[Sportsandrec] Fw: USABA Coach Armbruster Named 2008 Paralympic Coach of the Yea

[Christella Garcia]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: United States Association of Blind Athletes 
To: Christella Garcia 
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 11:52 AM
Subject: USABA Coach Armbruster Named 2008 Paralympic Coach of the Yea







For Immediate Release
May 27, 2009

USABA Coach Ken Armbruster Named 2008 USOC Paralympic Coach of the Year
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. - The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) announced today the recipients of its 2008 Coach of the Year awards including Paralympic Coach of the Year: Ken Armbruster (Colorado Springs, Colo.) who coaches the sport of Goaball.

Additional winners are: National Coach of the Year Hugh McCutcheon (Volleyball/Irvine, Calif.; Christchurch, New Zealand); Developmental Coach of the Year Rajul Sheth (Table Tennis/Milpitas, Calif.); Volunteer Coach of the Year Rita Gladstone (Tennis/Port Orange, Fla.); and Dave Bennett (Wrestling/Coaldale, Colo.) as the "Doc" Counsilman Science Award honoree. 
The 2008 recipients will be presented with their awards on June 13 during a luncheon at the 2009 National Coaching Educators' Conference in Pittsburgh. The conference will be held at the Sheraton Station Square and hosted by West Virginia University's Athletic Coaching Education Department.
Coach Armbruster guided the U.S. Women's Paralympic Goalball team to the gold medal at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, including a 4-3 overtime victory versus China in the final. Armbruster has served as head coach of the U.S. Paralympics Women's Goalball National Team since 1996. His teams have won gold (2008), silver (2004) and bronze (1996) Paralympic medals, the 2002 World Championship and three Parapan American gold medals. An Air Force veteran, Armbruster also coaches the Colorado Bandits women's goalball team, the current and seven-time national champions. His daughter, Jennifer, is a five-time Paralympian in the sport of goalball and was flag bearer for Team USA and captain of her team in Beijing.

Goalball is a team sport played by blind and visually impaired athletes around the world.  A team of three athletes on each side of the court aims to launch a ball at speeds of more than 30mph into the opposing side’s goal on an indoor volleyball-sized court.  All athletes are blindfolded to create a state of total blackness and bells encased in the ball the size of a basketball help the athletes track the balls location.

“What a tremendous and well-deserved honor for Coach Armbruster to be selected for this prestigious award.” stated John Potts, USABA High Performance Director. 

USABA, a member organization of the U.S. Olympic Committee, is a non-profit organization that provides training for blind and visually impaired athletes for competition in eleven sports.  USABA members range from blind children developing sports skills to elite athletes who train for competitions such as the Paralympic Games, the world’s second largest athletic competition that draws more than 4,000 disabled athletes.  For more information visit: www.usaba.org.