Mount Saint Mary Athletics Hall of Fame
NEWBURGH, N.Y. - Former men's swimming head coach Gene Damm was inducted as a member of the Mount Saint Mary College Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday, April 17, 2015.
Damm was the Mount Saint Mary men’s swimming coach from its induction as a varsity program in 1997 until 2012. He was named the 2008-09 Skyline Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year.
Damm coached five Skyline Men’s Swimmers of the Year, one Skyline Men’s Swimming Rookie of the Year, 20 Skyline men’s swimming individual champions and coached 20 men’s swimmers to program records that still stand today. He also coached the only two men’s swimmers in the program’s history to achieve ECAC Open qualifying times.
“I had a lot of enjoyable experiences working at Mount Saint Mary,” said Damm. “We were able to meet a bunch of wonderful kids and their families, who we still keep in touch with to this day.”
Damm holds a Level-5 ranking from the American Swimming Coaches Association, the highest national level that a coach can reach.
Gene’s wife, Mary, is also part of the Mount Saint Mary College Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2014. They were both inducted into the Dutchess County Sports Museum Hall of Fame in 1986.
In nearly 35 years of coaching, Gene and Mary Damm worked with a number of teams in the Hudson Valley including teams from West Point, Vassar College, St. Mary's and Roy C. Ketchum. The Damms have also worked with the Bernal Gators and Cumberland (R.I.) swim clubs.
Gene and Mary Damm co-authored two swimming books. They wrote Guide for Competitive Swimmers, which was published in 2000, and Fast Swimming with Technique and Mental Awareness, in 2013. Both books currently has five-star ratings on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
The Damms have three children, seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren
