Former Penn State associate head coach Matt Hurst revealed in an email sent to Penn State swimmers yesterday that he had been hired by the Chelsea Piers Aquatic Club as head coach and will start his new job on June 2 this year. He will be replacing Doug Lennox, who took the head coaching position in May 2021 and stepped down earlier this year. Since then, Aaron Montgomery had been filling in as interim head coach.
Hurst was promoted to associate head coach at Penn State in January. Prior to then, he had been serving the team as an assistant coach since 2015. In his brief stint as associate head coach, Penn State sent three men and one woman to NCAAs, although none of the swimmers scored any points. In addition, the Nittany Lions finished 10th out of 12 teams at the women’s Big Ten championships and 8th out of 8 at the men’s Big Ten championships. Since 2015, the team’s best finish at women’s Big Tens was 7th out of 12 teams in 2016, and their best finish at men’s Big Tens was 7th out of 10 teams in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021.
In his time at Penn State, Hurst worked with sprinters like Irish Olympian Shane Ryan and Mexican Olympian Gabe Castano. Ryan was a four-time Big Ten Champion, and finished third in the 100 back at 2015 NCAAs.
The Chelsea Piers Aquatic Club swim team is located in Stamford, Connecticut. Hurst is a native of suburban Philadelphia, and Stamford is about the same distance from home for him as State College is. He swam collegiately at Southern Connecticut State University, where he was an 11-time All-American at the Division II level.
Chelsea Piers is the former club of swimmers such as Olympians Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh, NCAA Champion Gretchen Walsh, and world junior champion Maxine Parker.
I wish him nothing but the best, but it’s a toxic place right now and hope he can make it better for the kids – they should come first!
CPAC will benefit from having Matt Hurst as head coach since he has a lot to offer. And he already has a strong background in CT swimming as both a swimmer and a coach.
There seems to be quite a bit of turnover there. Anyone know what the situation is? I grew up very close by so I’m just curious…
just a guess… it starts with p and ends in rents
Or the ridiculous “Athletic Director” Kevin Burton, Greta Wagner, or David Tewksbury who believe they are the end all be all to youth sports. Good luck to the new head coach and family as well as all the families that are used and abused in this factory.
Or the loss of the original coaching staff that that made decisions based on reality and not based on pushy parents that joined with their own agenda in mind
The new coach, Matt, will offer the best swimming program around. He is personal and professional and works very hard to get his swimmers to perform their best. He will be a true asset to Chelsea Piers Aquatic Club. Give him time, He will prove his ability. They made a great choice in hiring him!
Turnover at Chelsea Piers or PSU? In this situation at least Coach gets an indoor 50 meter pool to work with.
https://www.change.org/p/fairness-for-cpac-athletes-and-parents