The Texas A&M Athletics Department has extended the contract of women’s swimming & diving head coach Steve Bultman through June 30th, 2016, with two additional one-year extensions possible.
If Bultman were to work out the four remaining years on his contract, including extensions, that would make 18 seasons as the head coach at Texas A&M.
Bultman has a long, very successful career in coaching, though his understated demeanor means that only recently, in the last 5 years or so, has he become a “hot name” in women’s swimming. Bultman has twice been on the U.S. Olympic coaching staff (1988, 2012) and has led the A&M women to their most successful run, by far, in program history with eight straight top-10 finishes and two-straight 4th-place finishes.
Prior to taking over the A&M program in 1999, Bultman was an assistant at Georgia, LSU, worked with the Dynamo Swim Club, and GPAC in Pensacola, Florida, where he put three swimmers on the 1988 U.S. Olympic Team.
While Bultman graduated his two U.S. Olympians after last season, Cammile Adams and Breeja Larson, he’s still got plenty of international Olympians (including Mexico’s Lili Ibanez), other potential Olympians (senior Sarah Henry), and one swimmer who surprised a little bit, but not a lot, to make the U.S. Pan Pacs team this summer before taking their first class at A&M: Lisa Bratton. In other words: despite graduating two of the best in program history, plus defending NCAA backstroke champ Paige Miller and a handful of other stars, Bultman has finally built the momentum where he’s bringing in new stars every year.
And for that, he was rewarded with the option to at least see his team through the 2016 Olympic Games, if not beyond.
I’m a proud Dynamo alum but I’m a bigger Steve Bultman fan (he coached me to my first National cut) and back in 1995, I was aghast at the treatment of Steve by the Dynamo Parents Club Board that led to Steve leaving Dynamo; he deserved so much better! However, I long ago realized that it was actually a great thing for Steve: having formed a relationship with Jack Bauerle at UGA, Steve landed there (I’m sure Jack was thrilled to have Steve’s expertise on his staff) and that got Steve into college swimming and as we can see, he has excelled in college coaching, to the surprise of none of us who understood how exceptional of a coach he… Read more »
I don’t think Bethany Galat made the Pan Pacs team.
One of the best coaches in USA swimming for a long time and has done an outstanding job at Texas A&M from day one!
This is WELL DESERVED! Steve is a class act and a fantastic coach.
Gig Em!