Nick Gearhart

2024 USMS Kerry O'Brien

Coach of the Year

Just days after millions thrilled to the triumphs of Olympic swimmers such as Katie Ledecky and Leon Marchand, a Cedar Rapids swimming legend learned he is receiving a national honor. Nick Gearhart is the Kerry O'Brien Coach of the Year, an award given annually by U.S. Masters Swimming (USMS).

Gearhart, 73, is the head coach of Milky Way Masters, the Cedar Rapids USMS affiliate, and serves on the coaching staff of his alma mater, Cedar Rapids Washington High School. He also teaches private lessons to both youth and adults.

The Kerry O'Brien award recognizes USMS coaches who create, re-energize, or mentor their club to a superior level of participation, who upgrade their skills through coaching education, and create opportunities for club members including meets, swimming events, and clinics.

Nick has been a leader in Iowa swimming just about his entire life. In high school, he was captain of a Warrior squad that won multiple state championships and swam on a YMCA team that finished runner-up at Nationals. His collegiate career took place at Indiana University, where his teammates included Mark Spitz and Gary Hall Sr. After college, he returned to Cedar Rapids and to Washington, where he was part of a coaching staff that led Wash to many more state titles and produced dozens of top high school and collegiate swimmers. USA Triathlon World Champion Tim DeBoom is just one of the many athletes he coached in this era. Nick is a member of the Washington Athletics Hall of Fame.

But his biggest impact has been in adult swimming, coaching and promoting the sport as a lifelong pursuit, long after most swimmers have hung up their Speedos. Nick co-founded Cedar Rapids' first Masters Swimming club nearly 50 years ago, and has led the team ever since. Today, Milky Way Masters is the largest adult swim club in Iowa, employs not one but two coaches, and has won an astonishing 26 state team titles. The Milky Way membership includes past high school and college swimmers, triathletes, and beginners looking to get in shape and become more comfortable in the water. Nick meets each swimmer where they are, adjusting his coaching style and advice to each individual. Nick often coaches both a 5:30am practice and another at seven in the evening, often in the very same Washington pool where he swam as a teen.

Nick gives back not just to the sport of swimming, but to the community at large. He is past director of the 5th Season Road Races. He founded the Splash 'n Dash Masters Meet to raise funds for high school swim programs, and directs the Camp Courageous Triathlon, which raises funds for a special needs camp in Monticello, Iowa.

This is not Nick's first national award. In 2017, he won the John de Barbadillo award at YMCA nationals, which recognized him for organizing a group of former teammates who have attended the national YMCA Masters meet for the last 16 years, competing as "The Over the Hill Gang." 

In presenting the award, Kerry O'Brien told Nick "United States Masters Swimming has been the beneficiary of your long acquaintance of almost 50 years with our sport. In that time, you have distinguished yourself well in terms of dedication and service. You are the driving force behind the adult swimming community in the Cedar Rapids area and beyond. Other entities like high school swimming and special needs groups have also benefitted from your passion, as you tirelessly create fund raising opportunities through meets and camps."

In accepting the award, Nick said "Working with adults and kids on a daily basis, helping them become better and faster swimmers, has been the most rewarding endeavor I have ever done in my life.  I will continue  to represent United States Masters Swimming to the best of my ability."