At long last, Florida State has finally made a move to hire the next member of their coaching staff, and hired Katie Gardocki as their new assistant, she confirmed to us this morning. Gardocki is the 4th member of the swimming coaching lineup to go with two diving coaches (including another very recent college graduate, Amy Cozad, who is assisting with the diving program).
Gardocki is just one year out of the completion of her eligibility at Auburn, where she was a 5-time All-American in primarily the distance freestyles.
She joins a staff at Florida State under new head coach Frank Bradley that is a mix of some holdovers from the last regime (including spring coach Andy Robins, who has had so much success with Florida State’s sprint group), and some new faces, like the very young Gardocki. Gardocki swam for Bradley in Bradley’s prior role as the associate head coach at Auburn.
Though Gardocki certainly isn’t to be pigeonholed as a coach into distance swimming (look at new Arizona head coach Rick DeMont, who was a great distance swimmer but now is one of the country’s top sprint/stroke coaches), Florida St. does have a very good young female distance swimmer in Madison Jacobi. The sophomore currently ranks 22nd in the country in the mile this season with a 16:16.29.
Korn, while I won’t argue against your perception, I’m not exactly sure why this should be a problem. Quality females interested in coaching are hard to find, so why shouldn’t they be given an advantage? It’s not exactly a secret that coaching is one of the least progressive fields in the gender-equality department
Simply put: It’s a rare breed in a field dominated by men. Kudos to the young lady.
great example of how much easier it is for a female to get a coaching gig than a guy.
nothing against Katie…just a comment against the system
Katie is perfect for coaching at FSU! She already knows the in’s and out’s of Frank’s process, and she has a few great training philosophies of her own. She is going to be great there.
KATIE IS SO HOT