Baylor School and Baylor Swim Club has parted ways with head coach Dan Flack, who led both powerhouse programs since 2005.
A source told SwimSwam that Flack was fired while on “medical leave” for the past four weeks. Flack declined to comment, and Baylor School could not be reached for a statement on Thursday.
Based out of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Baylor Swim Club was recognized by USA Swimming as a Silver Medal Club for 2022. Notable alumni coached by Flack include Trey Freeman, who will be swimming at next week’s World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. In total, 15 swimmers qualified for Olympic Trials during his tenure.
At the high school level, Flack’s Red Raiders have been regular state champions since 2006, most recently sweeping the boys and girls titles in February. Baylor School won the NISCA combined national dual meet championship most recently in 2020 competing in the Independent School Class 11 division. The Red Raiders also won their national division in both boys and girls in 2008 and 2009 while placing 2nd nationally from 2010-16.
In 2018, Flack was named head men’s coach of the Junior National team headed to Fiji for the Junior Pan Pacific Championships. In 2019, he was the only high school coach on the National Team coaches list. Flack is recognized as a Level V coach by the American Swimming Coaches Association, the highest level attainable.
Prior to Baylor, Flack led the championship Raleigh Swimming Association from 2002-06. RSA was selected as a Gold Medal Club in the USA Swimming Club Excellence Program from 2005-08.
In college, Flack was a two-time ACC distance champion at North Carolina. Flack’s son, Sam, is a rising senior at Baylor School and NC State commit who won a 500 free state title in February. Baylor’s other state champions were Drew Hitchcock in the 200 IM and Charles Han in the 100 breast.
The new coaching staff as of 2023 under Payton Brooks is outstanding, healthy environment, and reaching great success!
Make sure you know who your child is spending 20 hours a week training with. ESPECIALLY if they are boarding and away from home. I would not hesitate for a second to let my kids swim for Payton Brooks! Baylor is such a great option for great education and fast healthy swimming TODAY.
(I had children who swam during the Flack era and now w Brooks. Night and day difference.)
GBR! Good news at Baylor Swim.
My daughter is a current swimmer at Baylor and we were copied on an official letter from the athletic director stating that Coach Flack was stepping down. No mention of being fired which I now know is the case. We feel a bit betrayed in this situation. Our daughter was aware that he needed to tend to his health, but doesn’t feel that he should have been fired. Many of his current swimmers are very upset about this decision. I cannot speak for the entire team. My daughter left her home to swim for him and she is glad that she got the opportunity to do so. Baylor will have a tough task of filling his position with anyone close… Read more »
I think this whole situation is very unfortunate and clearly there has been some wrong doings on Dan’s part if this is gaining so much attention. However I think we need to remember that he has a lot of recent swimmers who will see this article and more specifically these comments. From what I understand, as a sibling of a recent Baylor alum, there is a lot more going on in his personal life than anyone really has the right to know. Attacking him online (where he’s probably never going to see it) isn’t going to do anything other than hurt those associated with him, like his swimmers who might not understand what is going and feel attacked themselves.
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Me and my former Baylor teammates wish Coach Dan and his family all the best. It was a great run we had together. Thank you.
I’m sure Dan didn’t abuse his athlete’s to the level of his mentor and former coach, Dick Shoulberg (who was one of the worst abusers in the history of the sport), but the days of coaches that choose to be narcissist, bullies and make personal attacks on athletes are over. It’s too bad that there are still coaches out there that got their education from the likes of Shoulberg, John Leonard and others, that haven’t made an adjustment to their own style when dealing with today’s athletes.
If you didn’t swim for Shoulberg or Flack do not speculate about their coaching styles. Athletes in general are soft & can’t handle a coach telling them they’re slacking off. Instead they run to mommy or an AD & claim abuse by the coach. Athletes want to be coddled & told they’re great instead of hearing the truth.
Well said, to many people are to soft and just complain to others to make Themselves feel better. It’s just sad that people are like this and aren’t willing to go to practice and work hard. All they do is show up and drag other people down with their negative comments and constantly complain.
You have zero idea what you are writing about. Zero.
Yes I 100% agree that they have literally no idea how bad it got. I’m still receiving therapy for many of things I endured in my time at Baylor over 4 years ago. I was not a ‘complainer’ either and there were barely any ‘complainers’ there in my time. We all put our heads down and let him tear us apart. The verbal abuse I experienced there has left LONG lasting scars on my mental health. Just because Dan is going through a lot right now does not excuse how he treated the majority of his swimmers. He inappropriately commented on mine and many other underage female bodies. The negative impact he has left on these swimmers is much more… Read more »
Swam across the river against him. Baylor is much better off without him
This, Bauerle, and McKeever all leaving (all totally different circumstances) within a week or two is so odd for our sport. While Dan Flack by no means has the same name recognition as the other two I mentioned, it does seem like he is one of the chosen ones with regard to USA swimming.