Army West Point swimming and diving has announced the hiring of Hannah Saiz as the program’s new assistant coach. Army West Point lost associate head coach Jacob Siar to Northwestern and assistant coach Matt Lowe to St. Bonaventure this summer.
Saiz has been climbing the coaching ladder since ending her tenure as an elite national-caliber swimmer. She began her coaching career at her alma mater Kenyon College, where she worked as the interim and volunteer assistant coach from 2017-2019. While at Kenyon, she also coached and founded SERF swimming, a community aquatics program, and worked as the head coach at Mount Vernon High School.
She then took over as the head coach and aquatics director at Division III St. Norbert College in Wisconsin.
At St. Norbert, both the men’s and women’s programs tied the highest-ever team finishes, including six individual, five relay championship titles, and one conference record. They also had the highest amount of individual women’s finishes (second) and relay finishes (second). St. Norbert set 31 team records, many of which were set in Saiz’s first season.
Last year, Saiz was the associate head coach at Boston University. Head coach Bill Smyth retired after 18 years in charge at BU, which put Saiz back on the market.
Before moving into coaching, Saiz was an elite swimmer and one of the best D3 swimmers in the country. She was the 2013 NCAA Division III National Champion in the 200-yard fly. After swimming a 1:55.98 in prelims to just-miss the record, she was slower in finals, but still comfortably won.
Saiz says that she doesn’t remember that race – at its conclusion, she was unconscious and had to be pulled from the pool.
After graduation, Saiz continued training as a pro, which included a finals appearance at the 2016 US Olympic Swimming Trials; her prelims time that year qualified her for the 2016-2017 US National Team.
After a two year hiatus from racing, she returned in 2021 to qualify for the Olympic Trials again in 2021.
From September 2020-22, Hannah was a council member of the USA Swimming Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Council. Saiz was also an Athlete Representative with the USA Swimming Safe Sport Committee from September 2017-18.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Hannah to the Army West Point Swimming & Diving family! Hannah brings a wealth of experience both as a coach and as an elite-level competitive swimmer. Hannah’s swimming career went from walk-on at Kenyon University to earning a spot on the US National Team in the span of just a few years. Her athletic growth and successes exemplify what can happen when you combine hard work with belief and a culture that supports the relentless pursuit of greatness. I’m excited for her to share that mindset and those experiences with our cadet-athletes as we continue our climb within the NCAA and USA Swimming communities.”
“When building a staff, our goal is always to find highly motivated and self-driven coaches who want to be part of building something special. Coaching at Army West Point is a challenge and an opportunity to lead and mentor young men and women who will go on to do amazing things for our country through their service. Hannah’s personality, intellect, and tenacity will make an instant and positive impact on our program’s ability to recruit, educate, train, and inspire leaders of character!” – Head Coach Brandt Nigro
The Army men had a breakthrough 2022-2023 season, beating their rivals Navy 189-111 in a dual meet, their first such win since 1990, and came within 10 points of disrupting the Midshipmens’ perfect 19-year streak at the Patriot League Championships.
The Army women also placed 2nd at the Patriot League Championships, 183.5 points behind Navy.
The program was recently responsible for the first two public American commitments in the high school class of 2025 – Elle Burke for the women and Lewis Esterly for the men.
Army also hired a new head diving coach, Connor Dorff, in the offseason. The other swim coaching position remains vacant.
Drew Marachello and the rest of BU athletic department staff made a huge mistake letting this coach go… Hope BU gets some sense knocked into them, especially for their swimmer’s sake.
Good hire! Expect a great contribution to the team!
Lemme tell ya, she ain’t it