Women's Swimming
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Phone:
- 737-1075
When Larry Liebowitz learned he was the new women's swimming head coach at Oregon State in 2003, the word had to go a ways to reach him. He was in South Korea as head coach of the United States men's team at the World University Games.
That's a good example of Liebowitz's coaching career - guiding competitors at the highest level in the U.S. and internationally.
Liebowitz has coached some of the best swimmers to come through Oregon State including recently graduated Saori Haruguchi. Haruguchi holds four Oregon State swimming records and represented her home country of Japan in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
Liebowitz, who has extensive international and club coaching experience, spent eight seasons as assistant head coach for the women's and men's programs at Southern California before coming to Oregon State prior to the 2003-04 season.
In 2003, Liebowitz helped guide the USC women to third-place finishes at the NCAA Championships and the Pacific-10 Championships. The Trojan men's team was third in the Pac-10 and fifth at the NCAAs.
Since his arrival seven years ago, Liebowitz has led the Beavers to Pacific-10 Conference seventh-place finishes five out of his seven years and OSU earned its highest ever finish in the NCAA Championships - finishing 20th during the 2003-04 campaign. The Beavers have 21st and 23rd at the NCAA Championships in 2008 and 2009, respectively.
Liebowitz has coached six of the eight Oregon State All-Americans since his arrival in 2004 and coached the first All-American relay team at Oregon State in 2007 (800 freestyle relay).
In the summer of 2010, Liebowitz led eight United States swimmers to the Inaugural 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore.
Liebowitz served as an assistant coach for the U.S. men's team at the 1999 Pan American Games and was also an assistant coach at the 1997 World University Games. He was coach of the United States men's team in the 1995 Pan Am Games and coach of the 1988 Costa Rica Olympic team.
While at USC, Liebowitz was on the board of directors of Southern California Swimming, as Senior Swimming Chairman for four years and Administrative Chairman for three years.
Liebowitz was head coach of the Santa Barbara Swim Club from 1989-95, with his teams finishing in the top 10 at Senior Nationals in five of his seven seasons. During that time, he coached national champions Brian Alderman (butterfly) and Richard Schroeder (breaststroke); both Alderman and Schroeder went on to represent the U.S. at the Pan Am Games and Alderman also made the U.S. teams for the Goodwill Games and the short-course and long-course World Championships.
Prior to coaching at Santa Barbara, Liebowitz worked with head coach Mark Schubert at Mission Viejo, Calif., and Boca Raton, Fla. His experience at those stops included coaching numerous national and world-class swimmers, including 1984 Olympic medalists Amy White and Mike O'Brien.
Liebowitz began his coaching career with the Ferndale Barracudas Swim Club and at University of Detroit High.
Liebowitz earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Oakland University in 1973. A native of Detroit, he competed in swimming two years for Wayne State before transferring to Oakland. He enjoys cycling.
