Jeff Olsen Named Head Coach of Iowa Central

FORT DODGE, Iowa, July 6. JEFF Olsen has been hired as the second head coach of the Iowa Central men's and women's swimming programs when he was selected after a national search.

Olsen brings with him an impressive resume to a program that has enjoyed top-10 finishes at the NJCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in each of its three seasons on both the men's and women's side.

A former U.S.A. national team member and two-time Texas high school coach of the year, Olsen comes to Iowa Central Community College from Texas A&M University. Olsen's responsibilities while working as a volunteer assistant coach with Jay Holmes and Doug Boyd included providing videotaped stroke analysis to all swimmers and working with the middle distance and distance training groups. After finishing second in the Big XII Conference championship meet, Texas A&M placed 13th at the 2011 NCAA championships.

"Being a part of the A&M program was the most rewarding experience of my professional career," Olsen said. "The lessons I learned about swimming and life from Jay and Doug were invaluable, and the relationships I built with the swimmers will forever inspire me."

Olsen had an immediate impact on Texas high school swimming during his inaugural coaching season in 2005. He inherited an Austin Lake Travis team that had placed 26th at the previous year's state meet and guided it to a third-place finish at state, highlighted by a championship in the 200-yard free relay.

He followed that success by earning consecutive girls state titles in 2006 and 2007 at Dallas Highland Park, which included four individual and three relay titles. He also coached the 2007 boys' state champion in the 200-yard individual medley.

"The most exciting aspect of my time at Highland Park was seeing our number of top-level swimmers grow. I had four returning girls who had swum at the state meet in 2005 grow to a team of eleven girls competing there in 2006," Olsen said. "We also won boys and girls regional titles in the same year for the first time in school history. What that reflects is that with hard work and the right attitude, success can be contagious."

In addition to earning state coach of the year honors from the Texas Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association (2006) and Dallas Morning News (2007), Olsen's coaching accomplishments included mentoring swimmers who went on to compete at the NCAA Division I level at the Air Force Academy, Princeton, Stanford, Texas and Texas A&M.

In the 1990s, Olsen coached several age group and summer-league swim teams while working as a civilian and military journalist. As a coach of the Yongsan Barracudas in Seoul, Korea, Olsen took Defense Department Youth Services teams to the Pacific Junior Olympics in Tokyo and Okinawa. Upon his honorable discharge from military service, Olsen returned to Texas to earn his teaching certificate in Secondary English.

"No matter where I was as a journalist – from Austin to Georgia to Seoul – I found myself coaching swimming and, quite frankly, having more fun working with kids than I did working with adults," Olsen said. "It wasn't easy to change careers midstream, but I'll forever be thankful that I did."

Olsen grew up in Austin training with Longhorn Aquatics coaches Paul Bergen, Richard Quick and Kris Kubik, all of whom have served on U.S. Olympic staffs. His age group and high school successes included setting a national age group record in the 13-14 boys' 200-meter freestyle, winning two junior national titles in the 200 free, claiming two Eastern Interscholastic Swimming Championships in the 200-yard free, and winning five events at the 1985 National Sports Festival.

Under University of Texas head coach Eddie Reese, Olsen earned All-America honors as a middle distance and distance freestyler. He won the Southwest Conference championship in the 500 free as a freshman and was a part of two NCAA championship teams with Texas. Other highlights at the NCAA level included placing eighth in the 200 free in 1987 NCAA Championships and leading off the Longhorns' NCAA championship 800 free relay in 1988.

Olsen represented the United States at the 1987 World University Games in Zagreb, Croatia. There, he placed second in the 200-meter free and anchored Team USA's gold-medal winning 800 free relay. He also represented the U.S. in dual meet competition with the first unified German team in 1990, and competed at the 1988 Olympic Trials and 1986 and 1990 World Championship trials. Working under the guidance of legendary U.S. Swimming coach Mark Schubert during the summer of 1989, Olsen finished third in the 400-meter freestyle at the U.S. National Championships.

"It's quite humbling to look at the list of coaches with whom I was blessed to have one-on-one coach-swimmer and coach-assistant coach relationships with," says Olsen. "My goal is to model those relationships and pass on all of the lessons I've learned from them to my kids. But If I can only pass on one-tenth of what I've learned from them to the student-athletes with whom I work, they will be a very blessed group of kids."

Olsen's academic background is extensive and includes a master of arts in journalism and two bachelor's degrees from the University of Texas in addition to 18 hours of graduate-level English from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. He has taught English and mass communications/journalism at the college and university level since 2005. Olsen is married to the former Susan Honaker and has four children – Olivia, a senior at the University of North Texas; Mark (14); Gretchen (9); and Heidi (7).

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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