t’s hard to imagine anyone standing more firmly behind the battle cry “Fight On!” than Mark Schubert. A Trojan since 1992, the University of Southern California’s head swimming coach has won three NCAA team titles, while his squads have held 44 individual titles.
His teams exhibit that Trojan spirit at events such as the World Championships and Summer Olympics, where they often race to victory. Even his voice-mail message carries a resounding “Fight On!”
That competitive spirit has served him well. A seven-time Olympic swimming coach, Schubert has placed 33 swimmers on Olympic teams with some heavy metal results: 20 gold, 10 silver and two bronze medals. His swimmers have also broken 26 world and 120 American records.
In 1972, then-23-year-old Schubert was offered a co-head coaching position with the Mission Viejo Nadadores Swim Team in California. During his 13 years there, he took his swimmers to 44 team titles, 139 individual national championships, 10 Olympic gold medals, six silver and one bronze, among many other awards. His success didn’t stop there — he was named National Coach of the Year for three years by American Swimming Coaches Association.
Later, Schubert moved to Mission Bay Makos Swim Team in Boca Raton, Fla., where his team won nine national titles and sent three to the 1988 Olympics with a silver medal victory. After three years, he took on the college ranks for the University of Texas women’s team. There, his Longhorn swimmers won two NCAA Championships over four years, and he was named 1990 NCAA Coach of the Year.
His Olympic debut was at the controversial 1980 Moscow Olympics, when as many as 64 nations boycotted the games in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Since then, he has served as coach for the women’s and men’s Olympic teams. His gold medal swimmers include Janet Evans, Lenny Krayzelburg, Brian Goodell, Brad Bridgewater, Lindsay Benko and Kaitlin Sandeno.
USC, Schubert’s current home, is no stranger to swimming success, where half of the university’s Olympic medal count is from aquatics. No doubt Schubert contributed his fair share to USC’s trophy case. With his competitive spirit, he continues to lead his swimmers to victory over and over like a true Trojan fighting on. — Rin-rin Yu
