Dudley Duncan, Mark Bernardino Inducted into ASCA 2023 Hall of Fame

The American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) has announced a two-member class to be inducted into the ASCA Hall of Fame – and the pair have a distinctly Old Dominion flavor.

Dudley Duncan, the founder of USA Swimming club Quest Swimming in Midlothian, Virginia, and former University of Virginia head coach Mark Bernardino, will be the ASCA Class of 2023.

ASCA has been recognizing the top swimming coaches in the United States since 1958, when the Hall of Fame was established.

The coaches will be inducted at an awards dinner on September 7, 2023 at the Dallas Sheraton during the 2023 ASCA World Clinic.

A two-coach class is very small by historical standards, though since the 2020 class was skipped during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, classes have been generally smaller than they were pre-pandemic. The explicit and lofty performance standards required from induction means that only a handful of coaches who aren’t already inducted are eligible.

Dudley Duncan Bio

Best known for his Olympians Whitney Hedgepath and Rada Owens, Coach Duncan recently retired as the head coach and founder of Quest Swimming in Richmond, Virginia.  He started the team in 2003 and it quickly became a powerhouse developing athletes who competed at the highest level of the sport, including American Record holders Jeffrey Newkirk and Maddy Banic, as well as USA National Team member Clark Beach.  Prior to Quest, Coach Duncan was the architect of the merger that created Poseidon Swimming and was its Head Coach. Poseidon had dozens of athletes succeed at the national level and was a perennial top team at Junior Nationals throughout the 90’s.

Early in his career, Coach Duncan coached Bounty Otters Swim Club from 1974-1977. This team later would become the Old Dominion Aquatic Club. Duncan then spent a year as the Head Coach of the Indian River Swim Club, before heading back “home” to Virginia to lead the Virginia Association for Competitive Swimming (VACS) from 1978-1989. There he led VACS to all sorts of success at both Junior Nationals and Senior Nationals. His time at VACS culminated with 8 swimmers attending the 1988 Olympic Trials and his star swimmer, Whitney Hedgepeth, making the US Olympic Team in the 200 IM. Whitney would go on to win medals at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, as well.

Duncan retired as the club’s head coach in 2018.

Mark Bernardino Bio

A longtime member of the USA National Team staff, Mark Bernardino joined NC State as an associate head coach in 2018. Bernardino came to NC State following four seasons as associate head coach at South Carolina. Prior to that, he served as head coach at Virginia from 1978 to 2013.

Bernardino has helped both the NC State men’s and women’s teams secure top-eight finishes at the NCAA Championships  that past two years. During his tenure at Virginia, the Cavaliers captured a combined 27 ACC Championships. His 510 career victories rank fifth all-time in NCAA swimming, and he coached five NCAA individual champion swimmers, three NCAA record performances, and 13 Olympians. Having coached such a large number of elite athletes, Bernardino has coached at least one NCAA or USA Swimming National Champion each year of the last four consecutive decades.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the ASCA Hall of Fame, a coach must have coached at the high school, club, and/or college level for a period of 20 years or more, and must be in good standing with ASCA, USA Swimming and the US Center for Safe Sport.

Also achieve any (3) of the following:

• Placing two teams in the Top 10 at the USA Swimming Nationals and/or the top 10 NCAA Division 1 Nationals and/or the Top 2 teams at the NCAA Division II or III Nationals.
• Coach of Record (at any time in their career) for two years or more of two individual USA summer national champions, 5 NCAA Division 1 national champions, 15 NCAA Division 2 national champions, or 15 NCAA Division 3 national champions.
• Coach of Record (at any time in their career) for two years or more of two individual USA Olympic or World Championships (LC) medalists.
• Coach of Record(at any time of their career) for two years or more of two World Record Holders (relay members would be in the Olympic Medalist/World Record holder category).
• Coach of Record for five or more athletes qualifying for the USA Swimming National Junior Team or the era equivalent.
• Made a significant contribution to the sport of swimming, community and/or profession.

A press release from ASCA contributed to this report.