11/21/2011 ECU Has Strong Showing At The Nike CupThe Pirates had 41 individual scoring performances combined. 11/18/2011 Pirates Compete On Day One Of The Nike CupSenior Natalia Favoreto win the 50-yard freestyle 11/02/2011 Pirates Drop A Pair Of Dual Meets To N.C. StateECU sets two records in home losses 10/06/2011 Swimming & Diving Swept By UNC In Season OpenerPirates claim three individual first place finishes For more than a quarter century, Rick Kobe has been responsible for making East Carolina swimming and diving one of the winningest programs in the country Since becoming the Pirates' head coach in 1982, Kobe's team have won over 70 percent of their dual meets and compiling over 400 victories for their mentor, making him one of the winningest coaches in America. The 2010-11 season will be his 29th season at the helm of the East Carolina swimming program. Kobe's approach to winning has been the same for the previous 28 years: recruit the top athletes who can come in and be competitive from the first day. During his time at ECU, Kobe has helped the Pirates set 259 varsity records and 140 freshman records. He has coached four NCAA All-Americans, one Olympic participant, 138 individual event conference champions and 147 all-conference performers. Forty of his athletes have made their NCAA 'A' or 'B" cut and participated in five NCAA Championships. Kobe teams have also won eight conference team championships. Kobe was named the 2002-03 Conference USA Coach-of-the- Year marking the eighth time that he has received a Coach-of-the-Year honor. He has also tutored some of the top academic performers at ECU. Marc Cook (1991, `92) and Geoff Handsfield (2007, `08) were both two-time Academic All-America selections.
From there, Kobe has taken the swimming program to a level unsurpassed in Pirate history. Through his team's success, Kobe has become the winningest coach in Pirate athletics' history. His .730 winning percentage is the best of any Pirate coach with at least five years at ECU since the school became a Division I institution in the mid 1960s. Overall, Kobe's teams have combined for a 425-157 record in 27 years. Just the fourth coach in the rich history of ECU swimming and diving; Kobe began his coaching career at West Virginia where he was an assistant from 1976-78. Beginning in 1978, he coached the Raleigh Swim Association and then, in 1980, came to ECU as an assistant coach under Ray Scharf. Kobe then took over the top spot in the Pirates' program on March 15, 1982. Ten of Kobe's former assistant coaches have moved on to become head coaches of their own at other schools. A native of Windsor, Vt., Kobe swam competitively for Fairmont State (W.Va.) College, serving as team captain during his senior season. He earned a bachelor's degree in health and physical education in 1976 and obtained his master's degree in the same field from West Virginia in 1978. Kobe was one of the youngest coaches ever to receive the prestigious Master's Coach Award presented by the Collegiate Swimming Coaches Association of America. Kobe has two daughters: Suzanne, who is a 2007 graduate of New York University and Catherine, who is a senior at N.C. State. Kobe is married to the former Courtney Holton Welch and has three stepdaughters: Lindsay, Tyler, and Holton. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||