In Memory of Long-Time FAST Head Coach Kevin B. Perry
November 22, 1951-April 9, 2008
“I would not be where I am today as a swimmer or as a person without Kevin. I think about him every day and miss him a lot. I try to make him proud through each of my endeavors and live by the lessons that he taught me.” -Tyler Clary
Southern California Swimming and FAST Aquatics are getting ready to host the sixth Kevin B. Perry Senior Invitational swim meet on November 7-9 at the Janet Evans Complex at Independence Park in Fullerton. This year’s meet will gather some 840 athletes from all over California, the Pacific Northwest, and the East Coast. There will be age-group swimmers in their first senior-level meet and post-grads getting some racing in a month out from Winter Nationals.
Underneath it all will be the spirit of the man who touched so many lives in the sport: Kevin Perry.
“Kevin meant so much to our family. So many coaches were involved with Tyler but Kevin was the coach that really seemed to reach Tyler. He challenged him to be better every day.
We created a friendship with Kevin through his coaching relationship with Tyler. We will forever be grateful for the time he spent with our son and the way he inspired Tyler to always be better than he ever thought possible. We miss Kevin dearly and wish he could have seen Tyler achieve his dreams. We know Kevin would have been so proud.”
-Stacy Clary
Perry came to Fullerton in 1993 from Northern California. He had a lot of success, especially with the boys’ program, and they became a top-five team at Juniors. In 2003, faced with losses, the city of Fullerton planned to close the pool. Perry organized a group of FAST families and members of the community and by 2004, in partnership with the city, took over the operations of the swim program, running lap swim and lessons, and turned a profit.
According to FAST coach/development director Lauren Morford, in addition Perry’s strength as a developmental coach, what makes him loved in this community is the vision he had, and the way he inspired the people around him. “He saved the program by establishing the partnership and making it work,” explained Morford. “Most of his staff members swam for him; he inspired people to go on coaching.”
The background of this particular swim meet came about around 2006-07 when Perry, the General Chair of Southern California Swimming, and Terry Stoddard, the Coaches’ Rep at the time, were trying to further develop senior swimming. As the “December Initiative” caught interest and SCS moved Sectionals to December, the two proposed adding a short course prelims/finals meet to the schedule as a way to prepare for the December championship meets.
The first year there were 180 swimmers; the next year, 280. Today it’s a destination meet. The invitational was renamed in honor of the visionary Perry in 2009.
2013 Kevin Perry Invitational meet admin. Photo: Anne Lepesant
FAST Kevin B. Perry Invitational Facts:
- Kevin Perry assumed leadership of FAST in September 1993 and developed many successful swimmers at the Senior level
- Head Coach of the National Junior Team in 1994
- Third place, Men’s Summer Juniors 2006/ ninth place, Men’s Spring Nationals 2004 and 2007
- FAST recognized as a Gold Medal Club in 2008; months later (April) Kevin lost his battle with prostate cancer
- In 2012 Tyler Clary dedicated his Olympic gold medal performance in the 200 Back to Coach Perry who guided him to the medals at 2006 World Youth Games and 2007 Pan American Games
- The 2014 Kevin Perry Invitational is the sixth annual meet in Kevin’s honor
- Kevin grew up in Hawaii so the coaches and officials are encouraged to wear Hawaiian shirts during the Sunday Finals session
- FAST is proud to host a high level Senior meet that reflects the goals and accomplishments of Kevin Perry and his swimmers as well as current and future FAST athletes and coaches
- This year hosting teams from AZ, NV, the Pacific Northwest, New England and throughout California.
Thank you to the Clary family for sharing their memories of Kevin Perry in preparation for this article.
Kevin Perry was our swim coach for Damien High School in Hawaii for two years (1978-1979). During that time period I joined the Pearl Harbor Swim Club because he was the swim coach, but I’m not sure when he began coaching for Pearl Harbor. I just did a search for his name and discovered he passed on at the very age I am now. This is really sad news, but I’m glad he is remembered. He was a great coach. I won a gold medal at the Hawaii state championship swim meet, and a couple of silver and bronze medals too.
In 1975 Kevin was in Hawaii living at grandmas house taking classes at Chamanade and coaching at Pearl Harbor Swim club. I was at a low point just blew out my knee had surgery and the doctor didn’t know if I was gonna walk let alone ever play sports again. I was 15. Well Kevin caught wind of this flew home unannounced and brought me a guitar that I still play today. As time went on I just remembered him telling me I had time to learn to play that guitar and get my mind focused to rehab the knee. We had many conversations over the years through his career. Later in life tables turned Kevin was coaching in Raleigh/Durham… Read more »
Kevin Perry is THEE sole reason I’m a swim coach today, and the catalyst for which I founded an outreach swim club in 2011, Race Swami. I was fortunate enough to swim under KP for 6 years at Los Altos Aquatic Club–the first two coming as a pre-senior, and four more swimming as a senior swimmer. He turned a small LAAC group into a regional and national force for years, developing some awesome swimmers including Brett Beedle (Pepperdine), Rick Gould (Stanford) and sooooo many others. He opened doors for us outside of swimming–instilling confidence in ourselves that we could tackle anything life threw at us. Years later he encouraged me to get into coaching–and more to the point–to get involved… Read more »
it’s amazing w many lives my brother touched. Thank you for sharing
Kevin is an alum of the high school I coach at–Archbishop Mitty in San Jose. I remember the early years of the program when we had no pool and I was looking to find water. Kevin, head coach of foothill college at the time sat down with me and we discussed the future of AMHS swimming and he provided me inspiration and direction. He was a great coach and a better person.
thank you for sharing. Kirk Perry