Seven Weeks Later, Fordham Swimmers Still Without a Coach Ahead of Friday’s Season Opener

Fordham University swimmers are still without a coach more than seven weeks after the abrupt, unexplained departure of longtime head coach Steve Potsklan on August 22.

In a brief press release announcing Potsklan’s exit, Fordham athletic director Ed Kull vowed to appoint an interim head coach as soon as possible. A source close to the Rams’ program claims Kull said he was comfortable guaranteeing a new coach in time for their season-opening meet vs. Manhattan College on Friday, and administrators told the team that they would make a decision two weeks ago. But communication has stalled throughout October, leaving Fordham swimmers feeling as if they’ve been left to fend for themselves.

Fortunately, the Rams have received some guidance from former Olympian Tom Wilkens, whose son Bryce is a freshman on the team this season. Wilkens has been volunteering his time on deck with Fordham to offer some stability during this period of uncertainty.

But the Rams can’t rely on Wilkens, who lives two hours away, to run every workout in the interim. Fordham swimmers woke up for a 6 a.m. session Thursday morning only to discover that the lifeguards promised by the athletic department never showed up, meaning they could not start their workout. It’s not the first time that scheduling difficulties with lifeguards forced a captain-led practice to be canceled over the past couple months. A university spokesperson blamed the lifeguards for not showing up for their assigned shifts.

After the publication of this article, Fordham provided SwimSwam with a statement Thursday saying the program would announce an interim head coach later in the day.

“After a thorough and exhaustive search, we will be announcing an interim head coach for our men’s and women’s swimming and diving team today,” a Fordham spokesperson said in a statement. “We are confident that the new interim coach will provide stability to what has been a trying few months for the Fordham swimming and diving program. Since we consider the health and well-being of our student-athletes of the utmost importance, we worked as quickly as possible to hire a coach who will be a good fit for our program while instilling Fordham’s core values. We understand that the timing of the coaching change was less than ideal and since we did not have an assistant coach at the time we could not promote from within. The timing also made it difficult for head coaches at other institutions to be candidates for the Fordham position as they were hesitant to leave their current schools in a bind.”

By the end of the day Thursday, Fordham had not named an interim head coach as the university told SwimSwam it would, but Kull did send an email to athletes and parents saying the school is “in the final steps of appointing an interim” and that Wilkens would coach Friday’s meet against Manhattan.

Less than a month after leaving Fordham, Potsklan found a new job at nearby SUNY Maritime College, a Division III school in the Bronx.

Last season, the Ram men placed 5th out eight teams at the 2023 Atlantic 10 Championships, marking their best finish since 2017. The Fordham women placed 5th out of 11 teams.

The Rams have 35 swimmers listed on their women’s roster this season and 33 members of their men’s team. The only coaches listed on staff are diving coach Zhihua Hu and volunteer diving coach Evan Moretti. Fordham added Jake Brown as an assistant coach over the offseason in April, but he joined University of Chicago’s staff in September.

The NCAA transfer portal window for swimming and diving closed during the spring semester, but athletes receive an extra 30 days to enter if there is a head coaching change.