves being a part of something bigger than himself.Plummer is the head boys coach at Wayzata High School, where one of his volunteer assistants is Peter Rocca, who won two silver medals and a medley relay gold at the 1976 Montreal Games.Rocca recruited Plummer for the position three years ago. The school promptly won the state championship and Plummer was named Minnesota Coach of the Year.He connects with every single kid and makes them feel special, said Rocca, an investment company executive. If you werent getting along, you had to go talk to him. The seniors had to take care of the eighth graders. Theyre squirrelly males at that point, and they all took a lot more responsibility.Monday, Plummer said he didnt think his medal would change his coaching style.Getting high school kids to listen to anything isnt super-easy, but hopefully it gives me a little more credibility, he said.Theres a decent chance of that. At the very least, theyll have to believe him when he says wishes made over candles on a cake sometimes need a little time to come true.ESPN Stats and Information reporter Paul J. Carr contributed to this story. Gareth Bale Wales Jersey . Pert has formerly spent time as an assistant coach with Cardiff City, Coventry City, and Bahrain mens national team. 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