The University of Houston has named Augie Busch as the new head coach for their women’s swimming program.
Busch, son of new USA National Team Director Frank Busch, was an assistant under his father for the past 8 years while at Arizona. He brings with him a wealth of success and experience (as well as incredible connections) from his time with the Wildcats that included a sweep of the 2008 Men’s and Women’s NCAA Championships.
The Houston Cougars haven’t had much recent National success off of the blocks, but they have all of the pieces that it takes to make a big splash. They have a great facility (one of the best in the nation, bar-none), a phenomenal diving program (one of the best in the nation, bar-none), and they’re located in the heart of one of the richest recruiting grounds in the country, bar-none. With Busch’s background as Arizona’s recruiting coordinator, the potential is there for him to really make a big dent on the Texas recruiting scene.
With the addition of Busch, they bring in a young coach from one of the best programs, club or collegiate, in the country, who has access to a wealth of connections and coaching resources, which seems to point for a big impact from the Houston program.
Amongst the returning swimmers that Busch will have to work with next year is Scottish breaststroke Beccy Hillis, who was the 2006 Scottish Junior Swimmer of the Year.
At Arizona, Busch worked predominantly with the backstrokers and IM’ers, though with the much smaller-scale Houston program he’ll have to be a jack-of-all trades. He’ll likely only have 1 assistant at Houston, and it appears for now that he will retain Jaime Lewis, who is a former four-year All-American at Florida and has been with the Houston program for 3 seasons.
Busch takes over the spot after the passing of former Houston coach Mark Taylor, who was known across the country as one of the nicest and most caring coaches in the sport. Taylor died in March while attending the NCAA Championships in Austin.