Alabama Adds Ryan Purdy To Coaching Staff As Assistant Coach

Alabama has added Ryan Purdy to its coaching staff as an assistant coach for the upcoming 2026-2027 season, the school announced on Tuesday. Purdy fills the position previously held by Michael White who departed the program a week ago to join Arizona State as an assistant.

“I want to sincerely thank Margo and the entire Alabama swim and dive family for this opportunity,” Purdy said. “I’m incredibly grateful and honored to join such an elite program. Alabama has such a rich history in swimming and diving and I can’t wait to help take it to an even higher level. Roll Tide!”

Purdy joins the Crimson Tide after most recently spending the last two seasons as an assistant coach at Army. While at Army, Purdy helped coach the men’s program to the 2025 Patriot League title, ending Navy’s title run and earning Army its first conference title in 24 years. The Army men finished 2nd at the 2026 Patriot League Championships.

Both the men’s and women’s programs for Army were represented at the men’s and women’s 2026 NCAA Championships. The men finished 33rd with 17.5 points. Johnny Crush scored 13.5 individual points as he was 5th in the 100 back, and Kohen Rankin scored four points as he was 13th in the 100 breast. The women sent three swimmers including Angie McKane who was 19th in the 100 fly in a 51.48.

Army’s head coach Brandt Nigro departed the program last month to become the next associate head coach for the Texas women. Just yesterday, Army announced VMI’s Scott Thacker as its next head coach.

Prior to his time on Army’s staff, Purdy spent his collegiate career at Arizona. There he was a member of the team’s school record 200 medley relay. He also was a Pac-12 finalist in the 100 breast, 200 IM, and 400 IM.

The Alabama women were 4th and the men were 6th at the 2026 SEC Championships. The women’s program finished 11th at 2026 NCAAs while men’s program was 24th.