In his fifth season as head coach of Concordia swim and dive, Ken Dory has plenty to show for his first four campaigns as both head coach and Director of Aquatics.

Dory’s swim teams finished fourth on both the men’s and women’s sides at the 2010 NAIA National Championships, marking the best finish in the history of the women’s program and the first time that both teams have posted top-4 showings in the same year.

At the 2009 NAIA National Championships, Dory’s men’s team finished in third place, just 30 points away from garnering a second-place finish, while the women earned a sixth-place mark.

His 2011 teams both finished sixth at the national meet.

The results at nationals display the quick improvement of Dory’s programs, which finished seventh on the men’s side and 10th on the women’s at the National Championships in the first season of Eagles Aquatics.

In the program’s four-year history, Dory’s teams have produced 39 NAIA All-Americans and 10 NAIA National Champions. In addition, the 2010 men’s squad was awarded the NAIA Team Character Award.

At the 2011 meet, Alex Peters earned three individual titles (200, 500, 1650 free) to take home the meet’s Women’s Outstanding Performer honor, becoming the first athlete in program history to garner the award.
 

Including the men’s and women’s water polo teams, all four aquatics programs train at the Woollett Aquatic Center, site of the 2010 US Junior National, Senior Nationals, and the 2010 Pan Pacific Championships. Dory’s swimmers have signed from seven different countries and seventeen different states.

His work as Aquatics Director also enabled the men’s water polo team to finish the 2009 season at 26-5, including 9-5 against teams ranked in the CWPA Top-20 Poll, where the Eagles ended the season ranked No. 11.

The women’s water polo program has also experienced success in its first four seasons, finishing as the NAIA’s runner-up in all four years of its existence

Dory first took the reigns as head coach for Irvine High School in 1989 and in the following years, led the school to 61 team championships, including 10 consecutive league championships from 1995-2004. His team won CIF Southern Section titles in 2000 and 2001 en route to a 2001 state championship.

Among several notable achievements at Irvine High School, Dory coached eventual Olympian Jason Lezak, who was a member of 400 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay squads that won gold and bronze medals, respectively, in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. Lezak, who qualified for the 2008 games in Beijing, China, with U.S. record with a 48:17 mark in the 100 free, also won gold in the 400 medley relay and silver in the 400 free relay in the 2000 games in Sydney, Australia. Lezak is most known, however, for his remarkable anchor in the 4 x 100 free relay that out touched the French.

His extensive coaching experience has also yielded numerous individual awards, including being named the Orange County Register Coach of the Year in 1998 and 2000 along with earning accolades as the Los Angeles Times Coach of the Year in 1998 and 2001 at the prep level. Dory was also named the Irvine Swim League Coach of the Year in 2005.

Dory, a member of the National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association since 1992 and a member of the American Swimming Coaches Association since 1989, also served on the CIF Swimming Advisory Committee from 2003 to 2008 and was the Irvine Swim League Executive Board Coaches Commissioner in 2004 and 2005.

Dory, who has swam competitively as part of United States Masters Swimming since 1990, was a team captain at Cal State Northridge (1986-88), Orange Coast Community College (1984-85) and as a prep standout at Foothill High School (1982-83).

Dory earned his bachelor’s from Cal State Northridge in psychology, graduating in 1989, and has since earned his teaching credential through National University (2004) and graduated from Concordia’s master’s in coaching and athletic administration program in 2008.

Dory and his wife, Jenny, live in Irvine and have four children, Erica (16), Logan (12), Kelly (9), and Sean (4).