Barton College has decided not to retain interim head coach Ethan Maddrey citing low roster numbers, multiple members of the team told SwimSwam on Monday. This means the program will see its third head coach in three seasons next year.
The men’s team currently lists 11 swimmers and the women’s team lists six. Those are both smaller roster than the 13 and 11, respectively, listed for last season. Maddrey has been leading the team for just over a year.
Multiple members of the team were ‘disappointed’ with the decision, feeling that Maddrey should have been given more time to bring up roster numbers. The vice president who informed the team of the decision said that the goal was 20 men and 20 women.
While the number of commitments to Barton for next season is unclear, they had at least two for next fall, with a number of ongoing conversations with other prospective student-athletes described as being in the “final stages.”
Athletes were also told that the school plans to add a varsity triathlon program, and that the swim coach will also be expected to coach them.
An NCAA Division II program that competes in Conference Carolinas, Barton College founded their swim program in the 2016/2017 season. The team quickly rose up the ranks in the region, winning men’s conference titles in the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons, and women’s conference titles in the 2017-2018 and 2020-2021 seasons.
When the program’s founding head coach Tyler Ziegler left in 2020 to take over D1 Catholic University, the rosters listed 23 men and 18 women.
At the Conference Carolinas championships last weekend, the women finished 7th out of 7 teams and the men finished 5th out of 6 teams.
Among the highlights for the team was Natan Mometto who won the men’s 100 breaststroke (55.04) and finished 3rd in the 200; and Elijah Dredge, who finished 2nd in the men’s 200 backstroke.
The University of Montevallo, incidentally, which just cut their program, finished 2nd at the same meet on the women’s side and won the men’s championship.
Barton College, which has around 978 undergraduates, relies on student athletes to boost enrollment. Roughly two-thirds of their undergraduate population (665 according to government data) are varsity athletes.
Like many small private colleges around the country, Barton is facing financial challenges driven by declining enrollment, a shrinking pool of 18-24 year olds, and rising operational costs.
Maddrey is an alum of the program, swimming his last meet for Barton in February 2024. He won a conference title in the 200 free as a senior in 1:40.76. He graduated later that semester cum laude with a degree in biology.
My daughter and I went for a visit this fall. Unfortunately coach has no recruiting experience and clearly no support there. No assistant, no student assistant, no help! Even in the campus tour he didn’t have access to all buildings and many on campus did not know he was staff. I felt terrible for him! He DID seem to have good sets and knew how to coach but was given an impossible “rebuild”. And the offer my daughter was given was low and she could not afford to attend there. I hope they find someone but so sad for the program and now some of those athletes will have their 3rd coach!
Reading the comments and they remind me of when I was a young coach at a similar school. Took over a team that had fewer than 10 athletes combined and grew it to 30+. The team broke school records, had a few NCAA qualifiers, academic success, etc. During that time, scholarships were cut, along with the budget to 12k for two teams (this was this century btw). The one year NCAAs were <4 hours away and the AD couldn’t make the trip (yet traveled on longer trips for regular FB & BB games). And then I looked up to see who is incharge at Barton…
Two things:
- Small private schools love the “athletics to drive enrollment” but that seems
… Read more »Ethan was easily the most supportive coach I’ve ever had and I believe having a coach that was so close in age to the swimmers brought the fun back to the sport that the previous coach had sucked out of it. You have to remember that Ethan swam with those boys and has known them for years. Ethan stepped up to take the job because he knew we needed support and consistency but the athletic director has obviously not offered the needed support for any of the swim coaches. The entire team excelled in their individual times at conference both last season and this season swimming under Ethan, this was never about Ethan “chilling with his swimmers” but rather the… Read more »
Ken Tyler is an idiot. Who cares more about a program than someone who has been through that same program?After having a coach leaving a mess behind him, how do you expect ethan to go in and essentially DOUBLE the roster size in 1 year with very minimal funding? Not to mention, good luck finding a coach that wants to recruit and coach for 4 teams: men’s swimming, women’s swimming, men’s triathlon, and women’s triathlon. If Ken Tyler knew anything about the sports that he is supposed to be overseeing, he would know that just because both sports train in a pool doesn’t mean they are anything alike. Would like to see how Barton places with competitive swimmers who are… Read more »
First of all, the coach who left did NOT leave a mess behind!! The program was already in a mess when he got there!!! He left because he couldn’t recruit people who were offered NOTHING!!! He couldn’t even give the swimmers who were already there additional money for scholarship!
