Charlie Kennedy is the current head swim coach for Suburban Swim Center.
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Swim career
Charlie Kennedy, a Marple Newtown High School graduate, excelled as a nationally ranked athlete at Suburban Swim Center and University of Iowa. At the University of Iowa he was named a captain for 3 of his 4 years. While swimming at University of Iowa, he set 5 individual event records. He earned a B.A. with concentrations in music and Russian while also becoming a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
In 1980, while Kennedy was swimming for University of Iowa, president Jimmy Carter imposed an American boycott on the Olympics. Kennedy, therefore, never got a chance to compete at the Olympic trials or Olympics. Kennedy's Olympic experiences have arrived through coaching.
Coaching career
Kennedy has followed up a strong tradition of highly competitive swimmers at Suburban Swim Center. Prior to Kennedy, Suburban Swim Center was started by long-time USC Trojans coach Peter Daland. Before Kennedy, Suburban Swim Center had built a legacy of Olympic and nationally ranked swimmers such as Tim McKee, Carl Robie, and Brenda Borgh. Since beginning coaching at Suburban Swim Center, Charlie Kennedy has trained many swimmers. He began coaching the Suburban Seahawks in the fall of 1982 with a total of 25 swimmers. Today he is coaching over 200 swimmers of all ages. Over the years, Kennedy's swimmers, both current and former, have been honored with championships, rankings and awards. These range from high school champions, Jr. National's qualifiers and champions, Sr. National qualifiers and champions, U.S. Open champions, World Rankings, World Champions, Olympic Trials qualifiers, World record holders, and Olympic Champions. Kennedy takes pride in developing and "molding" young swimmers. He bases his entire program on proper technique. Kennedy was named the head coach for the USA Swimming Boy's National Select Camp in 2006. Kennedy is best known for his training of Olympic champion and world record holder Brendan Hansen. Hansen has credited Kennedy with laying his "entire base" for his success, saying "He's the reason I've been able to succeed." Hansen often references Kennedy's teachings and ideas in interviews.
Kennedy has also trained notables such as U.S. national champion Grace Cornelius, South African Olympian Eugene Botes, and Olympic trial qualifiers Ian Clark, Corrie Clark, Kelly Nelson, Jaffrey Clark, Mike Grube, Stephanie Yoshimura, and Christina Leander among others.