The Austin Swim Club in Austin, Texas has announced the hiring of Adrian Damasco as the club’s new head coach. Damasco served as the head age group coach for the Austin Swim Club in 2019 and 2020, and more recently has been serving as a staff coach with Blue Tide Aquatics in suburban Houston.
Damasco takes over the role from Roric Fink, who resigned from the position. Fink cited differences of opinion with the club’s ownership as the reason for his departure, though the owner of the team Kevin Thompson disputed that.
Damasco served as head age group coach primarily during a period where the program had no formal head coach, though there were senior coaches who took on a similar role after Brendan Hansen resigned in 2018.
Damasco’s hiring will take a different tack for the club, as Damasco doesn’t have the same high-profile resume in the sport as the club’s previous two head coaches.
Prior to his last stint at the Austin Swim Club, he served as the associate head coach for the Los Angeles Swim Club for 4 years. There, he worked primarily with the club’s top 11-14 year old swimmers. He also served as the assistant varsity coach at Harvard-Westlake High School in California – one of the area’s best high school programs.
Through that work, he served as a coach on a SoCal Swimming LSC All-Star Team, and has also served on staff at USA Swimming National Select Camps.
ASC isn’t the only Austin-area club Damasco has worked at: he also spent time on the coaching staff at Nitro Swimming.
Damasco will join the club full-time on January 3, 2022, with a release by the Austin Swim Club saying “he wants to provide a meaningful amount of transition time for his current group of athletes at Blue Tide Aquatics, as he cares deeply about them and wants to provide Blue Tide Aquatics plenty of time to find his replacement.
“This reflects the professionalism with which he approaches the sport of swimming and his level of concern for the young athletes that he coaches. He also wants to make sure that he leaves BTA in a very positive manner and in a strong position which we fully respect and support.”
“Adrian is one of the most energetic, caring, and professional coaches that we have had the pleasure to work with over the 7-year history of Austin Swim Club,” the release also says.
The beauty of Austin is the competition amongst swim clubs. If Austin is a &$@? Show, move to the next club. For profit clubs are disgusting and don’t care about the kids.
Adrian has left ASC once due to a major decline in mental health (due to the Thompson’s poor working conditions and lack of respect for their employees). It won’t be long until this happens again, unfortunately. It’s a trend when working for the Thompson’s at ASC. You can confirm this with any former employee. I wish Adrian all the best, money apparently talks.
Think about what is and isn’t appropriate to share about someone else online.
I see nothing offending or too personal: would you leave the same “appropriate to share” should the coach let say broke his leg? It does say however about the mental climate at ASC. What’s more, with so many great coaches leaving, the swimming culture at ASC is not healthy anymore. I found it unprofessional hearing from the coaches who stayed badmouthing Roric: frankly I was very surprised by that; it is very disturbing, especially when those coaches discussing the situation with remaining athletes and parents.
I’ll share this, they are out poaching coaches and I got the emails to prove it.
Congrats, Adrian! Way to go!
Congrats Coach Adrian! I know you will do big things in contributing to ASC’s success!
Who’s taking wagers on a date for the next resignation?
Holy cow. I’ve gotta admit, I didn’t know much about Kevin Thompson or the Thompsons or ASC until Roric (who I don’t know well but who I respect via second hand information/his resume) resigned, but like…these folks clearly have no chill.
Like, you hired a new head coach, and you’re still gonna sit here and take subtweet potshots at the last two? Grow up bro.
“This reflects the professionalism with which he approaches the sport of swimming and his level of concern for the young athletes that he coaches. He also wants to make sure that he leaves BTA in a very positive manner and in a strong position which we fully respect and support.”
Not sure why Kevin’s comment is reason for complaint. He is offering an explanation for why Adrian is not starting immediately. Why not leave the club alone and allow them to move towards success?
Noooo, he’s very clearly taking shots at the prior coaches for not being professional enough to leave quietly.
I’ve heard through the local rumor mill that KT is telling everyone who listen that it wasn’t him, it was those coaches, and is using their their “unprofessional departures” as justification for his stance.
Come on. You are ignorant putting that out in the universe. Have some respect for those swimmers.
Not “the” local rumor mill. “Your” local rumor mill. There’s a difference, and it drives what part of the narrative someone wants to believe. Thompson and the past coaches are just doing what owners and coaches do when there’s a major transition like this, amicable or not. Everyone has to play their cards. ASC will be just fine, and Damasco’s hiring is a good indicator of this.
If the end point for ASC is to be “just fine” then you are absolutely right: it will be just fine which for some is simply not good enough.
“Grow up bro” is a hilarious statement