Ray Looze is an American
swimming
Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...
coach. He was born on May 12, 1967, in the Bay area of California. He began his coaching career after finishing 3rd at his last Olympic trials. Already at Texas university, he volunteered there learning the ropes before heading off to the Peddie boarding school in New Jersey. After that, he ended up in Phoenix, Arizona. While at Phoenix he met the love of his life Kandis Perry, who now goes by Kandis Looze (and was born May 10, 1966), at the Olympic training center as they both had kids on their swim clubs make the national team. After quickly marrying Kandis they moved to Stockon, CA where Looze was the head coach at the University of the Pacific (UOP). Since June 2002, he has been the head coach for the
Indiana Hoosiers
The Indiana Hoosiers are the intercollegiate sports teams and players of Indiana University Bloomington, named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Indiana. The Hoosiers participate in Division I of the National Collegiate Ath ...
. He runs both the men's and women's swimming programs.
In 2016 Looze was a Women's Assistant Coach for the 2016 USA Olympic Swimming Team. He also served as a coach for the USA team to the
2014 Short Course Worlds. At the 2016 Olympic Swimming Trials, Looze coached
Cody Miller
Cody William Miller (born January 9, 1992) is an American competitive swimmer. He is a former world record holder in both the men's 4×50 meter freestyle relay and the mixed 4×50 meter freestyle relay as well as a former American record holde ...
,
Blake Pieroni
Blake John Pieroni (born November 15, 1995) is a three-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming. He is a two time Olympian and gold medalist in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay at both the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2020 Summer Olympics. On th ...
, and
Lilly King
Lillia Camille King (born February 10, 1997) is an American swimmer who specializes in breaststroke. She currently represents the Cali Condors, a team that is part of the International Swimming League. At the 2016 Summer Olympics she won the go ...
who all qualified for the team.
Looze is also a former national-team swimmer for the USA. He was a medalist at the
1991 Pan American Games
The 1991 Pan American Games were held in Havana, Cuba from August 2 to August 18, 1991. There were 4,519 athletes from 39 countries of the PASO community, with events in 33 different sports. The main stadium was the Estadio Panamericano, a mul ...
, and swam for
USC Trojans
The USC Trojans are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ' ...
in college, from 1986 to 1990.
Awards and recognition
In 2016, he was named Big 10 Coach of the Year, an honor he has received ten times in other years as well.
In 2018, he was named CSCAA National Swimming Coach of the Year.
Family
Looze is married to Kandis Looze and has one daughter and one son. His daughter, MacKenzie, was born in Stockon, CA on January 13, 2000. Currently, she swims for Coach Looze at Indiana and his son, Bryce, born on July 30, 1998, and currently attends Wabash College in Crawfordsville, IN. Mackenzie was also coached in high school by her mother who is one of the top swimming coaches in the country.
Looze met Kandis at the Olympic training center (aka the OTC) where they both had swimmers on the national team. It was love at first sight for this pair of coaches and they were quickly married just five and a half months later.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Looze, Ray
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American swimming coaches
American male medley swimmers
Swimmers at the 1991 Pan American Games
Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States
Pan American Games medalists in swimming
Indiana Hoosiers swimming coaches
USC Trojans men's swimmers
Medalists at the 1991 Pan American Games
20th-century American people