Mike Litzinger, the current head coach of the University of Notre Dame’s women’s swimming program, will be taking over the men’s team as well. The change is effective immediately, as the university has decided to combine its two swim and dive teams.
Litzinger, who was an assistant at the University of North Carolina for eight years before moving to Notre Dame in the 2015-2016 season, just finished his first season as head coach of the Notre Dame women’s program. He also finished off the second half of the season as the interim head coach of the men’s team, after men’s head coach Matt Tallman took an indefinite leave of absence this December.
“Although unexpected, the opportunity to operate a combined program during the past several months led us to conclude that this would be the best model for us going forward,” said Notre Dame vice president and athletics director Jack Swarbrink. “All the other Atlantic Coast Conference swimming programs are combined ventures, so we are also comfortable this will be a success from a scheduling, practice, competition, and recruiting standpoint. We are committed to working with Mike to create a structure that will serve both the men’s and women’s squads well.”
Before assistant coaching at North Carolina, Litzinger served as the head coach of the men’s and women’s teams at the University of Utah from 2000-2007 and the women’s head coach at St. Bonaventure from 1989-1996.
Both Notre Dame’s programs finished seventh at this year’s ACC Championships.