Cleveland State Head Coach Wally Morton Receives Richard E. Steadman Award from CSCAA

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State head swimming and diving coach Wally Morton has been named the recipient of the Richard E. Steadman Award from the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA).

The awards will be presented at the CSCAA Annual Banquet on Thursday, May 22, 2014 held in conjunction with the CSCAA Convention at Bally's Las Vegas.

The award is conferred annually to a swimming or diving coach in high school, club, or university ranks who, in the opinion of the CSCAA, has done the most to spread happiness in Coach Steadman's beloved sport of swimming and diving.

Morton, who just completed his final season as the head coach at CSU, has accumulated 20 conference championship titles, nine conference coach of the year awards, 385 dual meet wins and 46 winning seasons. Five of his swimmers have qualified for the NCAA Championship and three have competed at the Olympics.

Morton arrived at CSU as Director of Aquatics, Assistant Swimming and Diving coach and a Physical Education Faculty member in 1974. The CSU Aquatic Facility was the finest in the country and became the focus of the world's best athletes. Seven years later, he took over the men's program as Head Coach from legendary coach Busbey. In 2007-08, Morton also became the Head Coach of the CSU women's program and has since led the team to an unprecedented level of success.

The women's team has also excelled in the classroom under the direction of Morton, perennially appearing on the Collegiate Swimming Coaches Association of America Scholar All-America list, which ranks teams according to grade-point average. The women's squad has also received the Horizon League Community Outreach award two out of the last three years, while the Men's Team won the "Best of the Best" Academic Award at CSU in 2002-03 as the team with the highest GPA in the department.

Both teams have received the Scholar All-America Award a combined 57 times with 27 swimmers earning the Academic All-American designations for excellence in the classroom and in the pool.

It's not just in the pool where Morton has overseen success, but also in the diving well where he has teamed with diving coach Rich Karban for more than 20 years to turn the CSU diving program into the top one in the Horizon League.

Morton is a 1970 graduate of Miami (OH) where he was a member of back-to-back Mid-American Conference championship swim teams in 1966 and 1967.

**Release courtesy of Cleveland State Athletic Communications.