U.S. Masters Swimming Kerry O'Brien Coaches Award

Recipient:	Stuart Kahn
Year:	2010
LMSC:	Pacific

Coach Stu Kahn brought energy to the Davis Aquatic Masters (DAM). Before Stu came on board, DAM would usually send 10-30 swimmers to the regional championships, a number considered small for a club that had over 600 members. In 2010, through Stu’s encouragement and recruitment, DAM brought over one hundred swimmers to the Pacific Masters Championships and he had a very competitive team, which included 11 new swimmers had entered.  Stu’s team was very competitive and were just edged out for second place in the large team division. Through Stu’s coaching leadership, DAM also won the USMS 1-hour Postal Championship in 2009, far outnumbering other teams in both yardage and participants. Also in 2009, Stu was the event director for a west coast open water H2Open series held at Lake Berryessa. The event was scheduled for a week after the national open water championship and they still had planned to attract 1,000 swimmers, which would make it the largest open swim event in the Pacific LMSC. DAM was one of USMS’ largest clubs and Coach Stu Kahn contributed to their success.