Aaron Bell to Become Associate Head Coach at Notre Dame

Former Virginia Tech assistant Aaron Bell has been named the new Associate Head Coach at ACC-rivals Notre Dame.

Bell ended his time at Virginia Tech with the title of ‘head assistant coach and recruiting coordinator’ for the Hokies, a promotion he earned in the summer of 2014 after the program won their first-ever ACC title in 2014.

Bell was with Virginia Tech 5 seasons, which saw an unprecedented run of success for the Virginia Tech men’s program especially. Besides the ACC title, all but one men’s school record (the 50 free) was broken during Bell’s tenure. The men’s teams placed 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 3rd, and 4th during Bell’s 5 seasons. Prior to his arrival, they had never been higher than 4th in the ACC. 2014 also saw the women’s highest-ever ACC finish (2nd), and highest finish in any conference since the 2000-2001 season.

He’ll join a Notre Dame team that now has three years of ACC experience under their belts after joining the conference in the summer of 2013. In that short period of time, Notre Dame has never finished higher than Virginia Tech in the ACC on either the men’s or women’s sides of the pool. The Notre Dame women did outscore Virginia Tech at both the 2014 and 2015 NCAA Championships, but neither Notre Dame team scored at the 2016 NCAA Championships.

Bell joins a Notre Dame program that’s rebuilding this season under a newly-combined men’s-and-women’s team banner. The team is to be led by former North Carolina associate head coach Mike Litzinger, giving Notre Dame a lot of ACC conference experience.

Bell’s prior stops were at the University of Buffalo as the head assistant and recruiting coordinator for 4 years; and with both the Ohio University and University of Miami varsity programs.

Bell swam as an undergrad at Division II Clarion University, where he was a 20-time NCAA All-American and 7-time conference champion.