Rutgers University has made the decision to add male practice players to its women’s-only swim team, a move aimed at addressing recruiting challenges and providing faster training partners.
The team is led by head coach Jon Maccoll, who is in his seventh season at the helm of the program and has faced a persistent challenge in recruiting: potential swimmers expressing concerns about training without male teammates.
“Coaching a women’s team for years, I’ve been hearing, ‘Oh, you don’t have men, or you need men,'” Maccoll said. “So we’ve been working against that. I personally don’t think that they need men, but it is a real issue for us.”
The tipping point for Maccoll came during a memorable recruiting experience that highlighted how the lack of male training partners could cost the program top talent. Despite being the recruit’s preferred choice, Rutgers lost out to a competitor solely because of the training environment difference.
“We had a recruit—I won’t use her name or where she ended up going—but she called me and said, ‘You know, you’re my number one, but I’m going to this other school.’ I was like, ‘What does that mean? I’m your number one, but you’re going to another school?’ And she said, ‘Well, they have men and you don’t have men. I like training with men. I’ve trained with men my whole life. I want to have some people faster than me.’ I pointed out that we had women faster than her, but she decided that’s what she wanted. That was sort of the last straw for me—that we could actually be the best fit for somebody, but this is what’s happening,” Maccoll said.
Determined to find a solution that would address the recruiting challenge while staying within NCAA compliance, Maccoll and his staff looked to other sports for inspiration. The concept of male practice players in women’s basketball provided a template that could potentially work for swimming, while also opening opportunities for male swimmers in New Jersey.
“I tried to think of a solution. What would solve this issue, this perceived problem, and also help swimming? We started looking at how in women’s basketball, they have male practice players. We sat down with people in our administration and compliance and decided to bring in male practice players to train with our women. This way, we have faster people for them to chase and train with. We feel like this could also open up opportunities for some guys to come swim at Rutgers. That’s kind of the genesis of it,” Maccoll said.
The implementation of this concept required careful consideration of what type of male swimmers would be the right fit for the program. Maccoll stressed that the team wasn’t looking for casual participants, but rather committed athletes who would take their role seriously and integrate well with the existing team culture.
“We want to make sure we have the right guys on the team. That’s a big part of it, right? We don’t want a part-timer. We don’t want somebody that just wants to swim a couple days a week and splash around. That’s not what we’re looking for,” Maccoll said. “We want them to be as integrated with the team as NCAA rules allow, and we certainly don’t want them feeling like a second class within our own team.”
After a selective process that involved conversations with multiple candidates, the coaching staff chose two male swimmers for the inaugural season of the program. Maccoll emphasized that finding the right personalities and commitment levels was crucial to the program’s success, and he has plans to expand gradually.
“We ended up only really choosing two for this season that are really bought in to what we’re doing and bought into their role and wanting to get better themselves and committed to real training at this level. So we have two right now. We’re looking to expand, and I’d like to get to 10 or so eventually, but it’s going to have to be the right fit, the right kid for the right situation where it works for them as well as us,” Maccoll explained.
Maccoll was careful to distinguish his program from typical college club swimming, which often attracts students looking for a fun, less pressured experience.The commitment level and training intensity he expects from the male practice players mirrors what he wants from his women’s team, even though the men don’t receive scholarships.
While the male swimmers can’t compete as part of Rutgers’ NCAA team, Maccoll explained that they have meaningful competitive opportunities through USA club swimming. The arrangement differs from male practice players in basketball, who primarily serve as training partners without pursuing their own athletic goals.
“It’s a little bit different than basketball, right, where they’re there to be a big body to rebound against. Here, they’re there to help have our women chase and train, but at the same time, they’re training. There’s no plays, right? We do exercise science and training for the majority of our coaching. So they’re getting those benefits as well,” Maccoll said. “They’ll be swimming USA Club meets. Both the guys that are here now are local Jersey kids, which is great, because we’re the State University of Jersey, and they want to represent their clubs that they came from. Their club teams will attend meets. They’ll go with those club teams.”
The logistics work particularly well for the program because of Rutgers’ status as a premier swimming venue in the region. This means the male swimmers can maintain competitive schedules without having to travel off campus.
“Luckily, Rutgers being one of the nicest pools in the Northeast, a lot of the meets are held here, so they’re able to just kind of stay on campus and swim Friday, Saturday, Sunday club meet, like they would if they were in high school,” Maccoll said. “So it works out really well for them in that sense.”
When discussing what makes the program attractive to potential male recruits, Maccoll highlighted the value proposition it offers in a state with limited Division I swimming opportunities. The combination of high-level training, academic quality, and financial advantages creates a compelling package.
