The American Swimming Coaches’ Association (ASCA) has announced that former Ohio State swim coach Bill Wadley will serve as the organization’s new executive director. Wadley will take over from Steve Roush on October 15, 2020.
Roush announced in September that he would leave his post after only 10 months on the job, having taken over January 1, 2020.
Wadley coached in the Big Ten Conference for 30 years before announcing his retirement in 2017. That includes the last 28 years as the head coach of the Ohio State men’s team, where he coached 16 Olympians, 30 Big Ten Champions, and was named the 2010 Big Ten Coach of the Year. He never had a losing record in dual meets, and finished his career with an overall 253-42 record at Ohio State.
He also spent 2 years as the head coach at Michigan State (1 season as just the men’s coach and 1 season as the men’s and women’s coach).
After retiring from Ohio State, he was named the Director of Coaches for the Dublin Sea Dragons in Dublin, Ohio, and then as the director for the youth competitive swimming program at the YMCA of Greater Des Moines.
Besides coaching, he served in administrative roles as the technical swimming chairman to FISU, which organizes the World University Games. He has also been a board member for USA Swimming and was on the NCAA’s peer mentoring committee.
ASCA was founded in 1958 by John Leonard as a professional group for swim coaches. In addition to advocating for coaches, ASCA has taken on a role in training, certifying, and educating coaches in the United States.
The influential organization has taken credit for, among other things, the creation of the National Team Director position at USA Swimming in 1996, eliminating polyurethane suits from competition, and says that they “supported and got hired” former USA Swimming Executive Director Chuck Wielgus, who had a controversial tenure leading the organization.
Wonder what gets swept under the rug now
Bill has recently been all about the children (and their parents money), but then he realized the children had figured out he was full of crap. So now he’s all about the coaches. And their money. Mostly their money.
Wadley ran Dublin Sea Dragons into the ground. He expects everyone to work for him and does not do a single thing.
Bill, simply put, is a belittler. Nothing but bad things to say about him, and the comments above reflect that.
I loved going to the ASCA clinics while attending the private seminars. The 2016 clinic in Ohio with Eddie Reese and 2017 clinic with Dave Salo were awesome. Pivotal point in my career and drastically changed my approach to coaching.
Maybe ASCA could host more of those throughout the year and run them virtually?
Congratulations Bill, Time to take ASCA to a new level.
Its almost Halloween qgain. So is Bill going to make an appearance to a weight room, pass out Tootsie Rolls amd laugh how hard kids train?
I think Bill will also put a exercise bike in his office and ride it while he should be working.
ASCA needed a leader that genuinely cares and respects coaches and doesn’t eye hustle your wallet while talking out of both sides of his mouth.
Holy crap I agree with Guerra! See opposites can find common ground!
As long as the Ol’ Boy network is in charge of ASCA, they will continue to lobby and cut deals to get special treatment for other Ol’ Boys like Richard Shoulberg and Murray Stephens to avoid their rightful punishment from USA Swimming and Safesport for their past conduct.