Since Stanford coach Skip Kenney was suspended last week for expunging swimmers from the program's record books, dozens of his former athletes have lined up in his defense. They say he's a coach who values character- and team-building above all else."He's from that military background, and he values tradition and team and legacy and honor,'' former team captain Clay Tippins said. "If he got hit by a bus, that legacy would continue.''
In 28 seasons as the men's head coach, Allen "Skip" Kenney, 64, has never faced so much scrutiny and criticism. Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby suspended him indefinitely, with pay, while the school investigates Kenney's intentional deletion from the team media guide of the record times of five swimmers with whom he had clashed. His team is in Minneapolis trying to win its eighth NCAA title of the Kenney era. But Kenney can only follow its progress on the Internet.
With an intensity befitting his background as a Marine Corps sniper in Vietnam, Kenney has trained a slew of Olympians at Stanford, and his teams have won 26 consecutive Pac-10 titles. Not bad for a guy who never swam competitively himself.
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