Assistant coaches Anna Heller and Clif Robbins are both out at the University of Arizona, as the Wildcats look for a new path forward after a disappointing 2022-2023 season. The university has listed their positions for hire on the school’s official jobs site.
Robbins has been an assistant to head coach Augie Busch for more than a decade. The partnership started together at the University of Houston, where Robbins was a volunteer assistant in the 2011-2012 season and a full-time assistant in the 2012-2013 season.
The two then traveled to Virginia together for four seasons, and finally to Arizona, where he was named associate head coach.
Robbins was a four-year letter winner as a swimmer at the University of Texas.
Heller joined the Arizona staff in August of 2019 as an assistant coach. Before that, she spent two seasons as an assistant at SMU and a season at Texas A&M, her alma mater, as a volunteer.
Heller began her college career at Oregon State, qualifying for the NCAA Championships in 2010, before transferring to Texas A&M.
The Arizona men finished 4th out of 6 teams at the 2023 Pac-12 Championships. They qualified one individual swimmer for the NCAA Championships – Ralph Daleiden Ciuferri – who finished 47th in the 50 free (19.68), 29th in the 200 free (1:33.37), and 39th in the 100 free (42.69). The men’s team also sent two relays to NCAAs – a 200 free relay, which placed 12th in 1:16.08, and a 400 free relay, which was DQ’ed.
The 10 points from that 200 free relay, plus one from senior diver Bjorn Markentin on platform (16th place), put them 32nd in the meet. That’s the team’s lowest finish since they didn’t score at the 1975 championships.
The women finished 6th out of 8 teams at the Pac-12 Championships, and qualified two individual swimmers for the meet: Maddy Burt and Julia Heimstead, both juniors, but no relays.
The team’s lone scorer was diver Delaney Schnell, who was 2nd on 1-meter, 4th on 3-meter, and won the NCAA title on platform. That placed the Wildcats 18th with 52 points, which was a one spot improvement on last year and a seven spot improvement over 2021.
Head coach Augie Busch‘s contract expires at the end of the 2023-2024 season. In an interview published on tucson.com in December, Busch said he felt good about where he was, and described himself as “Augie 2.0” and a “kind of a rebirth.”
“I think that the results aren’t what gave (the administration) pause. It’s that (I) allowed the minority on their way out — either through my removal or on their way out through transferring — that certainly got their ear and made them really question what was going on,” he said. “That might be that might have been the biggest sort of wake-up. You’re scared you might lose your job.”
He also described the women’s team as a “soap opera” and said that was disrupting the team’s performances. He also claimed to have cleared the deck of the negative elements within the program, and took steps to improve the team’s culture – including having a women’s team retreat and changing the structure of practices, giving the women’s team more practice time alone without the men’s team.
He also said he was more open and loose in practice.
“Everybody can totally be themselves and it’s like a full judgment-free zone,” junior Maddy Burt said. “It feels like a family, and now walking into practice every day, everybody’s just so happy to be there. It’s just so much fun.”
The two remaining assistant coaches, Roric Fink and Lara Jackson, are both Arizona alumni with ties to the era when Augie Busch‘s dad Frank Busch was the program’s head coach. That included leading the men and women to an NCAA title in 2008 when Fink was an assistant coach and Jackson was a member of the varsity team.
SwimSwam has reached out to Arizona and both coaches for comment, but has not received any responses.
Busch is on borrowed time. Clif was a one of a kind coach, I wouldn’t want to swim for anyone else, Augie’s ego has always been his downfall.
As someone who swam for Augie at a school other than Arizona, I can tell you he is an extremely irresponsible head coach. He prefers to pretend he doesn’t know about major team issues rather than handle them. I can’t believe he would do CR that dirty, that man supported him no matter what and was one hell of a coach.
Exactly…Cliff was nothing but loyal to him and has a brand new baby at home. Classy move Augie.
The quotes from Augie and Burt come from an article published in October and have no relevance to the recent coaching change. Swim swam is trying to relate their quotes to the coaching change and make them seem like there is a correlation when there isn’t one. The quotes came from an article talking about the new positive team culture after Augie got rid of problematic girls on the team from the 2021-2022 season
Everyone said this was a stupid argument the first time so you came back to comment it again?
Bold strategy cotton. Let’s see if it pays off.
