Courtesy: Stonehill Athletics
EASTON, Mass. (July 28, 2022) – Stonehill College has accepted the resignation of Caleb Potvin, the first women’s swimming head coach in the program’s young history, to accept a coaching position at the University of New Hampshire with its women’s swimming and diving program.
“We are thankful to Caleb for building the women’s swimming program at Stonehill over his three years as the program’s inaugural head coach,” said Dean O’Keefe, ’94, Assistant Vice President/Director of Athletics at Stonehill. “The Stonehill community wishes Caleb and his family the best as he pursues this new opportunity.”
Potvin was named the first head coach of the women’s swimming program at Stonehill in November 2019. He led the Skyhawks through their first two seasons of competition, first virtually during the pandemic year of 2020-21 and then its first official season this past winter in 2021-22. Potvin recruited three classes that saw the roster grow from six student-athletes in 2020-21 to ten in 2021-22, with an incoming class of seven slated to join the program as Stonehill starts its transition to NCAA Division I status this fall.
Stonehill earned Scholar All-America squad status from the Collegiate Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) each of the program’s first four semesters of existence for its efforts in the classroom, including producing the highest team grade point average in the Northeast-10 Conference during the spring 2021 semester. After producing strong efforts in a series of virtual meets during in the spring of 2021, with rising junior Sydney Stockwell finishing second in high point standings for a three-meet series, Stonehill posted a 6-3 head-to-head record in its first official season of competition in 2021-22, competing at the NE10 Championships, ECAC Winter Championship and New England Intercollegiate Swimming & Diving Association (NEISDA) Championships.
Stonehill, led by rising sophomore Jami Hepburn and Stockwell who claimed the first podium finishes at the NE10 Swimming & Diving Championships in program history, posted a seventh-place team finish in its debut at the Championship this past winter. Hepburn captured the first NE10 individual title in program history in the 100-yard breaststroke, while Stockwell finished third in the 100-yard backstroke, as the Skyhawks finished the Championships with 22 finals appearances, including 12 A-Finals, with six top five’s and three B-Finals wins. Stonehill went on to finish second overall in the team standings and won the Division II team title at the NEISDA Championships, with Hepburn sweeping the three breaststroke swims with three gold medal performances, Stockwell adding a New England title for the 200-yard individual medley relay and rising sophomore Sofiya Gobora recording six podium finishes with two silver medals.
Stockwell became the first in program history to earn a spot on the NE10 Academic All-Conference squad this winter and Hepburn was recognized by the athletic department as its Rookie of the Year at its end of the year awards night.
“The past three years have been some of the most fulfilling of my coaching career,” said Potvin. “It was an exciting challenge to be the inaugural head coach for a collegiate program. Stonehill College is a special place, and I am humbled and grateful to have been the head women’s swimming coach. Thank you to Dean O’Keefe, Cindy MacDonald (Senior Associate Director of Athletics), Steve Fitzgerald (Deputy Director of Athletics), and Pauline Dobrowski (Vice President for Student Affairs) for their belief in me and providing me the opportunity to not only help launch Stonehill’s swim team – but to launch my own NCAA coaching career. I don’t believe I need to go to great length to thank the most important group of all – the incredible young women I was honored to coach – the ‘swamily’. These talented, kind, and bright young women have made an immeasurable impact on my life, and I am excited to follow their progress and know they will achieve incredible things – as both individuals and as a team.”
A search for Potvin’s replacement will begin immediately.
Stonehill, a transitioning NCAA Division I institution as a member of the Northeast Conference, offers 23 varsity intercollegiate athletic programs, with women’s ice hockey set to begin competition in the New England Women’s Collegiate Hockey Alliance for the 2022-23 season. Stonehill, which began its four-year Division I acclimation period and NEC membership on July 1, has won the NCAA Division II Northeast-10 Conference Presidents’ Cup six times, finishing in the top three in the final standings 15 of the last 17 years, and is one of just ten institutions nationwide to receive the NCAA Presidents’ Award for Academic Achievement, recognizing athletic departments with an Academic Success rating of 90-percent or better, each of the first ten years of the program’s existence.
Stonehill teams have earned 118 NCAA Tournament bids over its history, also regularly sending student-athletes to compete at the NCAA Championships in men’s and women’s track & field. Women’s lacrosse has won two NCAA National Championships in 2003 and 2005, and Corey Thomas, ’13 won the indoor high jump national title at the 2011 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. Equestrian captured the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) Hunter Seat National Championship in 2003 and collected several individual national championships over the course of its history as well.