Louisville has announced the addition of Kevin Arakaki to its staff as an assistant coach for the upcoming 2024-2025 season. Arakaki takes the position formerly held by Trevor Maida who joined the Texas program under Bob Bowman earlier this offseason.
“I am thrilled to welcome Kevin back to our program,” said Louisville head coach Arthur Albiero. “He did a phenomenal job creating great relationships when he was our volunteer coach previously. He understands our program culture of excellence and he will be a great addition to our “rock star” coaching staff. After we made the announcement to our team, the exciting responses I have received from team members who worked with Kevin before says it all. It was pure joy and excitement!”
Arakaki spent three seasons as a volunteer with Louisville, notably helping the programs to their highest combined finishes in 2019 when the women finished 4th and the men were 5th. The men also swam to a 2021 ACC title during Arakaki’s stint as a volunteer assistant. Arakaki notably primarily worked with the sprint group during his first stint and will most likely return to the same group as Maida worked with the sprint group this past season and is now going to lead the sprint group at Texas.
In addition to working with Louisville, he also assisted with Cardinal Aquatics, the club swimming affiliate of Louisville. He served as the national group coach.
After spending time at Louisville during his first stint, he was named assistant coach at fellow ACC school Pitt in 2021. He was the only swimming coach to be retained when Chase Kreitler took over the program in the 2022 off-season.
Pitt saw 15 athletes qualify for the 2022-2023 NCAA Championships. The team sent six men, two swimmers and four divers, to the 2024 NCAA Championships. The women’s team sent two swimmers and two divers to 2024 NCAAs.
Arakaki spent his student-athlete career at Western Illinois, graduating in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. He went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Sport Psychology from California Southern University in 2019. He began his coaching career with Hawaii Swim Club, his local club team.
Kevin Arakaki is a rising star in the sport. He has put in his time and will thrive back at Louisville.
Kev is one of the coolest and caring coaches I’ve had. Stand up coach and friend, couldn’t deserve it more.
These Comments sections never fail to deliver the drama.
It is time to tell the truth about Chase and his Pitt program. From the moment he set foot on Pitt’s campus, you could tell things would be different. We all felt from the beginning that this program might finally be getting some tailwinds, and in a few years, it would be able to compete with the best (I was on that team). The first few months with Coach Chase were really good; everyone enjoyed the atmosphere and practices.
And here’s a small disclaimer: it’s not that we didn’t work hard under John Hargis—quite the opposite. We were overworked with him. Throughout my years with John, we never got a proper taper before the big meets because there was… Read more »
Not to mention chase called security on a few former swimmers and tried to get them kicked out of home meets so they wouldn’t talk to the current swimmers
That speaks volumes about Chase. Students should be allowed to watch their former teammates swim and cheer them on without being made to feel like they are outlaws. As long as the former swimmers were respectful then Chase should be suspended by the athletic department at a minimum for this behavior.
Except that they came in with a sign saying “Let them drink” to protest against Chase’s strict drinking rules.
And Justin under John called security on an alumnus who showed up on deck in a speedo. Chase never called security.
Not even the meet I was talking about but I heard about that and that’s kind funny tho lol
I want to be completely objective and I do agree with some of these statements made. This is a different person’s perspective on Pitt before Chase and after Chase.
disregard this, I don’t know how to comment on swimswam
Ignore my previous comment, I accidentally submitted it since I don’t usually comment on SwimSwam tbh
I hate how every article related to Pitt is just a comment cesspool of drama and dragging people through the dirt.
I want to be completely objective and I do agree with many of these statements but I feel like this is only one side of the story. I think there is a fault on both Chase and the team. This is a different person’s perspective on Pitt before Chase and after Chase.
I agree with the perspective of before Chase. John had no sense of recovery and felt like it was just hammer time until taper. He never really adapted to new training… Read more »
I hate how every article related to Pitt is just a comment cesspool of drama and dragging people through the dirt.
I want to be completely objective and I do agree with many of these statements but I feel like this is only one side of the story. I think there is a fault on both Chase and the team. This is a different person’s perspective on Pitt before Chase and after Chase.
I agree with the perspective of before Chase. John had no sense of recovery and felt like it was just hammer time until taper. He never really adapted to new training methods. It might have worked for some people but for most, not at all. But I… Read more »
Coach Kevin is an amazing coach, and an even better human being. Really excited for him!
The former BC staff would crush it at Pitt.
THE GOAT
HSC proud!