Like I said before, it’s relevant because:
-He said everything was great, but the results were still terrible
-He’s blamed his athletes and now his assistant coaches
-So he’s run out of other people to blame, and if he doesn’t turn it around, he has to accept responsibility, right?
Seems perfectly relevant to me.
There is always a chance that both coaches left to become Head Coaches or Assistants at a different school. I have heard nothing but good things about either of the coaches in question, and Robbins in particular has definitely paid his dues as an assistant and associate head coach.
Maybe nothing has been publicly announced by Arizona because their new athletic departments wanted to announce the hiring first?
Wish this was true but it’s not the facts. They were both fired. Why? Not sure,I would assume it had something to do with the failure in and out of the pool. They didn’t leave to coach elsewhere or out of choice.
Anybody who knows Clif knows he wouldn’t coach for anyone other than Busch, he has no ambitions to coach anywhere else nor be a head coach anywhere else
swimming is just like any other college sport, first you fire your friends and next year you are fired most likely.
Except you don’t get to take millions with you on the way out ala Sean Miller and about every football coach in the last 30 years at U of A.
I find Maddy Burt’s comment hysterical. I’m glad to hear she is enjoying the soap opera she created.
That’s too bad you got kicked off and couldn’t stay to watch her become captain!
Pardon me I would never question auggie’s judgment. He is an excellent coach and judge of character. I’m sure he personally makes sure his team captains hold very high standards !
False, Maddy Burt has shown the true definition of a team captain this year. I can’t speak on her in the past as I didn’t know her, but in the past year, as somebody who was both on the team with her as well as no longer on the team but still around her I can confidently say she has played no part in creating a “soap opera”. She stays out of the drama and minds her own business and is there to support and lift everybody else up even through her own injury. They have been through enough shit this year & there aint no reason to drag her name through more.
Your experience with Maddy was positive. Not everyone feels the same way (clearly)!
Clearly… that’s why you’re not on the team anymore
I can’t speak to your experience. You can’t speak to mine.
I was not kicked off the team. Nice guess.
You are obviously impressed by Maddy and Auggie for supporting Maddy in this role. Everything there is great. I’m Not sure why you’re so defensive. A beloved coach and team captain need no defending. Their actions speak louder than the words.
Whatever replacement assistant.coaches he hires will be gone when he’s fired. Who’s going to get on a sinking ship?
You can always fill a Power 5 assistant coaching roll. Especially at a place like Arizona with so many alumni in coaching.
One year at Arizona getting paid is better than another year as a volunteer assistant somewhere else. At least to most people.
Coach that wants a job would not tie themselves to this with a very unlikely chance of being rehired. Or having Busch in their resume.
Augie has been nothing but terrible since coming in. Losing top athletes, not recruiting and not coaching up. His ability and knowledge of sport is only less than his ability to connect to athletes.
Blaming the women’s program is his MO. Has been saying men are on the rise but he is the first coach to lose to asu in over 30 years. His hiring issues, only come from his dads tree, those coaches being removed for acts no one would sign their children up for their first time out of their homes.… Read more »
Augie is famously known for maintaining a toxic deck, he LOVES the head coach title more than anything. He tries to follow in Frank’s footsteps but his ego gets in the way.
Do you think finding another job after only one year once “on the carousel” is plausible/easy? Especially if someone is at a better performing team as a volunteer vs. a paid year at a struggling team.
It’s all about who you know, and if you think Augie doesn’t have good enough connections, or you wouldn’t at least get your foot in the door talking to coaches at conferences/NCAA then you don’t understand how it works. Your results don’t really matter, ultimately it’s who you’re friends with. That’s why even when coaches don’t get results they still get to ride the carousel
I don’t know, but I think that’s beside the point.
My statement was that someone will ALWAYS take this job.
Especially when the jobs are paying $60k+. It’s hard for anyone to find a $60k+ job in swim coaching. Especially as a female assistant. Ask Lara Jackson, who’s making $45k.
Head coaches and ADs aren’t dumb either. They understand that whoever takes this job is getting on a sinking ship. Just keep your head down, do the best you can with your group, and nobody’s going to hold it against you. At least not anybody that you want to work for.
Augie has to be one of the most delusional head coaches in college swimming, ever. Has no idea on where to direct the program, evident in the men’s team worst NCAA finish in roughly 50 years. I guess Augie 2.0 refers to double the delusion, misdirection and worse performances. He’s dug himself into a hole that not even daddy can pull him out of this time
recent AZ swim alum and i agree wholeheartedly.