USA Swimming’s Board of Directors has approved a nine member National Team Director Task Force to guide the selection of the new USA Swimming National Team Director.
While it is unlikely that any choice on a National Team Director will be made before the hiring of a new CEO (which has its own search committee) the committee will begin compiling top candidates.
National Team Director Task Force
- Katie Meili (10-Year Athlete)
- Melanie Margalis Fink (10-Year Athlete)
- Matt Grevers (10-Year Athlete)
- Kathleen Prindle (Coach member of the Board)
- Ira Klein (Coach member of the Board)
- Dave Durden (Former Olympic Coach and current National Team Coach)
- Jack Roach (Former USA Swimming National Junior Team Director)
- Chris Plumb (Former Olympic Coach and current National Team Coach)
- Shana Ferguson (Interim Chief Executive Officer and current Chief Operating Officer)
Among the nine individuals on the committee, three are “10-year athletes,” meaning athletes that have represented the U.S. at elite international competitions in the last decade. That includes Katie Meili, who won gold and bronze at the 2016 Olympics; Melanie Margalis, who won gold at the 2016 Olympics; and two-time Olympian Matt Grevers, who has six Olympic medals and 28 World Championship medals in his decorated career.
There are also six coaches, including Dave Durden, the current head coach for the 8-time NCAA Champion men’s team at Cal; former Junior National Team Director Jack Roach; and Chris Plumb, the head coach of one of the most-successful club programs in the country at the Carmel Swim Club.
Kathleen Prindle and Ira Klein are the two coach members of the USA Swimming Board of Directors.
Margalis has one foot in each bucket – she is currently an assistant coach with the women’s program at SMU.
The only individual on the task force who is best-known for their work off-deck is USA Swimming’s interim CEOÂ Shana Ferguson. Ferguson swam collegiately at the U.S. Naval Academy and had a long career that eventually led to her being named the Head of Marketing for Under Armour in Canada in 2015.
She joined USA Swimming in 2019 at the Chief Commercial Officer and in July, she was promoted to Chief Operating Officer by Tim Hinchey shortly before he left the organization.
The last National Team Managing Director Lindsay Mintenko announced her resignation from the post in September, with her last day being September 20th. Her role had differed from prior National Team Directors. She was more focused on the administrative side of the organization, while her recent predecessors served as basically a nation-wide head coaching role that is employed in many other sports.
This drew criticism from stakeholders after disappointing results for the American teams at both the 2023 World Championships and 2024 Olympic Games, though the U.S. still won the most gold medals at the latter. The new hire for the role is expected to swing the position back to more of a coaching role.
Many Great Coaches have been mentioned. HOWEVER based on Factual, Objective, Historical Proven performance it has to be David Marsh. 2 reasons; 1) Proven Sucess! The best LEADERS bring out the best in those under them when it counts the most- David won- by far- more NCAA championships than any others listed- including both men and women’s . And look at the great Olympics team results when David was a Coach. 2). Organization and Mentoring; Look how many NCAA and dominant Club and high school coaches started under David. The List is long with many of those named being ones who started under David. So again many great coaches named-all deserving consideration but it has to be Marsh as the… Read more »
Grant House is a great American hero. He actually deserves more money from this settlement, but unselfishly taking less. Because of his efforts, the sport is going to be better and there will be more parity across the college swimming landscape.
It’s a little late to worry about 2028…the new Olympians are already well on their way to becoming Olympians based on their club development.
2032 we can actually do something about. Hiring a national team director with little to know developmental experience isn’t going to help us long term.
Bruce Gemmell?
I think he would be a good choice, and suggested him in my list of candidates: https://swimswam.com/who-could-take-over-as-the-next-usa-swimming-national-team-director/
However, in the chat-o-sphere, his name isn’t coming up. Not sure why, and that’s not totally damning either.
Someone suggested to me that the makeup of this search committee makes Marsh the front-runner. There’s a couple of Marsh connections on there…
Time’s a wasting for a critical quad. Can we just hire David Marsh be done with this?
Not sure he would be able to load up on enough Foreign Athletes to be successful at this position.
Now, that was a good one.
hard to tell where the sarcasm begins!!!
Shane Tusup would be terrific
all drive and no putt….
Teri McKeever 💯
I know you’re kidding, but she would be really good at that job.
Wouldnt take any lip from anyone
Until she walks on deck for a practice visiting a college site and a rap song comes on.