The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) announced the finalists for its National, Developmental, Volunteer, and Paralympic Coach of the Year honors as well as the finalists for the "Doc" Counsilman Science Award. The awards will be presented on April, 15 during the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Media Summit in Chicago, Ill.
Each year, 43 Olympic and Pan American sport organizations select their nominations for the National, Developmental, Volunteer and/or Paralympic Coaches of the Year as part of the USOC Coach of the Year Recognition Program. Five finalists were selected in each of the categories with the exception of Paralympics which included three. The first "Doc" Counsilman Science Award was given posthumously to its namesake in 2003 and five finalists were tabbed for this year's honor.
National Coach of the Year Finalists
Guy Baker (Long Beach, Calif./Women's Water Polo), Bob Bowman (Ann Arbor, Mich./Swimming), Mike Candrea (Oklahoma City, Okla./Softball), David Johnson (Colorado Springs, Colo./Shooting), and Tom Terhaar (Monmouth Junction, N.J./Rowing) have been named as finalists for the 2007 USOC National Coach of the Year award.
Guy Baker led the 2006-07 U.S. Women's Water Polo team to a meteoric international rise as the team went undefeated (35-0-1) in competition, grabbing gold medals at the 2007 World Championships, the 2007 World League Super Final, and the 2007 Pan American Games, where the team qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The team's triple gold performance is unprecedented in U.S. water polo history, and their FINA World Championships earned the U.S. its second title (2003, 2007), which ties the U.S. with Italy (1998, 2001) and Hungary (1994, 2005) for the most FINA World Championship titles held by a country.
Most recognized for his protégé, Michael Phelps, Bob Bowman is the head coach of Club Wolverine, where he oversees the training of American swimming stars Kaitlin Sandeno, Peter Vanderkaay and Erik Vendt as well as Phelps. Twelve Bowman-coached swimmers earned spots on the 2007-08 U.S. National Team. Club Wolverine won both the 2007 Spring and Summer ConocoPhillips National Championships by point margins of 224.5 and 178, respectively. As the U.S. men's head coach for the 2007 FINA World Championships Bowman's swimmers led the medal standings with 11 golds and eight silvers and set nine world records. Bowman is also the head men's swimming coach at the University of Michigan, where he has been at the helm of the Wolverines for four years.
As the head coach for USA Softball, Mike Candrea led the U.S. Women's National Team to a 24-1 season record and to gold medal finishes at the Canada Cup (10-0), the World Cup (6-0), the Pan American Games (4-0) and the Japan Cup (4-1). His team outscored opponents 183-14 while the pitching staff combined for a 0.20 ERA over three summer competitions. As the head coach for the University of Arizona, Candrea led the Wildcats to back-to-back NCAA National Championship titles, was named the Pac-10 Coach of the Year for the 10th time, and won his 1100th NCAA Division I game.
In 2007, David Johnson's USA Shooting athletes won eleven medals in World Cup competition (3 gold, 5 silver, 3 bronze), competed in 26 international finals, earned five Olympic participation slots, and had five junior wins in international competition. Responsible for training over 45 National and National Development Team athletes, Johnson is also the coach of 2004 Olympic gold medalist Matt Emmons.
Since being hired as head coach of the U.S. Women's Rowing National Team in 2001, Tom Terhaar has established an outstanding program that has shown great success at the international level. His women's eight team won back-to-back world titles in the 2006 and 2007 FISA World Rowing Championships, the first consecutive world titles in U.S. Rowing history. In addition, he coached his women's four to its first gold since 2003, and his women's pair and both women's quadruple sculls teams qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Lastly, Terhaar's women's eight won gold at the 2007 Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston while setting a course record.
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