The University of Arizona will fill one of its open assistant coaching positions – the Wildcats are set to hire current University of the Pacific head coach Peter Richardson, SwimSwam has learned.
In an e-mail to University of the Pacific alumni, Richardson said he has accepted an offer to become associate head coach with the University of Arizona. He had been at Pacific for just over seven years, jumping in as head coach in March of 2012. Before that, he was the head coach at Fresno Pacific from when the program began in 2007 to when he moved to the University of the Pacific, his alma mater. He was a two-year captain for the Pacific Tigers swim team, and helped his team win back-to-back Big West Conference titles.
Arizona has two assistant coaching positions open after parting ways with both Cory Chitwood and Beth Botsford this offseason. Arizona hasn’t responded to any of our questions about their departures from the program. Chitwood was recently named the new assistant coach at Indiana. Botsford still appears on the Arizona roster page, but multiple sources have told SwimSwam that both she and Chitwood are no longer with that program.
This is a quality hire for Arizona. Essentially you get a second head coach with strong recruiting ties to California. A proven winner who could easily help Arizona get back into the top 10. Remember, it was only 10 years ago when Arizona was winning NCAA team titles for the Men and Women. While they have had some recent struggles outside the pool, they still are performing at a high level in the pool.
Good luck to Coach Richardson and the Wildcats!
Maybe he can be a Busch Lite replacement sooner rather than later. I can’t even comprehend why Botsford is still on the athletic site roster. She wouldn’t dare show up at an Arizona function would she?
She doesn’t even live in Tucson anymore. She moved to Wisconsin.
A great hire! Pete is an established, high character coach with a ton of energy. He’s a fantastic recruiter. There have been some really good hires this Spring/Summer and this is one of them.
He’s a great guy, and I’m really happy for him. Unfortunately, that’s a big loss for Pacific.
Congrats Pete!
Interesting move. Richardson has proven himself pretty successful at two different private institutions, but he was head coach at both. Not sure moving to a currently very troubled Arizona as the Associate would be a great move. But perhaps he thinks he can help turn it around and get valuable experience at a tier 1 D1 institution.