Coaching phenomenon Ray Looze was recently inducted into the American Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony was part of the annual ASCA World Clinic held this year in Orlando, Florida.
Looze is most known for his role as head coach of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. As soon as he joined the Hoosiers in 2002, Looze created a new standard. In his almost 20 years of coaching, Looze has earned eleven Big Ten Coach of the Year titles. He has also coached fifteen Olympians including standouts such as Lilly King, Annie Lazor, Zach Apple, Blake Pieroni, and Cody Miller. Looze coached many of his own swimmers as part of the Team USA coaching staff this summer in Tokyo.
Lars Jorgensen, who has known Looze for roughly thirty years, introduced the honoree. He credited Looze placing third at Olympic Trials in the 400 IM and his philosophy “embrace the grind” as two reasons as to why he has been so successful. Beyond his swimming accolades, Jorgensen also recognized Looze as a selfless leader and his support of swimmers like Annie Lazor who’s dad passed away prior to the Olympic Trials.
Looze accepted his award by telling stories about the influential people in his life including Cyndi Gallager, Gregg Troy, and his mom.
If Ray Looze could describe coaching in one word? Resilience.
“As swimmers and coaches, we’ve got to be resilient because we fail most of the time… Bad things happen and you have to accept that those things happen. When those bad things happen… focus on what you can control.”
Watch Ray Looze’s full induction into the ASCA Hall of Fame here:
