Tennessee announced today the hiring of Bret Lundgaard as their newest assistant, taking over for the recently-departed Lars Jorgensen.
Lundgaard comes to Knoxville from West Point, where he served as the recruiting coordinators for Army, as well as working with their freestyle and IM groups. Last year, with his help, the Army men finished 3rd at the ECAC Championships, and the women were 6th (out of 20 and 19 teams respectively).
He’s a very young coach (still in his mid-20’s) that head coach Matt Kredich will be able to groom, but it says a lot for someone that young gets a post as big as Tennessee.
“We are very fortunate to have someone of Bret’s character, work ethic, and ability at the University of Tennessee,” Kredich said. “He’s going to play a key role in establishing our men’s and women’s teams among the premiere swimming and diving programs in the country.”
In his two years at Army, he brought in outstanding recruiting classes. Prior to that, he served one year as a coach in high school, and that’s the extent of his post-collegiate coaching experience. That includes the signing of Brock Redondo out of Mission Viejo, who as a freshman shattered multiple school records.
As a swimmer, he swam at Washington from 2005-2008, and was a captain as both a junior and a senior.
Recruiting at a top-15, BCS program like Tennessee seems as though it would take a much different perspective from a military academy, but especially on the men’s side, those ideals of honor and integrity should resonate with parents who may be wary of the program.
At the newly gender-combined program, we’re not positive exactly where the number of assistants will end up, but math says that we’re probably going to see another assistant hired still.
“That includes the signing of Brock Redondo out of Mission Viejo, who as a freshman shattered”
I think you accidentally a word.