Randy Reese (born 1946) is an American college and Olympic swimming coach. Reese is best known for coaching the Florida Gators swimming and diving teams of the University of Florida to four national championships, and coaching the winners of eighteen Olympic gold, eight silver and eight

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

s. Reese is a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Early life and education

Randy Reese was born in

Daytona Beach, Florida Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal Resort town, resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County, Florida, Volusia County near the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic coastline, its population ...

in 1946. He attended Mainland High School in Daytona Beach, and was a member of the Mainland Buccaneers swim team. After graduating from Mainland, he attended

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

in Tallahassee, Florida, where he swam for coach Bim Stultz's

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivis ...

swimming and diving team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition from 1965 to 1967. In college, Reese was primarily an individual medley swimmer. During his

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

year at Florida State, he was diagnosed with a heart murmur and switched from swimming to coaching Stultz's freshman team, and Reese discovered his life's calling.

Coaching career

High school

After graduating from Florida State in 1968, Reese accepted his first full-time position as the head coach of the men's and women's swim teams at the Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida, where he also coached the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) team J.E.T.S. from 1969 to 1971. In 1971, Bolles' rival prep school, Episcopal High School, enticed Reese to become the head coach of its men's and women's swimming and diving teams. Under Reese, the Episcopal men's team won the high school national championship title.

University of Florida

When the University of Florida's long-time head coach, Bill Harlan, retired in 1976, Florida athletic director Ray Graves named Reese as the new head coach of both the Gators men's and women's swimming and diving teams. Over the following fourteen seasons, Reese's Gators men's team posted a dual meet record of 100–21 (.826), and his Gators women's team compiled a record of 118–7 (.944), both among the best in NCAA swimming history. His Gators men's and women's teams each won two national university championship team titles; the women in 1979 and 1982, and the men in 1983 and 1984. His women swimmers won seventy-six AIAW and NCAA individual titles. Seventy-nine of his Gators women garnered more than 500 All-American honors and sixty of his Gators men earned more than 200 All-American honors. He was the NCAA Women's Coach of the Year in 1982 and 1988, and the NCAA Men's Coach of the Year in 1984 and 1985.''2008–09 Gators Swimming & Diving Media Guide''
History and Records
University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, p. 99 (2008). Reese earned a total of ten SEC Coach of the Year awards—seven for the men's team in 1979, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1990 and three for the women's team in 1987, 1988 and 1990. Reese developed a reputation for his innovative theories on training and nutrition, many of which are used by top American coaches. Over the years, he employed such unusual training methods as having his Florida Gators swimmers swim upstream in the nearby

Ichetucknee River The Ichetucknee River is a spring-fed, pristine river in North Central Florida. The entire of the river average wide, deep and most of the 6 miles lie within the boundaries of the Ichetucknee Springs State Park while the rest is to the south o ...

, do training workouts fully clothed, crawl their way up the entrance ramp of

Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (in full Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium), Reese gives up women's job
" ''Gainesville Sun'', pp. 1C & 6C (January 12, 1990). Retrieved April 12, 2010. and then control of the men's team in April.Pat Dooley,
Reese Era ends for UF swimming
" ''Gainesville Sun'', pp. 1C & 5C (April 26, 1990). Retrieved April 12, 2010.

U.S. Olympic and other national teams

Reese was selected as an assistant U.S. coach for the 1980 Moscow Olympics, the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the 1988 Seoul Olympics, as well as the 1979 Pan American Games and the 1987 Pan Pacific Games. His U.S. Swimming team, Florida Aquatic Swim Team (FAST) and Holmes Lumber Aquatic Swim Team were among the best in United States club history and collectively won fourteen national team championships. Reese's individual swimmers set sixteen world records, including five world records by Tracy Caulkins, four by Rowdy Gaines, two by each of Martin López-Zubero, Craig Beardsley and Dara Torres, and one by Duncan Armstrong. Reese retired from full-time coaching in 1990 and accepted a position as the regional president of Teamstaff Companies, Inc., which directed and trained leasing and sales brokers. In 1996, he started his own company, Peak Mortgage Company, as principal and chief executive officer. Reese's retirement from coaching did not last long, and he later became the head coach at Circle C Ranch Swim Team—which later merged with Texas Aquatics to form Longhorn Aquatics, co-coached by his brother Eddie. Reese has authored several swimming journal articles, co-authored the book ''A Scientific Approach to the Sport of Swimming'' with John Troup, and published a second book ''Building a Championship Season with Randy Reese''. He is currently the director of aquatics for the Clearwater Aquatics Team in

Clearwater, Florida Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, United States, northwest of Tampa and St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2020 census, the city had a populat ...

Honors

Reese was inducted into the

University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame The University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame includes over 300 former Florida Gators athletes who represented the University of Florida in one or more intercollegiate sports and were recognized as "Gator Greats" for their athletic excellence ...

as an "honorary letter winner" in 1997, Eight Join UF Hall of Fame
" ''The Gainesville Sun'', p. 2C (April 4, 1997). Retrieved July 23, 2011. and the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) as an "honor coach" in 2005. Reese's older brother, Eddie Reese, who is also a long-time university and Olympic swimming coach, was inducted into the ISHOF in 2002.

References

Bibliography

* Caraccioli, Jerry, & Tom Caraccioli, ''Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games'', New Chapter Press, Washington, D.C. (2009). . * Hannula, Dick, & Nort Thornton, eds., ''The Swim Coaching Bible'', Human Kinetics, Champaign, Illinois (2001). . * Proctor, Samuel, & Wright Langley, ''Gator History: A Pictorial History of the University of Florida'', South Star Publishing Company, Gainesville, Florida (1986). . * Troup, John, & Randy Reese, ''A Scientific Approach to the Sport of Swimming'', Scientific Sports, Gainesville, Florida (1983). . {{DEFAULTSORT:Reese, Randy 1946 births Living people American Olympic coaches American swimming coaches Florida Gators swimming coaches Florida State Seminoles men's swimmers Sportspeople from Daytona Beach, Florida