End of an era at Butler
BUTLER TWP — Butler diving is nearing the end of an era.
This season will be the last for longtime coach Ken Bedford.
“I actually decided at the end of last season that I was going to step down,” said Bedford, who has coached Butler's divers since 2000. “It had been 20 seasons and that seemed like a nice round number. Then the virus hit and for a while, we didn't think there was even going to be a season this year. I wasn't going to leave the school scrambling to find someone else, so I came back for one more year.”
Bedford has also served as the coach for Knoch's divers for 11 years. He is stepping away from that post as well.
A 1994 Butler graduate, Bedford won a pair of WPIAL titles under the guidance of former Golden Tornado coach Mick Haley.
“Mick was never strict, but was a fantastic coach,” Bedford said. “He could get inside your head and have you so prepared for a meet. His divers would've suited up and gone to war for him.
“I was too small for basketball and football. Diving was something I could do.”
Bedford has noticed a stark contrast in his own coaching style over the years.
“When I started out, I was so authoritative,” he said. “There was a certain way I believed we needed to do things and that's how it was going to be. But I realized that diving needed to be fun for the kids and that's how I've coached ever since. I'm just a big teddy bear now.
“My coaching style is a mix of Mick and my college coach (at Clarion University), Dave Hrovat.
While at Clarion, Bedford earned a spot at the NCAA Division II championship meet eight times between 1- and 3-meter competitions and won three national titles.
His 21 years of coaching high school athletes was made even more special since it came at his alma mater.
“I coached one year of diving in college at Hillsdale in Michigan and hated it. I was just out of college and far away from home. It was hard for me to adjust and the head coach and I didn't see eye to eye.
“I didn't think I was going to coach anymore, but I came back home and the opportunity was there to coach at Butler.”
Butler athletic director Bill Mylan had the experience of being the head wrestling coach at his alma mater, Beth-Center in Washington County, for three seasons.
“If you coach a sport in high school, you have to have a love for it to begin with,” Mylan said, “but coaching at your alma mater, it adds even more incentive.
“Ken has been here for so long, when people think of Butler diving, they think of him.”
Bedford said: “Teaching a kid to dive is easy compared to getting them mentally prepared to compete.”
Current Butler junior Dalayne Waterbec first met Bedford while she was competing in club diving in the third grade.
“He has helped me with both the physical and mental aspects of the sport,” she said. “He always tells me not to let it get in my head.”
Bedford has coached youth divers at the club level at Butler Country Club for over a decade and will continue to do so.
Leaving the high school scene, however, will be difficult in one respect.
“I'm going to miss the interaction with the kids, seeing them excel not just in diving, but in life,” he said. “I feel like every kid who has come through here, they've become my kids. We spend so much time together, they become family.”
