Alma College fired head coach Alex Lee last week, less than three months after hiring him on July 5. The Division III program located in Alma, Michigan, one hour north of Lansing, did not offer any reason for his dismissal in its brief public statement issued Sept. 20.
Lee served as an assistant coach at Alma College during the 2019-20 season before spending a year as a volunteer assistant at Carthage College and a year as an assistant at Vassar College. He returned to Alma College this summer for his first head coaching opportunity.
Alma College competes in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA), oldest athletic conference in the country (founded 1888). The Scot men finished 5th out of six teams at the 2023 MIAA Championships and the men placed 6th out of six teams.
Alma College said it “aims to name an interim head coach in the near future.” The program said it’s putting off its national search for Lee’s replacement until “a later date,” but it added the job on the NCAA market with a salary range of $43,000 to $53,000. Alma College is now looking for its fourth head coach since 2020.
The Scots are slated to begin their season on Oct. 13 at the Oberlin Early Bird Invite in Ohio.
Anyone have the details?
Seriously? I guy gets fired and you’re asking for details? Classy…
Classy? There had to be _something_ there.
There is always “something.” This is a small D3 program that 99% of us have never heard of. Not everything needs headlines. Unless it is a Safesport issue maybe we give the guy sone privacy, my guess is it isn’t fun thing for him to deal with.
Haven’t you figured it out yet, these days everything is everybody’s business.
I’m the 1% that’s swam against them, it’s a small lil’ program I felt bad for in all honesty. Real shame there’s no consistency there.
Yeah how dare people come to a swimming news website and want to know more details about a news story. We use to have class and not talk about why a coach may be leaving a program or was fired. The good old days where transparency was lacking and the classy coaches could find other work because of unspoken incidents being swept under a rug. Ahhh the good old days.
Gee I guess “unless it’s a safesport issue” doesn’t apply?
ummm yeah… it’s a swimming journalism website
No details, but if only there was a reputation or something…
Geez. Hope they can get some stability at that program
At $43,000 a year, good luck keeping someone for the long-haul.
Sometimes even the head coach of a small d3 school will do other work on the side to supplement. If they were open to you also doing some club coaching or something it might actually be easier to make this work than a $50 or $60 thousand salary somewhere bigger.
The coach complaining about salary is likely not what got him fired.
IRL, though, college benefits packages tend to be pretty good, probably valuing the total at probably <$60k.
I mean i have to imagine in alma Michigan the cost of living is pretty low, 43k ain’t great but certainly doable in a small town
not in this economy