Reese, Benner in Contention for USOC Coach of the Year Awards

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, June 8. EDDIE Reese (Austin, Texas/Longhorn) and Jay Benner (Tacoma, Wash./Tacoma SC) are among the finalists for two of the United States Olympic Committee Coach of the Year honors, announced Wednesday. Reese is one of five finalists for the USOC National Coach of the Year, and Benner is a finalist for the USOC Development Coach of the Year. The awards will be presented on June 23 during the Night of Champions event at the U.S. Olympic Assembly in La Jolla, Calif.

Reese, the head men’s swimming coach at the University of Texas, had seven of his swimmers compete on the 2005 World Championship team, including: Aaron Peirsol, Ian Crocker, Brendan Hansen, Neil Walker, Nate Dusing, Garrett Weber-Gale and Matt McGinnis. These swimmers accounted for nine medals at the World Championships (eight gold and one silver), with six of the medals coming in individual events and three in relays.

Reese also saw his athletes combine to break three world records in 2005, with Peirsol surpassing his own marks in the 100m and 200m backstroke and Crocker snapping his own 100m butterfly record. Reese was named the World Swimming Coaches Association 2005 Terao Award winner, naming him the coach of the 2001-04 quadrennium.

“It’s an honor to be nominated with all the great coaches working with our U.S. National teams today. I am surprised and appreciate being recognized by the United State Olympic Committee,” Reese said. “An award like this is given to a coach when he has great athletes around him and works with them to produce great results. To be successful, an athlete must trust the coach, and vice-versa. Being nominated means I am headed in the right direction.”

Benner has enjoyed an enormous amount of success training and developing young swimmers, helping them mature into talented elite-level athletes. In 2005, Benner, the head coach of the Tacoma Swim Club, was the only USA Swimming coach to place three athletes on the 2005 National Junior Team that competed at the 2005 Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Maui, Hawaii.

On the international scene in 2005, Benner served as a men’s assistant coach for the 2005 U.S. Summer World University Games team that competed in Izmir, Turkey. One of his swimmers, Ryan Verlatti, competed on his second National Team at WUGs, bringing home two bronze medals swimming on relays.

“It’s a nice honor to be considered for the award,” Benner said. “It really is more of a reflection of the kids I’ve had the opportunity to work with. I was fortunate to have a group of very good athletes that bought into the program and the challenges I put before them. For as well as they performed last year, I’m more excited about the future of those kids and what they’ll achieve down the road.”

The five finalists for the National Coach of the Year include: Reese, Mike Candrea (Tucson, Ariz./USA Softball), Gail Goestenkors (Hillsborough, N.C./USA Basketball), David Johnson (Colorado Springs, Colo./USA Shooting) and Bobby Kersee (Ballwin, Mo./USA Track & Field).

The Developmental Coach of the Year finalists include: Benner, Susan Butz-Stavin (Fleetwood, Pa./U.S. Field Hockey), Tammy Gambill (Redlands, Calif./U.S. Figure Skating), Jimmy Jang (Marquette, Mich./U.S. Speedskating) and Maureen O’Toole Purcell (Danville, Calif./USA Water Polo).

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x