BYU has announced that long-time swimming head coach Tim Powers will retire at the end of the 2012 season. Powers has been quietly one of the most influential coaches in the country in his 37-year tenure at the helm of the Cougars, with seven seasons spent at the helm of a co-ed program, and then the next 27 leading the BYU men, before the program returned to co-ed status in 2008.
He has on his coaching resume 17 conference championships, 6 conference coach-of-the-year awards, 46 All-American awards, and 16 Olympians from 10 different countries. That includes 1976 Olympian Lelei Fonoimoana, who finished 7th in the 100 fly at the 1976 Olympics and was a part of the silver-medal winning women’s 400 medley relay for the Americans.
Powers has also spent four years as a member of the NCAA Swimming and Diving Committee that is tasked with making the major decisions about how the sport runs at the collegiate level. That includes rules changes and NCAA Championship host sites.
Powers was an elite swimmer in his own right, and is a former National Age Group record holder.
Coach Powers is the best. He is a great coach and a symbol of what BYU stands for, wish him all of the best!