BY Tallahassee.com

When Dick Hosford graduated from Leon High in 1972, the school didn't even have a swim team.

Now, some 36 years later, he's one of its coaches.

Hosford and New Jersey native Laura Bania were recently chosen as the two new head coaches for the Lions' successful swimming and diving program.

"I'm looking forward to it, I really am," Hosford, 53, said. "Coming back and coaching at my alma mater, in the back of my mind it's probably something I always wanted to do."

Hosford, a Florida State grad, has been the athletic director at Raa Middle School for the last 20 years. He was also the head swimming coach at Lincoln for more than a decade — winning four Big Bend Coach of the Year awards during his stint — and has been the Summer Aquatics Director at the Capital City Country Club for more than 30 years.

Hosford's son, Malcolm, was a state champion at Leon High and an All-American at Auburn.

Bania, also an FSU grad, is a first-year English teacher at Leon and a former all-state swimmer at Clifton High in New Jersey.

"This has been a dream come true," Bania said. "Leon is such a great program already; I'm just honored to be a part of it."

The two new coaches, who will share responsibilities with both the boys and girls teams, replace the departed Julie Lawson.

"Leon's always had a really strong swimming program, especially the last few years," athletic director Mark Feely said. "We're excited to see Coach Hosford and Coach Bania continue to build on that success."

Unfortunately, neither will get the pleasure of coaching All-Americans Joe Ziegler and Kelley Wyman, who each won four state championships as seniors and helped lead Leon to a second-place finish at the Class 2A state meet.

"Yeah, that would be nice," Hosford said with a laugh. "But we had an open house (Tuesday night). I had a chance to meet some of the returnees.


"It's going to be hard to replace both of those guys on the men's team, but what I really enjoy is developing swimmers. That's a lot of fun for me."

Bania, 23, can barely contain her enthusiasm about her new job.

"I love swimming and I knew I wanted to be involved," she said. "And then a position opened up. I'm just so excited . . . everything that has been happening (since graduating from FSU in December) has been like a dream. I can't believe it's actually happening to me.

"Leon is an amazing high school."

When Hosford was attending the school though, there was no high-school swimming in the area. So he competed for the Tallahassee swim team and trained mainly at Florida State, where he swam competitively for two years before injuring his shoulder.

Now he'll get to lead the team he never got a chance to swim with.

"The opportunity arose and I'm looking forward to it," Hosford said. "I've kind of got a rejuvenated energy for it."

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