A pair of legends from Division III programs have announced their retirement (from coaching duties at least) this week. One is Jim Steen, the architect of the Kenyon Division 3 dynasty that has combined for 50 NCAA titles in his nearly 40-years at the helm. The other is Bob Sorensen, who spent 32 years as the head coach at New York University.
Jim Steen, architect of the most successful collegiate athletic program in NCAA history, plans to step down as head coach of the Kenyon College Lords swimming and diving team after this academic year. Steen, now in his 37th year at Kenyon, will remain with the College to help ensure a smooth transition for the swimming program and take on special projects.
Steen’s career didn’t end quite as he’d hoped, with his final season seeing the men place 2nd at NCAA’s and the women only 4th. But that shouldn’t overshadow the sheer enormity of his accomplishment.
From 1980 through 2010, his men’s teams won 31-straight NCAA Championships. With graduations and cycling in-and-out of athletes, that’s a simply unbelievable streak to pull off. To put it in perspective, the only other streak in any sport in any division that has been half as long is his Kenyon women, who won 17 from 1984-2000.
On both counts, these are huge shoes to fill. It brings up an interesting question about the different Divisions of swimming.
Is grabbing a job as a head coach at the best Division III program in history a better gig than being an assistant at a major Division I program? It probably all comes down to perspective and priority, but a job at one of these schools could be among the more intriguing openings this year. Similarly, is the allure of living in New York City enough of a draw to grab a decent coach at NYU?
For now, Jessen Book will add the men’s team at Kenyon to his duties with the women; he was hired in 2010 as the heir-apparent to Steen, so the announcement wasn’t totally unexpected. But Steen was a fixture at Kenyon beginning from a different era of the sport. If Book can continue the Kenyon success, he might have to make that decision somewhere down the road.
The Full Kenyon press release is below; the NYU release can be read here.
Steen took over the Kenyon men’s program and started the women’s program in the 1975-76 season. Since then, he directed the Lords to 29 of their record 31 consecutive NCAA national championships and guided the Ladies to 21 of their 23 national titles. Steen has won more NCAA national championships (50) than any other coach in any NCAA sport. He is a 14-time winner of the NCAA’s Division III Coach of the Year award, a seven-time winner of the American Coaches Association Award for Excellence, and the 1994 recipient of the National Collegiate and Scholastic Swimming Trophy.
“Anybody who has the good fortune to achieve anything over the course of a career that is worth mentioning has been the beneficiary of a lifetime of good people,” Steen said. “I certainly have had the good fortune to partner up with amazing student-athletes. And the talented and creative people in this community, at this College, have taught me a lot about what it means to pursue excellence.”
Steen has coached more than 300 men and women All-America swimmers. During his tenure Kenyon has ranked second among all NCAA Division III institutions with a total of 55 NCAA postgraduate scholarship winners. Swimmers coached by Steen have excelled in all walks of life and many have become successful swimming coaches around the country.
“Where do you start when talking about Coach Steen?” said Peter Smith, director of Athletics, Fitness, and Recreation. “Kenyon has been the recipient of one of the most creative and innovative coaches that the NCAA has known. His successes have often been measured in national championships, but the life discoveries that have been made by those young men and women in his program have been nothing short of remarkable.”
Jessen Book ’01, a Steen protégé who was hired in July 2010 to succeed Steen as coach of the Kenyon Ladies swimming team, will become the head coach for both the Lords and Ladies swimmers. Book guided the Ladies to fourth-place national finishes in each of the last two seasons.
Steen will continue to develop his successful Total Performance Sports Camps for swimming and other sports.
Note that the announcement also included the information that Jessen Book, the current women’s coach, will now assume both positions. It was always unlikely that a Division 3 school would have separate men and women’s coaches and when Jess moved to take on the women’s position insiders assumed it was with the understanding that he would step up and take on both some day….well that day has arrived. I don’t see any opening for the near term here and, as one would expect with someone of Steen’s longstanding commitment to Kenyon, his move was known well in advance.
One last nit….there is no mention of “retiring” in any of the official announcements rather Steen is “stepping down”…..in other words… Read more »