 "Photo: Shaun Stewart/The Daily Texan")
Editor’s Note: For the next week, The Daily Texan will highlight the best coaches on the 40 Acres and debate who reigns supreme atop the Texas coaching conglomerate.
If you’ve been on campus this week, chances are you noticed the children and teens being corralled up and down San Jacinto Boulevard as part of the University’s official swimming and diving camp. Their chauffeurs are mostly volunteers from around Austin, but behind the entire operation is Texas’ head swimming coach, Eddie Reese .
Forget that the man has been the head coach for three men’s Olympic swimming teams, accounting for a total of 29 gold medals in the past 17 years. Forget that he is a nine-time NCAA coach of the year. Forget that for the past three decades Reese’s teams have been the cream of the Big 12 crop, with the program racking up 30 straight conference titles without missing a beat.
For the next few weeks, Eddie Reese is just another coach to the kids enjoying their time at UT’s Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
In case you missed that last statistic, though, let me remind you of it: in Reese’s first year at Texas, his team placed 21st in the national tournament, but since then, the Longhorns have never placed outside of the top 10 at the NCAAs, and they have won every single conference title in that 30-year period.
With the fastest sophomore in America, Jimmy Feigen, returning next season, 2010 has a good chance of seeing the iconic Reese once more poolside at the NCAA Championship.
With respect to Auburn, the 2009 national champs and a perennial powerhouse, they might want to start calling it the Eddie Reese Show, or at least name a pool or two in his honor.
Oh yeah, and the guy who rebuilt a stagnating Auburn team into a national runner-up in 1978? That would be Reese, who coached the Tigers for six years and got them to their highest national finish in school history at the time. He also coached the Tigers’ first individual NCAA champion.
He started his career at Florida though, where he was a prolific swimmer in the breaststroke, medley and freestyle. But eventually, after leaving his mark on the SEC, Reese hopped ponds to the Big 12 in 1978 where he has become the most successful coach in the league’s history.
That’s the thing about Reese — he’s everywhere.
Hobnobbing at the Golden Goggles in New York City? Looking up from your roasted, cognac-drowned Ortolan, you might see Reese accepting USA Swimming’s Coach of the Year award, which he has won twice.
Just checking out your favorite swimmers at the 2008 Beijing Olympics? Observe Reese, imparting wisdom upon some of the most gifted swimmers in the world, including poster boy Michael Phelps.
As your explore the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., you won’t be surprised to find Reese there, emblazoned with all the greats like Tex Robertson and Adolf Kiefer.
It is necessary to list Reese’s accomplishments because a lot of his work is thankless.
Baseball has the College World Series, and while three million viewers is pretty dismal by Longhorn standards, at least ESPN and its affiliates carried all the action in Omaha as Augie Garrido’s men raced to a thrilling second-place finish in 2009.
No, swimming is usually little more than an afterthought for most Americans unless the Olympics are on television.
Nevertheless, Reese continues to shine, both in coaching and outside of it.
His pipeline of world-class athletes into the University is a testament to Reese’s eye for talent and appreciation of raw swimming skills, but he is even more renowned for his ability to teach student-athletes about life.
He is at home both talking to incoming freshmen and coaching Michael Phelps, the Olympian with the most gold medals in the history of the games.
Next to the pool or with his athletes doing land work, Reese is usually sporting some sort of amused grin, but don’t mistake it for hubris or pride — Reese is probably just daydreaming about next year’s NCAA championship.
3 comments
He's a great coach, but you have to make sure you don't overdo it.
Lay out the facts and let the reader realize his greatness.You're better than that, Will... the tone sounds more like that kid who started the 45-35 thing.
He's a great coach, but you have to make sure you don't overdo it.
Lay out the facts and let the reader realize his greatness.You're better than that, Will... the tone sounds more like that kid who started the 45-35 thing.