Catie DeLoof will make $50,000 per year as a base salary as an assistant coach at the University of Alabama. That matches the resume of first year West Virginia assistant Sydney Pickrem at West Virginia, and establishes a new baseline for new-hire assistant coaches with limited coaching experiences but big athletic resumes at the Power 4 level of collegiate athletics.
DeLoof receives her base salary plus bonuses based on the Crimson Tide’s finishes at the SEC and NCAA Championship meets.
Bonuses
SEC Championship Finishes:
- Win the SEC Men’s Championship – 1 months salary (approx $4,667).
- Win the SEC Men’s Championship – 1 months salary (approx $4,667).
NCAA Championship Finishes:
The highest, per team, of the following criteria
- NCAA Championship team appearance (6 individuals or more qualifying) – 1/2 month’s base salary (approximately $2,083).
- 8 individual qualifiers OR Top 25 finish at NCAA Championships – 3/4 month’s base salary (approximately $3,500)
- 10 individual qualifiers OR Top 10 team finish at NCAA Championships – 1 months salary (approx $4,667).
- NCAA National Championship – 2 months salary (approx $8,333)
Based on last year’s NCAA Championship meet, where the men finished 19th and the women finished 23rd, she would have received 1.5 months of her base salary as a bonus, or $6,250.
DeLoof, 27, and Pickrem, also 27, have about the same amount of coaching experience – which is to say limited to camp and clinic instruction and development. They also have similar athletic resumes – each holds one Olympic bronze medal as a relay swimmer. Though Pickrem supplements it with 13 World Championship medals of various flavors, they are in a similar tier of elite swimming experience – including both having decorated college careers and both racing in the International Swimming League.
It makes sense, then, that they are getting paid similarly – although Alabama’s overall athletics budget is much bigger, roughly doubling WV’s revenue annually.
This raises the bar from where Annie Lazor, another swimmer with a similar resume, started at the University of Florida last season, where her annualized contract included a base $45,000.
DeLoof, who is engaged to Austrian Olympian Felix Auboeck, has not responded to requests from SwimSwam about the future of her competitive career.
Every coach over the last 30 years who started as an assistant, working 80 + hours per week for almost NO pay for years saying ……..”We were told to never ask for more money” 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣…..never mind asking for a full time salary. 🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪
God bless the new coaches – they deserve to start out on a decent starting wage.
Annie Lazor should demand a raise.
Did Annie not have better bonuses?
For this past year did that add up to about 50% + academic bonus(es), so a little over $25,000 last year?
Same placements for Alabama would yield about $18,700 ?
This is very low for such a talented swimmer. She worth at least double that
A talented swimmer is not equivalent to a talented coach.
That’s a lot for a sport that loses money.