BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Hall of Fame member/former Brown University men’s swimming and water polo coach/former University of Alabama Aquatics Director, swim coach, collegiate club water polo coach/CWPA, Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC), Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Coordinator of Officials Ed Reed will seek to add a few more championships to his list of accomplishments as the Northport, Alabama, resident seeks to claim five championships at the U.S. Masters Swimming 2023 Summer Nationals in Sarasota, Fla., on Wednesday-Sunday, August 2-6.
Reed – who is coming off establishing five world record relays in 320-359 (i.e,, 80-89 year old) age group at the 2023 Pacific Masters Swimming Long Course Championships at the Indian Valley College’s Miwok Aquatics Center in Novato, Calif., on Friday-Sunday, July 21-23, will seek to claim individual crowns this week in the 80-84 grouping.
After resetting the men’s 200 meter freestyle, 400 meter freestyle, 800 meter freestyle, 200 meter medley and 400 meter medley long course relay records with Richard Burns, Peter Andersen and Tony Ralphs in California, Reed will seek to top some of his former teammates in the 100-meter breaststroke, 200 meter freestyle, 200 meter breaststroke, 200 meter individual medley and 400 meter individual medley. Both Andersen and Ralphs are slated to compete against Reed in the 200 meter freestyle, while Andersen is also penciled into the 100 meter breaststroke.
Competing for the Tamalpais Aquatic Masters, Reed enters the Summer Nationals with seed times of 1:44.41 (100 meter breaststroke), 2:50.85 (200 meter freestyle), 3:47.47 (200 meter breaststroke), 3:29.05 (200 meter individual medley) and 7:36.96 (400 meter individual medley) as the octogenarian is among the age-group favorites in each of the five events.
He will start the week on Thursday, August 3, at 7:30 a.m. Eastern in the 100 meter breaststroke prior to contesting the 200 meter freestyle (7:30 a.m.) and 200 meter breaststroke (10:15 a.m.) on Friday, August 4. Following the 200 meter individual medley at 10:05 a.m. on Saturday, August 5, Reed will conclude the event in the 400 meter individual medley at 11:54 a.m. on Sunday, August 6.
Results for the U.S. Masters Swimming 2023 Summer Nationals are available by CLICKING HERE.
About Ed Reed: A 2003 inductee to the CWPA Hall of Fame, Ed Reed began his coaching tenure at Brown University in 1971 when he was named head coach of the men’s varsity swim team and club water polo team. In 1974, the men’s water polo team achieved varsity status as he built the program into an East Coast powerhouse.
Reed never experienced a losing season at Brown, compiling a career record of 420-159-5 in 20 years at the helm. In fact, during a nearly five-year span in the 1980’s his Brown squad did not lose a game against an eastern collegiate opponent. He led the Bears to 17-consecutive New England Championships and four Eastern Championships, including three straight from 1983-85, and a record ten Eastern Championship final appearances. Under Reed, the team made eleven NCAA tournament appearances, finishing sixth in 1983, 1984 and 1985.
Under Reed, Brown accomplished a pair of eastern collegiate water polo firsts. The 1984 squad finished the season with a No. 6 ranking in the American Water Polo Coaches’ Association poll, the best ever for a school from the east. The Bears’ 1986 home victory over No. 4-ranked Pepperdine University constituted the first time an east coast school defeated a top five nationally ranked team.
Seventeen student-athletes earned All-America honors while playing for Reed at Brown. He received Eastern Water Polo League Coach of the Year honors in 1987 and 1989. He was inducted into the Rhode Island Aquatic Hall of Fame in 1986, the Brown University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996 and the United States Water Polo Hall of Fame in 1999.
He also contributed to the sport on the national level, serving on the coaching staff of the United States Men’s National Water 
Polo Team from 1993-96. He worked with the 1995 U.S. squad that won the gold medal at the Pan American Games in Argentina and was an assistant coach for the seventh-place U.S. team at the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta. He was also elected President of the American Water Polo Coaches Association and served on several committees for United States Water Polo.
Reed was a two-time All-America as a swimmer at Springfield College, winning the 1965 New England Intercollegiate Championship in the 200 meter individual medley. He started his coaching career at Tufts University in 1966.
He retired in the Spring of 2008 as the Aquatic Center Manager for the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala., but continues to give back to the sport of water polo as a referee evaluator as part of the CWPA Technical Committee and as the league’s Coordinator of Officials.
He and his wife Andy reside in Tuscaloosa and have two children, Scott and Kerrie. Scott is the head coach of the Macalester College women’s water polo team, carrying on the family water polo tradition.
