Charlotte, N.C. – The Bluegrass Mountain Conference Coach-of-the-Year Awards will have a new name. The members of the coach-run swimming conference decided to recognize the recently retired Johns Hopkins head coach George Kennedy by renaming its annual coaches awards.
The George Kennedy Award will replace the Bob Busbey Award; an award carried over from the conference’s roots as the Penn-Ohio Conference and named for the long-time Cleveland State coach. When the Penn-Ohio Conference was renamed, the award kept Coach Busbey’s name as a nod to the
Penn-Ohio roots of the conference. The membership felt that the conference had established enough history as the Bluegrass Mountain Conference to rename the award after one of its own. The award will recognize Kennedy’s leadership in helping the Bluegrass Mountain Conference to become one of the premier swimming conferences in the country.
Kennedy retired at the end of the 2015-16 season after 31 years at the helm of Johns Hopkins. He retired a seven-time NCAA Division III Coach of the Year. In 2012, Kennedy received the College Swimming Coaches Association of America’s Steadman Award, which is given to a high school, club, or college swimming or diving coach who “has done the most to spread happiness” in swimming and diving. Fortune magazine named Kennedy one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders in 2014 and he was awarded the Speedo Lifetime Achievement Award last month.
When contacted by phone regarding the renaming of the coach’s award, Kennedy shared that he was honored and deeply touched and plans to be on hand when the first George Kennedy Awards are presented February 11, 2017 at the Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center in Charlotte, N.C.
Swimming news courtesy of Bluegrass Mountain Conference.