The UBC Thunderbirds swim program and the entire UBC Athletics and Recreation department mourns the passing of former UBC swimming assistant coach Randy Bennett.

An assistant coach with the UBC Thunderbirds under Tom Johnson from 1993 to 2002, Bennett went on to become the head coach of the Swimming Canada High Performance Centre - Victoria. He passed away Monday night in Victoria after a battle with cancer. Originally diagnosed as non-small cell lung cancer earlier in the year, the diagnosis was later revised to metastatic malignant melanoma. Bennett was just 51 years of age.

"Randy had an obvious impact on Canadian Swimming," said UBC head coach Steve Price. "He really moved towards High Performance Coaching during his time at UBC and was a big part of our success during the Decade of Dominance. During those years Randy, Derrick Schoof, Janice Hanan and myself got to hone our skills under Tom Johnson while working with some great athletes. We had fun, we pushed each other to be better and we expected a lot from each other. Randy went on to become one of the pre-eminent coaches in Canada and proved with that with desire and hard work you can be successful. With all his accolades his greatest pride was his family especially his two boys. Our hearts go out to his family, friends, colleagues and his swimmers. There is a big hole in Canadian Sport today but we will rally and carry on."

Bennett and the rest of the Decade of Dominance teams were recently inducted into the UBC Sports Hall of Fame.