Courtesy: American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA)
Fort Lauderdale, FL — The opportunity to become an American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) Fellow in the prestigious Tim Welsh ASCA Fellows Program is here.
Yearly, ASCA selects a small group of coaches to spend a year of research, education, and career exposure dedicated to an impact project which is created and supported by the ASCA Board of Directors. This prestigious and longstanding program is known as the ASCA Fellows.
The program aims to identify and foster future coach leaders in swimming by highlighting current issues and providing pathways to impact the sport nationally and globally. ASCA Fellows are typically coaches with a passionate interest in improving American Swimming beyond their own pool decks.
The ASCA Board of Directors voted unanimously to rename the program after the late Timothy Welsh, former Board President and Head Coach at Notre Dame from 1985 to 2014. As the principal founder of the Fellows, Coach Welsh guided the curriculum for two decades and mentored hundreds of coaches in the process.
Before his 2021 passing, Welsh named Coach Kathleen Prindle of Performance Aquatics to lead the program. A former ASCA Fellow, longtime ASCA Vice President, and an ASCA Level 5 Coach, Prindle has more than 30 years’ on-deck experience and has coached athletes to National and International Championships, 3 US Olympic Trials, 2 FINA World Championships and 4 Olympic Games. Prindle is in the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame and currently serves on the USA Swimming Board of Directors.
“Becoming an ASCA Fellow under the wise and enthusiastic tutelage of Coach Welsh altered the course of my own career for the better and renewed my commitment to serving our sport on a larger scale. It is an honor to be a part of re-launching the new Tim Welsh Fellows Program and have the opportunity to pass on this special kind of coach education to more generations of coaches. Tim started us off with the initial 20 years of Fellows, and the ASCA is determined to continue that trend for decades to come.”
2022’s Project Topic titled “The Fork in the Road” is intended to explore coach longevity in the sport. The data on coach registration and debate about reasons for coaches to enter and leave the sport is long established and ongoing – the aim is to tackle the “why” of gaining and losing coaches in the early stages
of their careers. The Fellowship is a year-long education and action process which culminates in being named an ASCA Fellow upon successful completion of the program.
Coaches interested in applying for the 2022 Fellowship should demonstrate:
- Proven aptitude for leadership (at any level)
- Active coaching or working in the swimming field
- Five years minimum coaching experience (at any level)
- Must have completed education (cannot be a student/in school)
- International applicants must be working/living in the USA during the upcoming Fellowship year • Must be a member in good standing of ASCA
- Ability and intent to attend the 2022 ASCA World Clinic in-person
The online application deadline for the 2022 Fellows class is Monday, June 27, 2022. Candidates will be selected by committee and announced by July 15, 2022.
The application is available here and at www.swimmingcoach.org . Questions about the Fellows program can be directed to ASCA staff liaison Matt Hooper at 1-800-356-2722 or [email protected] .