Kevin Perry, In Memoriam

I found out recently that my long time age group swimming coach, Kevin Perry, passed away from prostate cancer. It was terribly sad news to think that his life was cut so short (56) by such a terrible disease. As a teacher and mentor, it is comforting to know how many people he touched over the years and the lasting impact he had on his swimmers lives.

My brother and I bounced around to a few different swim clubs during our childhood, but eventually settled on Los Altos Aquatics (for the second time) around the time that I was in 7th grade. Kevin was my coach when I eventually moved into the senior group which was the summer before my freshman year. I swam under his tutelage for the next 5-6 years, including my college swimming breaks.

Kevin was a towering figure in that he was extremely tall in height and also tall in stature. I have a very distinct visual image of him standing on the deck with his metallic 80's style sunglasses and wavy, somewhat crazy hair that swooped to the back of his head. His Hawaiian roots were visibly obvious as he wore loose flowing Hawaiian style shirts on 90% of his days.

Kevin had brought the Los Altos Aquatic Swim program into prominence in the late 70s and 80's with a group of highly dedicated and talented swimmers. You didn't have to spend much time around LAAC to figure out that he had not only built a group of great swimmers but he had built a true family. A family, in fact, that still keeps in touch today. I know personally that whenever I see another member of the LAAC family I feel an overwhelming sense of fondness and closeness towards them and a period of my life that was very special.

There have been a few things posted online about Kevin and I have exchanged emails with a few old friends to swap our own stories. I am thrilled to be able to go to his memorial on May 10 in San Jose. I am looking forward to hearing other stories and honoring a man who dedicated his time and energies to helping children become better athletes, and more importantly, better people.

I will sheepishly admit that I was always scared of Kevin. He could be downright mean and intimidating. My own immaturity at this stern behavior probably kept me from becoming closer with Kevin from a friendship standpoint. I know that many other swimmers kept in touch with him over the years, invited him to weddings and picked up the phone to share big news like children being born or starting swimming. I lost touch with Kevin after I stopped swimming likely because I never felt the closeness to him that others around me (and mostly before me at LAAC) were able to establish. I blame myself for this because I know that if I had reached out and confided more in Kevin I would have received a lot more in return. As it was he still provided with me principle after principle that helped me grow as an individual and solidified a lot of the work ethic that has endured throughout my personal and professional life.

Since his passing I have thought back often to the efforts he made to constantly have us thinking about the big picture, setting goals, visualizing, committing, evaluating, talking about what we'd learned. Nary a day went by in his workouts where he didn't espouse on some life topic that we should be thinking about or considering. A lot of these didn't even have to do with swimming. I can't even begin to remember them all. But at that age in life I have to believe that a lot of it stuck with me even if I rolled my eyes from time to time and thought he was a bit "new agey" and crazy.

In fact there were plenty of times where we thought he actually WAS crazy. And stubbornly opinionated on swimming techniques, training principles and character judgement. I remember when a somewhat legendary swimmer came to try out Los Altos because he had bounced around to several other teams with reckless abandon. This swimmer was legendary more because he was known for having insane talent without having to practice at all. I think this swimmer lasted about 4 days in our workouts. It was clear that his constant tardiness and showing up half-stoned was not going to mesh in Kevin's workouts, and we all snickered as we saw him very quickly being pushed out of the team. But plenty of other coaches in the bay area jumped at the chance for him to swim with his team. Even multiple times after being kicked off. Not Kevin. He didn't care. You had to be made of a certain fiber to survive with his workouts.

(My) Kevin and I talk often about our swimming past and what it did for us growing up. We are somewhat dreading the day that our children decide that they want to make it their passion and we are forced to juggle our lives around the intense training schedule that comes with being competitive. But the reality is that we both believe it was instrumental in bringing us endless positive traits and memories. It was as close as he and I have come to religion in our lives. We love swimming and all that it brought us.

I will close out this post with a final thank you to Kevin Perry. Kevin, thank you for all of your hard work, caring and wisdom. Thank you for being there to support me after my many failures. Thank you for pushing me to work harder when you could see that I needed it. And thank you for sharing in my many successes as a swimmer. I owe you more than can ever be repaid or acknowledged in a letter. You will be missed but not forgotten as your legacy lives on with thousands of swimmers across the world.