Rich Murphy, formerly the Associate Head Coach at the Dynamo Swim Club, has been hired as the new head coach at the University of Houston, the school will announce today.
Murphy has been at Dynamo since 2007, and has been part of a team that has become one of the biggest and best junior programs in the country. That includes winning the overall team title at last week’s Junior National Championships in Irvine, California.
Murphy’s previous experience in the NCAA ranks includes a year spent at Auburn during the 2006-2007 season, where they swept the men’s and women’s NCAA Championships; a year as a women’s assistant coach at Bowling Green State from 2005-2006; and also as a volunteer assistant with the Michigan men’s team and Club Wolverine High Performance group.
He was also the head coach from 2003-2005 at Sun Devil Aquatics and spent time working with Arizona State from 2001-2005 as well. He has a laundry-list of top coaching assignments spanning coast-to-coast, including at Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics in the San Francisco area.
He will take over the women’s team at the University of Houston, a role vacated when Augie Busch took the head coach job at Virginia. The Houston women took 2nd at last year’s Conference USA Championships, and next year will move into the newly-formed American Conference (which is the renamed Big East).
The schedule for Murphy’s first year at Houston is below:
 Season |
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2013-2014 SCHEDULE
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| Date | Opponent / Event | Location | Time / Result |
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| 09/18/13 | Red/White Meet | CRWC NATATORIUM | TBA |
| 09/28/13 | vs. Tulane | CRWC NATATORIUM | TBA |
| 10/04/13 | vs. North Texas Relays | Southlake, Texas | TBA |
| Rice Invitational | |||
| 10/25/13 | TBD | Rice Pool | 4:00 p.m. CT |
| 10/26/13 | TBD | Rice Pool | 9:30 a.m. CT |
| TBD | Rice Pool | 2:00 p.m. CT | |
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| 11/01/13 | vs. North Texas | CRWC NATATORIUM | TBA |
| 11/02/13 | vs. SMU | CRWC NATATORIUM | TBA |
| Phill Hansel Invite | |||
| 11/21/13 | TBD | CRWC NATATORIUM | TBA |
| 11/22/13 | TBD | CRWC NATATORIUM | TBA |
| 11/23/13 | TBD | CRWC NATATORIUM | TBA |
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| 01/10/14 | at Evansville | Evansville, Ind. | TBA |
| 01/11/14 | at Louisville/Cincinnati | Louisville, Ky. | TBA |
| 01/16/14 | at Texas A&M | College Station, Texas | TBA |
| 01/18/14 | at Incarnate Word | San Antonio, Texas | TBA |
| 01/31/14 | vs. Rice/Tulane/LSU | CRWC NATATORIUM | TBA |
| 02/01/14 | vs. Rice/Tulane/LSU | CRWC NATATORIUM | TBA |
| American Championships | |||
| 02/19/14 | Day 1 | Louisville, Ky. | TBA |
| 02/20/14 | Day 2 | Louisville, Ky. | TBA |
| 02/21/14 | Day 3 | Louisville, Ky. | TBA |
| 02/22/14 | Day 4 | Louisville, Ky. | TBA |
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| Zone Diving | |||
| 03/10/14 | Day 1 | Minneapolis, Minn. | TBA |
| 03/11/14 | Day 2 | Minneapolis, Minn. | TBA |
| 03/12/14 | Day 3 | Minneapolis, Minn. | TBA |
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| NCAA Championships | |||
| 03/20/14 | Day 1 | Minneapolis, Minn. | TBA |
| 03/21/14 | Day 2 | Minneapolis, Minn. | TBA |
| 03/22/14 | Day 3 | Minneapolis, Minn. | TBA |
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Dynamo looked great at Juniors. Their star swimmer, Gunnar Bentz, has to be one of the best all around Junior swimmers in the country if not the world. Looks like a great hire on the surface.