Wright State has hired Kyle Oaks as the new head coach of their men’s and women’s programs, promoting him from the assistant position that he’s held since September of 2010.
Oaks’ college coaching career began in 2008 at his alma mater at the College of Wooster, where he was a conference-level scorer and a captain as a senior. He came to Wright State after two years at the Division III program at Wooster.
He will join the ranks of the youngest Division I head coaches in the country at only 27 years old. He, Sacred Heart’s Brent Noble, and Eastern Illinois’ Elliott McGill are all just 27 years old.
Oaks is highly educated; after getting a bachelor’s in political science with a minor in philosophy from Wooster, he earned a pair of certifications (corrective exercise and performance enhancement) from the National Academy of Sports Medicine, a master’s degree in Human Movement, and is currently earning a second masters at Wright State, plus a certification in Sports Management.
“I want to thank Bob Grant and Rod Perry for their faith in me to guide this swimming and diving program,” Oaks said. “We will continue many of the methods in place, but I also hope to implement some new training styles and add to our tradition of success by helping our program produce excellent student-athletes who will represent our university with pride.”
Oaks takes over for Sion Brinn, who returned to his alma mater last month at Indian River State College in Florida: the top Junior College program in the country.
The Wright State men finished 5th out of 6 teams at last year’s Horizon League Championships, and the women were 5th out of 7 teams. The women’s team, though, had a lot of quality young talent for Oaks to work with, including Nicki Holtkamp, who finished 9th in the 50 free at the Horizon League Championships and proved to be a phenomenal relay performer, as a freshman, as did Sammi Miller.
The men’s team had youth in their sprint group as well, including freshman Lucas Osgood, who split 19.93 (their only sub-20 split) as the Wright State men finished 3rd in the 200 free relay at the Horizon League meet.
Both teams really will need to improve their individual scoring depth to see big improvements at the conference level. They have some good pieces of that ilk coming in next season, including freshman Asahel Jenkins from Washington State. He’s been 50.1 in the 100 yard fly and 1:41.3 in the 200 yard free, which probably would have scored at least 20 points at last year’s Horizon League Championships.
Nate Kellogg of Georgia Southern University is a very young D1 coach as well! He might have been around 24 when he started coaching for the eagles. Not 100% sure but he was around that age!
Having swum with and been coached by Kyle at The College of Wooster, I am very excited to see what he can do at the helm. He brings an incredible amount of energy to the pool deck which I’m sure will be apparent this coming season.