Forget the program, the entire school is a sinking ship and it’s not the coach’s fault!!! Ryan and Ethan are amazing coaches who love the sport and they will excel somewhere else! I do agree Ken should be fired! What an idiot!! He lost several coached before Ethan and then let Ethan go. What a ding-dong!
Ryan did not recruit AT ALL the first year he stepped in. He was at the point where he was asking the swimmers to find people and ask their high school club team coaches if they knew of anyone because he spent that whole season not recruiting.
Sounds like this is Ryan Mallam himself commenting. He sure did leave a mess! Telling the kids it was to help his family and for mental health, and a day later it getting announced he is a club coach. Sounds like he cares more about the money than the kids. Left at an awful time leaving the recruiting for the following year a mess and putting athletics in a scramble to find a coach. Again, just more inconsistency and instability for the program. However, the main person to blame would Ken Tyler and Barton athletic administration.
No i am a female who happens to know that Ryan also did not have any support and couldn’t get recruits because no one wanted to come swim for Barton because of the high costs and low scholarship offered. Ryan tried to get more money for the new recruits and was turned down by…Ken!! And yes Ryan jumped ship because Ken told him of he didn’t get 20 men and 20 women they would be looking for a new coach. Why would he stay after Ken told him that? I would have left too! I don’t blame him! Would you have stayed? Be honest!
almost all the swimmers are in
portal
As they should be, I would never advise anyone to play here
The athletic director here is Ken Tyler, look him up. He claims to have 30 years experience but I struggle to find anything nice to hear about him. He also claims to love his athletes, but cant seem to remember the names of the conference champions in the meeting where he is firing their coach. What a guy you want leading your kids in athletics right?? Not to mention the lies hes fed us over doner money the past few years.
he was given a year to bring up roster numbers and they dropped him afterwards?? wtf… that’s incredibly unrealistic and it’s well known that it takes years to build a solid roster and program in any sport.
But he didn’t
And who created that system …. The athletic director maybe you should defend how the athletic director wouldn’t approve swim suit budgets or swim meet cost even when they were under budget …. ESSENTIALS …. He has never cared about this program
Lets get off this ken
if that’s the motivation why was Ryan not fired when he didn’t get a single recruit the year before who got hired for the job and quit weeks into his 2nd season and then ethan hired to save a sinking ship and once again when he tried to get more swimmers the ad denied him giving scholarships… how embarrassing to blame ethan when he can’t do anything about not receiving the funds to run a program . Was also denied a 2nd coach to help and denied a Graduate Assistant
Alright Ken, go offline.
I’m thinking the oh-so-cool photo of the coach chilling in the arms of his swimmers didn’t help his case.
Jeez. Hire a grownup.
And that’s not a comment on the coach – it’s a comment on the school. The athletes deserve support and consistency.
You do realize he spent three years swimming alongside them — they were his teammates and close friends throughout his entire college career. Just a few months after graduating, he stepped into a coaching role. It’s entirely possible to lead a program, run effective practices, and still share moments of enjoyment with the swimmers. This was simply one photo taken at their final meet of the season
He was their teammate before he was our coach. All the swimmers in the picture were seniors that swam along side him. Never thought about a little bittersweet ending with how this school has treated us these few years??
And you can see how much the team loved him from that photo. Not easy to get that from a team. You should try having a little fun once in a while.
Deeply saddened to see this news. Having spent four years building the program from scratch I have been disappointed with the course of events and coaching hires that have taken place in my stead, starting with the position never being officially posted following my departure.
I had the absolute pleasure of getting to know and coaching Ethan on the local club team during my time at Barton. His athletic career at Barton was among the best in program history and his passion for the sport is unparalleled. He stepped in when the team was left without a coach mid season and learned on the fly, not an easy thing to do. To make this decision before even seeing how… Read more »
Thank you tyler, coming from someone on the team who has heard nothing but great things about you, it sure is a shame what this administration is doing to this program, and the rest of the school