Yuri Suguiyama: Recipient of 2010-11 PVS Coach of the Year

Feature by Chelsea Howard

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania, October 21. AS a result of a successful 2010-11 season and several nominations from his peers, Yuri Suguiyama was named Potomac Valley Swimming Coach of the Year.

"Receiving this award means a lot and I view it as an affirmation of all the hard work my swimmers and I have put in over the past few years. There are a large number of very talented and experienced coaches in the Potomac Valley LSC so to be recognized by and amongst them is quite an honor," Suguiyama said.

Suguiyama currently coaches with Curl-Burke and is the head coach at the Georgetown Prep site in Rockville, Md. The club has 19 different training locations throughout Maryland, Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia, totaling more than 2,000 swimmers.

"It can be difficult to coach with such a large club team in terms of handling the administrative side of things but it just requires a lot of planning, organization, and communication amongst our staff," Suguiyama said.

Dealing with this aspect of the sport is minimal compared to the advantages of having so many people involved within the community.

"The biggest advantage of having this many swimmers is that there is always something exciting happening with the club. Whether it's our athletes racing at National-level competitions, attending select camps, winning awards, or traveling internationally to train and race, someone on the club is always doing something special," Suguiyama said.

Suguiyama has been around the pool ever since he was six years-old, which is when he first started swimming. He continued his swimming career into the collegiate level where he swam for the University of North Carolina. He broke school records in the 1000 and 1650 yard freestyle and showed leadership by becoming co-captain during the 2003-2004 season.

After college, Suguiyama wasn't ready to give up the sport and continued his involvement by starting his coaching career. His first experience began at his local summer pool – Windsor Knolls Wahoos at age 16. He has been coaching with Curl-Burke for five years, but has been coaching for 12 years.

"One of the biggest differences of being a coach and being a swimmer is going from a situation where you are solely focusing on yourself on a day-to-day basis to a situation as a coach where you have to focus and plan for a wide range of swimmers," Suguiyama said.

Since he has been a part of the sport for so long, Suguiyama is learning from the fact that there is no single way to be successful as a coach or a program.

"As a coach, you borrow bits and pieces from other program and fit them into yours using your coaching style as you see fit. There isn't just "one style" of coaching out there, and I've been really fortunate to be surrounded by a great staff at Curl-Burke. We're very close-knit and I can pick up the phone and call a colleague whenever the need arises," Suguiyama said.

Looking forward in his career, Suguiyama sets goals beyond aspects of swimming and help his swimmers outside of the pool.

"My main goal is to build a program that is governed by a few key principles – hard work, self-discipline, honor, team work – and then let my staff implement these principles within the context of our sport. It's important to me that my swimmers be successful and accomplish things like win races, break records, and go on to swim in college, but it's even more important to me that they go on to be successful in life. I want them to feel like after swimming at Curl-Burke, they can do anything they set their minds to and are willing to work for," Suguiyama said.

In addition to being successful in life, Suguiyama encourages his swimmers to always give their best effort and push past obstacles.

"I talk a lot to my swimmers about always giving great effort and working hard no matter what the circumstances you are presented with. There's a great saying that athletics doesn't build character but reveals it, and I like to ask my swimmers what their training and racing habits say about them. Are you the type of athlete / person that can only do well when you're feeling great or when everything is going your way or can you stand up under adversity and really shine?" Suguiyama said.

With the combination of a fun, innovative, and an eager attitude, Suguiyama has left a strong impact with all of the swimmers he's around.

"Yuri works well with every swimmer. He helps everyone with technique, race strategy, and goal setting. He encourages all of us to set goals each season, but without setting limits. You can tell that he loves to coach and comes to practice every day ready to help us improve in any way possible," Katie Ledecky, one of his swimmers, said.

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