[2] During his senior year at Florida State, he was diagnosed with a heart murmur and switched from swimming to coaching Stultz's freshman team, and Reese discovered his life's calling.

Under Reese, the Episcopal men's team won the high school national championship title.

[1] When the University of Florida's long-time head coach, Bill Harlan, retired in 1976, Florida athletic director Ray Graves named Reese as the new head coach of both the Gators men's and women's swimming and diving teams.

Randy was probably the most different.Reese developed a reputation for his innovative theories on training and nutrition, many of which are used by top American coaches.

Over the years, he employed such unusual training methods as having his Florida Gators swimmers swim upstream in the nearby Ichetucknee River, do training workouts fully clothed, crawl their way up the entrance ramp of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on their hands with wheels attached to their ankles,[6] and swim with a waist belt attached to a pulley and weights.

[5] Reese's creative ideas included his invention of special arm paddles to create water resistance while correcting the motion of his swimmer's strokes.

Reese retired from full-time coaching in 1990 and accepted a position as the regional president of Teamstaff Companies, Inc., which directed and trained leasing and sales brokers.