Coaching Carousel: Pitt, Louisville Looking for Assistants

As the coaching carousel continues to turn in college swimming, three more programs have posted listings looking for new assistants: Pitt, Louisville, and Davidson.

For the Panthers, this will be the second-season in a row that they are looking for a new hire, as last year their assistant Tanica Jamison moved on to Texas A&M. Due to the weekend, we were unable to get confirmation on which assistant was leaving or where they were going; but for a program like Pitt to lose an assistant two years in a row to bigger programs says a lot about Chuck Knoles and his ability to develop assistants.

Louisville is probably the biggest of the three positions, and the requirements show that – head coach Arthur Albiero is seeking a coach with 5 years of relevant experience, which is a pretty high threshold. But anybody who follows college swimming can see that the recent rise of Louisville as a power is going to result in one of two things: either the development of a perennial top-15 team, or a coach who is going to get snapped up by a perennial top-10 team. Either way, it’s going to be an outstanding program to put on a resume down the line when a head coaching position becomes available.

The Cardinals also are embracing the new world of the internet – proclaiming that the new hire must be “extremely knowledgeable” in the area of social media. This shows a shift in what coaches are doing to promote their programs to the wider sporting community, allowing them to basically put out public service announcements that will (hopefully) reach prospective student athletes, without violating rules by directly connecting them.

And finally, Davidson is hiring a new assistant for their program that competes in the rising Collegiate Coastal Swimming Association. This conference is shifting into a mid-major center of power, with Florida Gulf Coast, Liberty, and College of Charleston all competing there. The Davidson men, as the host team, placed 2nd in the conference by 6 points last year.