University of Bridgeport head women’s and men’s swimming coach Brad Flood and the UB Department of Athletics has announced the hiring of Scott VanKuilenburg as the Purple Knights’ swimming programs’ recruiting coordinator and assistant coach. VanKuilenburg replaces five-year assistant Shane Pelton, who has taken a graduate assistant position at Arizona State University in the Sun Devils’ swimming program.
VanKuilenburg spent this past summer/coaching at both the University of Tennessee and Harvard University summer swimming camps. He comes to Bridgeport after serving for one year on the residential staff at The Village School, a private, international boarding school in Houston, Texas where he worked with over 90 students from 10 different countries.
Prior to his position in Houston, Scott was an assistant coach with the Central Florida Marlins, a USA swimming club team Ocala, Florida, from 2010-2012, primarily working with breaststrokers and individual medalists. He spent the 2009 season as assistant coach of The Bishop’s School swim teams in La Jolla, California, where the boys and girls teams went a combined 15-3, the school’s first winning seasons for both programs in over five years.
In 2007-08, VanKuilenburg was recruiting coordinator/assistant coach at Brandeis University (Waltham, Massachusetts), where he helped the Judges land the programs’ best recruiting class in more than a decade. Scott also contributed to the success of the Brandeis teams as both the men’s and women’s squads combined to set three school records and achieved 90 lifetime best times. Prior to his year at Brandeis, Scott was a volunteer assistant coach with the Harvard women’s swimming team from 2005 to 20007, where he worked with swimmers that ranged from conference champions, NCAA qualifiers, Olympians & Para-Olympians. During his time in the Boston-area, VanKuilenburg also was head coach of the Cambridge Masters Swim Club.
VanKuilenburg enlisted in the US Air Force after graduating from high school in 1984 and earned the rank of Sergeant prior to his Honorable Discharge in 1989. While stationed in West Germany, Scott’s first coaching experience was as an assistant with the Kaiserslautern Kingfish, a member of the European Forces Swim League. After leaving the Air Force, VanKuilenburg attended the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, graduating with a B.S.in Education & Exercise Physiology. While at Tennessee, Scott served as the first-ever assistant strength and conditioning intern with the women’s athletic department and worked closely with the Volunteers’’ women’s swimming team as part of his responsibilities.
As an athlete, VanKuilenburg competed in both AAU & USA Swimming until he was in his mid-30’s. He was also a five-time USA Masters Swimming (USMS) National Champion, a two-time USMS All-American and a member of the 400 Medley Relay USMS national-record team. In addition to pool swimming, Scott has successfully completed an English Channel relay crossing, the Boston Marathon and a Half Ironman.
One of Scott’s greatest passions is Swim Across America (SAA). SAA is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to raising money and awareness for cancer research, prevention and treatment by hosting open water and pool swim events across the United States. VanKuilenburg was awarded the 2008 Wave Maker Award from the board of directors at Swim Across America for my outstanding dedication and commitment to SAA.
University of Bridgeport head coach Brad Flood states “We are exceptionally fortunate to have a person with Scott’s varied and successful coaching experiences as the newest member of our coaching staff. One of the qualities that came through during the interview process was his passion for the sport of swimming and desire to help swimmers, at all levels, achieve their goals. With Scott on board, I see the Purple Knights’ swimming teams continuing to improve at the conference and NCAA levels and look for further improvements of our recruitment domestic student-athletes.”
“I also want to take this time to sincerely thank Shane Pelton for his five-plus years of dedicated service to our program. There is no doubt that the University of Bridgeport men’s and women’s swimming teams would not enjoy the national stature and history-making accomplishments we have achieved without Shane’s tireless efforts in his time with the program. I want to personally wish Shane all the best as he continues his coaching career at ASU, in the preeminent PAC-12 Conference.”
VanKuilenburg will also assume the position of head coach of the Shoreline Elite Aquatics (SEA) swimming team, a USA Swimming club team that trains out of the University of Bridgeport’s Wheeler Recreation Center natatorium. He will officially begin his duties in both positions on August 15, 2013.
This release was provide to swimswam.