The swimming and diving coaching carousel is in full swing and more coaching positions have been filled which has also opened more opportunities, especially at the mid-major level. Boston College seems to be the only remaining Power 4(5) job open as of publishing. See the May update here.
PROGRAMS THAT STILL HAVE A HEAD COACHING POSITION OPEN (AS OF THE AFTERNOON OF JUNE 5TH):
- Cleveland State: Head coach Hannah Burandt resigned from her position after spending five seasons with the school.
- George Washington: Head coach Brian Thomas departed the program at the beginning of May.
- Cal Poly: Phil Yoshida was placed on a leave of absence at the start of the 2023-2024 season and the athletes have now been informed that he will not return to his position.
- Boston College: The Boston College staff will look entirely different this fall as the school parted ways with the staff in January after hazing allegations surfaced last September.
- Fairfield: Jacy Dyer left the program to become the new head coach of Toledo (See below). Dyer spent two years at Fairfield.
- Incarnate Word: After one season under Reed Robelot, UIW is in search of a new head coach.
- Miami-OH: Hollie Bonewit-Cron took the job as head coach of Penn State after eight seasons with Miami-OH.
- Xavier: Brent MacDonald became the next head coach of West Virginia after spending 18 seasons with Xavier.
- UNLV: Ben Loorz left the program to become the next head coach of Arizona.
PROGRAMS THAT HAVE ALREADY FILLED THEIR HEAD COACHING POSITIONS:
- Texas: Eddie Reese retired and Bob Bowman took over with the announcement coming just two days after the Arizona State men won the 2024 NCAA title
- Arizona State: Soon after Bowman left to head to Texas, Herbie Behm was promoted from associate head coach to new head coach of the Sun Devils
- Bowling Green: Rickey Perkins did not have his contract renewed this offseason. The position was filled by Tanner Barton who most recently was head coach at Division III John Carroll University in the Cleveland, Ohio area.
- Toledo: Brie Globig was “relieved” as head coach and the position has now been filled by Jacy Dyer who was most recently the head coach of Fairfield (see open position above). Dyer graduated from Toledo in 2011.
- St Thomas (Minnesota): Matt Bos was hired as head coach on March 27th. St Thomas moved from Division III to Division I during the 2021-2022 season.
- Iowa State: Head coach Duane Sorenson led the team for 27 years and announced his retirement. The school is home to a women’s-only program. The program hired Matt Leach from Washington State.
- BYU: Shari Skabelund announced her retirement after leading BYU for 37 seasons. Skabelund was one of few women to lead a Power 5 men’s and women’s program. The position has been filled by Tamber McAllister who was previously an assistant coach under Skabelund.
- Texas A&M: With the retirement of head women’s swimming coach Steve Bultman, the school announced that it would combine the men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs. The school hired Virginia associate head coach Blaire Bachman as the school’s first Director of swimming.
- Fordham: After spending the season as interim head coach, Tom Wilkens was announced as permanent head coach.
- Illinois State: After head coach Caitlin Hamilton departed for Kentucky, Sean Sullivan was named interim head coach. The program has since hired Riley Hilbrandt who was most recently and assistant at East Carolina.
- Penn State: After head coach Tim Murphy spent most of the season on an unspecified leave of absence, the school announced that they would not renew his contract. Hollie Bonewit-Cron was named the next head coach of the program after most recently being the head coach of Miami-OH.
- West Virginia: Vic Riggs resigned from his position after 17 seasons with the program as he took over in 2007. Brent MacDonald arrived after most recently spending time as head coach of Xavier in the Big East.
- Evansville: Stuart Wilson stepped down to pursue other professional opportunities after spending five seasons with Evansville. Toby Wilcox enters his second stint as head coach at UE after most recently spending time as head coach of Birmingham Southern.
- Arizona: The school let go of head coach Augie Busch after he spent seven seasons with the team. UNLV’s Ben Loorz took the job to become the team’s next head coach.
- George Mason: Jamie Greenwood was promoted to permanent head coach after spending the 2023-2024 season as interim head coach.
- Washington State: Matt Leach left the program to take the head coaching job with Iowa State. Russell Whitaker was hired as the program’s next head coach after previously being the program’s Director of Operations and assistant coach this past season.
- Georgia Southern: Allyson Sweeney stepped down from her head coaching position after two years with the Eagles. The program hired Morgan McCafferty as the next head coach.
So the BC program is the one Braden has been hinting about getting cut on twitter right?
No
Any insights as to where Wyatt will wind up?
Club coaching with his dad. I could be really wrong but I don’t see him going to another school due to Texas loyalty.
Is there a world where Wyatt is an Olympic coach? I assume it would require Reese to turn it down, which he might…
It would likely require both Fosters, Carozza, Hobson, and Casas to be on the team. Then you could even add someone like Johnston who hasn’t been training with the program but has obvious ties to it.
Who has been the best offseason hire this year so far? Hollie Bonewit-Con or Brent MacDonald?
…are those the only options? Because that feels like a question of “better” not “best” lol.
One Robert Bowman is probably the best.
Those were my top 2 of the hires so far. I need to see more from Bowman to be convinced.
No good call. Winning an NCAA title and coaching the best active swimmer in the world is wholly unconvincing.
Will he be able to win an NCAA title in the next 5 years?
Do any of your « other » two options have the same chance/held to the same standard.
Low level trolling me thinks.
They have a chance to improve their teams more than what Bowman can.
What do you need to see from Bowman to be convinced?
probably wants to see Bob actually swim an individual event and win it before even considering him a good hire
I would ask the question of those currently hired who has the chance to make the biggest impact? Bowman I would think doesn’t have far to go but other programs can have significant improvement with a new coach/culture. Also, any word on Michael Walkers status?
Whoever hires me.
I feel bad for whoever gets duped into taking the BC job.
You don’t think a new coach would have the ability to change the culture?
I think the issue lies more with the athletic department than the athletes
I think the cultural issue is institutional beyond just the AD and athletic administrators. This cultural problem has existed for many years spanning multiple coaches (and ADs)
Not saying they can’t but it seemed like they gave Brinkman a team with a full count and struck him out in less than a year because a few kids drank over Labor Day weekend.
I have a hard time seeing admin pivoting away from that now that they made it national news.
How about Jason Calanog to UNLV?
UNLV has the best candidate for the position on staff already
Patrick Ota?
Jeah!
Jeah!
Ota has proven himself at every level (club, D3, D1), and has a lot of familiarity with the West Coast in terms of recruitment and knowledge of the players. He’d be a great choice for UNLV.
Georgia Southern already made a hire. Pretty sure you all had an article about it too.