Coach-less Western Illinois Drops Swimming & Diving Program, Citing Budget

Western Illinois University has officially cut its swimming & diving program, which was suspended and without a coach since February.

WIU announced in June that it would be suspending its women’s and men’s swimming & diving programs, citing budgetary and COVID-19 concerns. The school promised to re-evaluate the situation within the coming year.

But for many, the writing was already on the wall. WIU had been without a head coach since February, and had cycled through two different head coaches in the previous year. The school terminated Greg Naumann in September. (The school originally refused to comment on Naumann’s departure, but SwimSwam’s request for public records showed Naumann was terminated for “a lack of control and responsibility to ensure the principle of student-athlete well-being”). Then WIU informed the team in February that his replacement, Scott Johannsen, was no longer leading the program less than a month before the team’s conference championship meets.

Illinois public records show that Naumann made $39,350 in 2017 as the program’s head coach, making it one of the lowest-paying head coaching jobs in Division I swimming.

Now, the school has made it official: WIU will discontinue its swimming & diving program, effective immediately based on a Friday, December 18 press release.

“It is unfortunate that we need to discontinue this program at this time,” said interim University President Martin Abraham in the press release. “We are no longer able to afford to support this in a manner that is fair to our student-athletes. I know how difficult this will be for the team and all of those who have participated in swimming and diving in prior years.”

Western Illinois previously competed in the Summit League, which is now left with just five men’s and five women’s programs: Denver (W/M), South Dakota (W/M), South Dakota State (W/M), Eastern Illinois (W/M), Omaha (W) and Valparaiso (M). The conference should be adding women’s and men’s programs from St. Thomas, though, as that school is set to make the jump from Division III to Division I to join the summit League. Omaha has announced plans to add a men’s team as well.