A recap as the NCAA coaching off-season carousel begins to spin: there are currently 7 known, public Division I head coaching positions available. As those jobs are filled, more will open, and the carousel will turn faster-and-faster until, eventually, it’s slowed by graduate or volunteer-assistant promotions, or coaches moving from club ranks to collegiate swimming.
Below, we’ve summarized the latest information we have on the positions, though we’ve generally left out names of finalists in the event that they haven’t informed their teams yet.
- Stony Brook – Just one year into its return to swimming, Stony Brook is already looking for a new head coach again. The school dismissed its coaching staff in January, and opted to pull out of the America East Conference championship meet. Reports are that this position is down to 2 finalists: one assistant coach from a D1 program, and a coach at another school in the state.
- Delaware – John Hayman resigned in March after almost 30 years as the head coach at Delaware, though he remains at the school in an academic capacity. There is no deadline listed for the job, and it is still posted.
- Georgia Southern – No announcement was made about head coach Laura Thomas’ departure, but Kristin Walker is serving as the school’s interim head coach. No announcement of a replacement has been made, but the posting has been removed from the Georgia Southern website.
- Wisconsin – One of two big dominoes to fall, Wisconsin head coach Whitney Hite “won’t return” at Wisconsin in spite of having several years left on his contract. The application deadline is officially tonight just before midnight, but word-on-deck is that 2 finalists have already been identified: both assistant coaches at top-10 Division I programs. This job is an intriguing one: the state has a thriving in-state swim scene, and Wisconsin has put together some solid teams in spite of challenges in building the in-state relationships to land that talent; and the Badgers will open a brand new pool sometime in the next year.
- Auburn – The grand-daddy of them all, and the biggest job expected to open this year, head coach Brett Hawke resigned after a decade leading the team. This gig worth $300,000 per year-plus when camp money is included, and that money goes a very long way in Auburn, Alabama. There’s been no job posting for this position, and the school is likely employing an executive search firm to find Hawke’s replacement. The two most common names bandied about are Cal head coach Dave Durden and 2016 U.S. Olympic women’s team head coach David Marsh – both of whom are former Auburn coaches, but at this point that seems to be mostly speculation and conjecture. There aren’t many coaches in the country (Bauerle, Reese come to mind) who wouldn’t at least consider this job, if the new AD decides to keep the same level of financial support for the programs
- TCU – There’s lots of rumors about what happened at TCU, and the athletics department is having trouble discerning which ones they want to substantiate, but its clear that when they put head coach Sammy Busch on a leave of absence just before Big 12s, that it wasn’t good. He eventually resigned. In a state with a huge swimming population but painfully-few college swimming opportunities, TCU is a high-potential program with the right coach. The only job posting we’ve found is on Glassdoor (we couldn’t find it on TCU’s official site).
- Holy Cross – After 43 years as the head coach at Holy Cross, Barry Parenteau announced a well-earned retirement last week, which will become official on June 1st. The job is currently posted on the Holy Cross site with no deadline.
Have we missed any spots? Let us know in the comments and we’ll investigate them.
Ball State University also has an opening
Y’all could add Northwestern
Unless you know something that I missed along the way, you’ve had to make an effort to avoid mentioning the most obvious Auburn choice. When Sergio Lopez-Miro was hired in to return from Singapore as Auburn Associate Head Coach, it seemed an obvious setup to “groom” a Hawke replacement, . Nothing against Durden, Marsh, Reese and Baurle, but Lopez has pretty clearly been as effective a coach over the last 5 years as any of them, considering he has done his work at a Florida prep school and in Malaysia, compared to running programs with the built-in advantages of Cal, SwimMac, Texas and Georgia. And Lopez (49) has a youth advantage of at least a decade over Marsh (60), Baurle… Read more »
NJIT I believe is also open
Is that a fact or just rumor
Michael Lawson is still listed on the team’s site as head coach, and there is no job posting we can find.
Where did the “NCAA’s best 400 IMer finish this year at NCAAs”? I would assume 1st??
The reason we are having this conversation in the first place
I would say the best 400IMer would be the (returning) swimmer with the fastest time. I get your backhanded attempt to try and say Hugo is not the best 400IMer, as he did not have a good NCAAs, but I would still consider him the FASTEST 400IMer in the NCAA now.
Has Ohio University hired?
Yes
https://staging.swimswam.com/ohio-university-hires-mason-norman-as-new-head-coach/
Watch for the changes and try and keep up – Marty McFly
“7 swimming jobs you might love… if you have 20+ years of experience and good connections”
I think Cal just got a new AD within the last week. That might be good or bad?
Assumption is that the new AD is there to cut sports and balance the budget. Assumption is also that with a $20mm endowment, aquatic sports will be largely left alone.
What does that leave? Track? Volleyball? Baseball? You know Basketball and Football wont be touched…