“I think for us, being in New Jersey, there’s not a lot of great Division I opportunities. There’s some great swimming in Jersey, as everyone knows. There’s tons of Olympic men that have come out of here, and there’s just not a ton of opportunity,” Maccoll said. “What we’ve really kind of zeroed in on is, you know, you’re a really good swimmer, you could probably go D2, D3, and do you want to go out of state for $60,000 a year? Do you want to go Division III for 50, 60, sometimes $70,000 a year? Or do you want to stay in state? We’re the 15th ranked public school in the United States, we have tremendous engineering and business programs, and they can come in for half of what they would be paying out of state. They can get Big Ten coaching, Big Ten lifting. They can get some gear, and they get preferred scheduling, so that they can line up their classes with our practices.”
The program also offers flexibility that traditional scholarship arrangements might not, particularly for swimmers who continue to develop during their college years. Maccoll made it clear that he wouldn’t stand in the way of a male swimmer who improved enough to earn opportunities at programs with men’s teams.
“If they are a late bloomer, you know, let’s say they come with a 21-second 50 freestyle, and in a couple of years, they’re 20-point, I’m not gonna stop them or try to prevent them from transferring,” Maccoll explained. “They can go somewhere where they can succeed or have an impact at another university in a more traditional sense.”
While the addition of male practice players represents a significant change for the program, Maccoll emphasized that it serves to enhance rather than alter the fundamental goals he set when he arrived at Rutgers in 2017.
“When I came to Rutgers, people were like, ‘Really? That’s an interesting move.’ And I really felt like there was just so much potential here, and I feel like we’ve realized that. But our goal, since the first day I’ve been here, is to try to become one of the elite programs in the country,” Maccoll said. “To me, it’s just adding more fuel to that, and creating better training environments, a better situation, and trying to create the best, most conducive environment for training and achievement. It just adds to the gas that’s running this. I don’t know if it really changes the destination.”
For Maccoll personally, coaching male swimmers again after years of focusing exclusively on women’s swimming has required some adjustment, though he noted that things are going fairly smoothly.
“At the moment, a lot of my thoughts are around, how am I gonna taper these guys? But they’re just so eager to get in and have fun and to be part of the team and to train. They’re as excited for the opportunity as any freshman that steps on campus excited for that first week,” he said. “Right now, we’re giving them what they need, and right now, that’s a lot of kicking, and it’s getting some yards in, it’s doing some technique work, it’s evaluating where they’re at, where they want to go.”
The Scarlet Knights placed 11th out of 14 teams at the 2025 Big Ten meet, finishing just 34 points shy of 10th-place University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The team’s 2025-26 schedule has not yet been publicized.
So many of the MAC schools are women only, I wonder when/if the writing will be on the wall for Miami University. (Yes I realize men at MU are not MAC, but my question still stands)
It’s so embarrassing that New Jersey, which is one of the richest and populated state, does not have a public flagship university that offers a swimming programme for the men.
almost like they shouldn’t have cut the men’s program…
I wonder how fast the swimmers have to be and what level club meets they attend.
Good on Maccoll. He’s modeling what coaches are always asking swimmers to do: have the courage to try new things.
Interesting idea. How do the women on the team feel about this decision? Many times one of the things that attracts recruits to single-gendered teams is simply that: they only have the single gender. Hopefully Coach Maccoll consulted his team.
I also wonder if he will adjust/modify his training at all. College-age women and men have different needs for training. Will the 2 men have their own season plan, or will they simply train exactly as the women do with little-to-no adjustments?
Could be fun, could be a disaster. But let’s see how this plays out!
What are these “many times” that a swimmer sought out a single-gender team? Almost every swimmer I have ever meet prefers the atmosphere of a co-ed team
Really? Because I know several that specifically chose schools with separate programs. (And I’m talking D1 NCAA qualifiers)
I would start by checking the rosters of the women’s-only teams
Hmmm. And sometimes a college collects more than two male swimmers, and calls them a “team”.
Is that something new?
Going to have to get permission from athletic departments on this. Practice players count in your totals of athletic opportunities on campus, which means impact on Title IX. Women’s BB teams struggle with this as they often have male practice players and are limited in how many. Worked with a D1 women’s only swim program that was allowed 1 male “practice player”. That young man served also as a volunteer, competed in USA Swimming meets, and trained all workouts with the team. 25% or more of the women were better at all but the 50 against. Only 1 could compete with him in the 50 Free.
If you read the article, you’ll see he already got permission from the athletic department and cleared it with compliance.