George Block

Coach George Block has been the Director of Aquatics for the Northside Independent School District, in San Antonio, Texas, since 1977 and Assistant Director of Athletics since 1993. In that time, he has developed the Northside Aquatic Center into an internationally recognized center for athlete development.

In his nearly three decades at Northside, Coach Block has developed 52 Texas high school State (UIL) gold medalists, over 285 high school All-Americans, USA Olympic Trials qualifiers in 1984-88-92-96 and 2000, and numerous National and Junior National Champions. He has produced 6 Olympians in three different sports (swimming, triathlon and pentathlon) and Olympic swimmers from three different countries (USA, Nicaragua and Algeria).

In 1987, USA Swimming awarded him the Phillips 66 Performance Award. In 1992, Coach Block was the Coca-Cola Texas Coach of Honor. In 1997, the United States Water Fitness Association named the Northside Aquatics Center the Top School District/Community Facility in the nation and Coach Block its Top Aquatics Director. From 1997-98, Coach Block served as president of the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) and in 2000 was awarded the Silver Award of Excellence for 20 years of USA Swimming National finalists. He currently serves as USA Swimming’s Technical Vice-President (2005-07); and is a Vice President of ASCA.

Also heavily involved in his local community, Coach Block was one of the founders of the San Antonio Sports Foundation and of Voices for Children--San Antonio, an early childhood advocacy organization of which he is now Chairman of the Board.

He is married to Margie, a retired nurse, and they have three children: Meagan, a law student at the University of Notre Dame; Jeremy, a senior at the University of Redlands (California); and Jackson, a junior at Northside’s Holmes High School.