USA Swimming Posts $300,000-$400,000 Salary Range for New National Team Director

USA Swimming has posted the job for its new National Team Managing Director role, which serves to illuminate what the search committee and Board of Directors are considering for the position.

• See the full job posting here.

Pay & Location

The job is listed with a salary of $300,000-$400,000 base plus bonus, which makes it higher than what most collegiate coaches are paid but slightly below the annual compensation of the highest-paid college coach that we know of, Bob Bowman at Texas.

That’s within range of what Lindsay Mintenko, the prior National Team Director, was making. She had a base salary of $293,927 in reportable compensation plus an additional $52,951 in estimated other compensation.

The job also lists “profit sharing,” though as a non-profit it’s not clear what that means.

While previous rumors were that USA Swimming was willing to consider remote work from the right candidate, the job posting says that “this position is located at the USA Swimming headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado.” It is likely, though, that the veracity of that statement will be determined by the new CEO, who has not yet been hired (and there are conflicting reports about which position will be filled first).

The position also says that folks who advance in the process will be asked to make a two quad plan. We don’t know if that implies that USA Swimming is looking for a coach who will be in the role for 8 years or not, but it implies that they are looking down the road.

Job Functions & Requirements

Mintenko, the last National Team Director, deviated from her predecessors in that she only had a few years of coaching experience when she took on the job and served more in an administrative and coordinating role.

An elite athlete with five years of collegiate assistant coaching at USC under her belt, Mintenko was certainly well-versed in the ways of high level sport, but she didn’t have the coaching resume of her predecessors in the role like Mark Schubert or Frank Busch, nor did she really have the functions of those coaches.

But in a parallel to what happened when the National Team Director role was first created after a disappointing performance at the 1988 Olympics, there is a push to return this gig to a high level coach. Dennis Pursley was named the first U.S. National Team Director in 1989.

Among the specific functions listed:

• Direct and oversee the creation of the annual High-Performance Plan together with the USOPC to ensure ultimate success at the highest levels of competition, most specifically in relation to gold medal achievement at the Olympic Games.
• Provide consistent oversight and philosophical direction for the National Team to ensure the continued growth of a winning National Team culture historically characterized by the highest levels of personal accountability, medal-winning performances, professionalism, team spirit and collaboration, and national pride.

Club visits are also listed among the key jobs.

The requirements are the real giveaway about what the Search Committee is looking for, including points like:

• Extensive domestic & international coaching success.
• Minimum of fifteen (15) years as a swim coach, to include considerable head coaching experience.
• Experience working with elite-level athletes and coaches.
• Experience working in international sport.
• Experience working with the USOPC, NCAA, and World Aquatics, and knowledge of their respective structures.

Moving the role back to a coaching role will also help to further repair the relationship with coaches, which was damaged pretty severely during the Tim Hinchey administration.

The job doesn’t abandon its administrative functions, however. The posting seems to want someone who can handle both roles at a high level – the one done by Mintenko, and the one done by her predecessor coaches.

As written, the job would be challenging for any one person to do well, so while the coach chosen for the role will have to be strong administratively, it is likely that a support person will be hired too.