The Miami (OH) RedHawks will combine their men’s and women’s swimming & diving programs beginning next season, with a search launching for a new coaching position to head the new combined program.
The school announced the move in a press release Wednesday, noting that the combined programs would begin right away in the 2016-2017 school year.
More and more schools have begun to combine their men’s and women’s programs. Recently, a number of big-name schools have elected to combine teams, including Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Combining programs allows teams to break up their athletes into more specialized training groups instead of by gender. Within the collegiate sport of swimming & diving, the added bonus is what amounts to an extra coach on staff – in separate programs, each team gets three coaches, but the diving coach often takes up both the men’s and women’s team positions, leaving spots four 4 more official swim coaches. With a combined team, the diving coach can fill just one slot, leaving 5 open coaching positions available.
Of the top 4 teams at both men’s and women’s NCAAs this past month, the split has been almost even between separate and combined programs. The #1 Georgia women, #3 Florida men and #4 NC State men are all combined programs. The #1 Texas men, #2 Stanford women, #2 Cal men, #3 Cal women and #4 Texas A&M women are gender-specific programs.
Miami was already set to have a shakeup in its coaching staff, with Pete Lindsay retiring after 31 years at the helm of the men’s program. We’ve reached out to the Miami athletic department regarding the status of women’s head coach Mark Davis, but have not yet received comment.
Update: Miami has responded, noting that Davis will remain with the program until his contract runs out this coming May. He will also be able to apply for the new head coaching position.
The Miami press release says a national search for a new head coach to oversee the combined program will begin immediately.
The full Miami press release:
OXFORD, Ohio — The Miami University swimming and diving programs will have a more modern look to it next year.
Miami Director of Athletics David Sayler announced that the RedHawks will combine their men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs come the 2016-17 academic year. Under the new model, the RedHawks will create a new Head Coach of Swimming and Diving position with assistant coaches responsible for coaching both men and women in their specialized event.
The combined program model is one that has been adopted at several programs over recent years, including national teams such as Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Michigan State and Tennessee and several Mid-American Conference schools including Buffalo and Eastern Michigan. Evansville, Missouri State and Southern Illinois, affiliate MAC programs in swimming and diving, also have combined programs. The model’s benefits include more specialized specific coaching and training by event, instead of by gender.
A national search for a new Head Coach of Swimming and Diving will start immediately.
Mark is a great coach. He had just as much success on the Men’s side as on the Women’s side at the high school and club level. I hope they give him the opportunity to run the combined program.
Indiana combined programs in 2005 which I wouldn’t consider recently (even though it may feel like yesterday to some of us).
Many times one team (men or women) suffers in a combined program.
2016 NCAA Finish
Virginia Women 5, Men 28
Florida Women 19, Men 3
Alabama Women 28, Men 6
Auburn Women 33, Men 10
But also many separate programs have one program much stronger than the other–Texas, Texas A&M, Stanford–so I wouldn’t say having a combined program causes the program to suffer. Virginia’s men’s program went through a lot of turmoil with the hazing scandal they faced and is rebuilding, so it’s hard to judge that program. Also, the programs were combined for many years under Mark Bernardino and experienced great success with both the men and women. Florida’s women had one down season this year but historically have been a top 10 team. Auburn men and women were combined under David Marsh and both experienced much success. I think both combined and separate programs have demonstrated success such that you can’t draw conclusions… Read more »
too early to tell but one might argue that the Michigan men suffered this year at the expense of a vastly improved women’s program
Based on what data? They have recruits on the men’s side that have vastly under performed.
I feel that it was very rude of Miami to send out this press release without addressing the status of the current coach Mark Davis.
Lynn Jolly
Miami Swimming 1983-1987
If I had to guess I’d say he will be given the chance to apply for the job … would be a deal breaker for just about any head coach being hired if he/she is required to retain him.
UGA – combined
Cal – separate staff
NC State – combined
Indiana – combined
These were only programs to finish in the top ten for both.
Will they fully fund the men’s scholarships now? that would help more than combining!
How many men’s schollies do they offer?
They do have a lot of academic money available.