Milestone Men

Each season a select few NCAA coaches reach career win totals that have a number with two zeros tacked on the end. For IU this winter, two coaches have slipped under the radar to achieve huge milestones in their respective sports. In doing so, women’s tennis coach Lin Loring and wrestling coach Duane Goldman have brought great honor for Hoosier athletics.\nLoring reached 700 wins on Jan. 20 when the Hoosiers defeated Miami (OH) in the afternoon match of a double-header. In doing so, Loring became the all-time winningest coach in NCAA Division I women’s tennis coach history and is the only person to accumulate 700 career wins. Not to be outdone two weeks later, Goldman picked up his 200th win when the Hoosiers clobbered Michigan State 23-9.\nIn amassing these milestones both coaches, like many milestone breakers in their position I imagine, concentrated on other things at the time.\n“To tell you the truth I never really thought about it,” Loring said. “To me it’s kind of like birthdays. If you stick around long enough you get a lot of them and after a while you kind of stop paying attention.”\nGoldman felt the same way, and after the Feb. 3 victory over the Spartans he was ready to give credit to his wrestlers.\n“Two hundred is fun to get,” Goldman said, “but the wins come and go with time. But more importantly the team needed a victory.”\nLoring and Goldman both have offices at Assembly Hall and work in close vicinity of each other. Each man faces different disadvantages with their respective sports coaching at IU.\nFor Loring, much of the difficulty coaching in the Midwest is the climate. But needless to say, through 31 seasons, he has done well pushing our program through the clutter.\n“We’re the second or third most sponsored sport in the NCAA,” Loring said. “We have about 320 Division I teams. When we consistently make it year-in, year-out, and for a non Sun-Belt or Pac-10 school to make it consistently to the tournament is pretty special.”\nAnd who could argue with Loring? With free tuition and awesome outdoor facilities for outdoor sports, would you rather get a tan in Los Angeles or at Lake Lemon?\nFor Goldman, challenges arise by competing in a conference where the Hoosiers are ranked No. 21 in the country, but eight other Big Ten teams are ahead of IU in the polls. But he’s not making any excuses.\n“We face a grueling conference schedule,” Goldman said. “For us, it’s all about working with our individuals to get them prepared to succeed in the conference championships coming up.”\nGoldman, who has coached 16 seasons here at IU, would know a thing or two about Big Ten wrestling. He learned from a legend, while wrestling at Iowa, in coach Dan Gable and his career was, needless to say, a success. \nGoldman earned a .932 winning percentage throughout his career and was a three-time All-American. He compiled a record of 118-1 while wrestling for Iowa State, his only loss coming in the NCAA Finals his senior year. In 1972, Gable won a gold medal in the summer Olympics.\nBoth men go quietly about their business each day, coaching sports that barely get any recognition outside of their family, friends and the athletes they coach. They have earned legendary status as long-time coaches who have represented Indiana University proud for so many years.