The Cincinnati Marlins have promoted Brandon Voorhies to be the program’s new full-time head coach and CEO, effective immediately. He replaces Brad Isham, who left the program in September after five-and-a-half years.
Voorhies had been serving as the program’s interim head coach since September.
Voorhies joined the Cincinnati Marlins as Senior Program Director in the summer of 2021. During his first year on deck, Voorhies coached 44 top 10 all-time Marlin performances. In October 2022, one of his swimmers, Thackston McMullan, was selected to attend the USA Swimming Select Camp at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO.
McMullan is committed to swim at Cal beginning fall 2024 and is the defending Ohio High School State Champion in the 500 free.
Vorhees previously worked as the head age group coach at the nearby Countryside YMCA from 2018-2021, as well as the head coach of Indian Hill High School.
At the Countryside YMCA, he coached swimmers to 39 team records and 33 USA Swimming Top 10 finishes.
Scholastically, he earned the Cincinnati High School Swimming Coach of the Year award in 2019.
As an undergrad at Ohio State, he competed for the Ohio State Swim Club and served as president in the club’s last two years. That includes leading the team to a Collegiate Club Swimming National Title on the men’s side, a runner-up finish on the women’s side, and a combined national title overall. He was one of the 10 club presidents who founded the current Collegiate Club Swimming governing body.
As a junior athlete, he was a six-time YMCA National qualifier.
Voorhies takes over a historic American swimming club, founded in 1961. The team is headquartered out of the Keating Natatorium at St. Xavier High School, where the scholastic program has won 23 Ohio High School Division I State Championships in the last 24 years.
The Marlins have produced 18 Olympic swimmers who have won 23 Olympic medals, set 15 World Records, 19 American Records, and have produced 6 American Swimmers of the Year.
McMullan was the club’s lone representative at the recent Speedo Winter Junior Championships – East meet. His best finish was 24th place in the 100 free, swimming a time of 45.40.
The team also sent one swimmer, Audrey Zimmerman, to last summer’s Futures Championships. The Marlins boys finished 5th at March’s Ohio Junior Olympics, while the girls finished 2nd, just 7 points behind the Mason Manta Rays.
Brad was a great coach, sad to see him driven away by parents who refuse to accept their kids don’t work hard. Clearly a culture change is needed. Hopefully Brandon can spark one
Congrats Brandon! Keep up the good work and let’s keep making the Marlins swimmer stronger and more athletic!
Such a loss losing Brad Isham. Team is truly going under with no hope.
What happened to Coach Brad?
What happened to the Marlins – I recall Meagher, Rhodenbaughs, Mills, Wilson, Santos in the good old days …
The Marlins, as you know them, died 10-15 years ago. The evolution of the Mason Manta Rays, Northern Kentucky Clippers and the good coaching at the numerous YMCA teams have sapped the talent and numbers that historically commuted to swim for the team.
Thank you for this. In my enquiry I actually meant Frentsos (not Santos) and totally forgot the Ritters …
Clearly, he got booted. What happened to the other staff members? Looks like their staff is all new. Why are all the previous staff members gone? What happened to the previous 2 HAG coaches? They can’t keep a consistent staff for a longer period like other local organizations. RED FLAG! Curious to know why they lost so many staff members. Was it a clean sweep or are there other issues behind closed doors? Hopefully, Brandon did his research first, doesn’t get run down & loose his passion for coaching. Great potential as a coach! Good luck.
He had 5.5 years and only managed 1 Juniors qualifier at one of the most-storied programs in the country. 5.5 years is not exactly “rapid turnover” these days.
There doesn’t always have to be “red flags” and “accusations.” Sometimes, a coach just isn’t getting results in the pool, and that’s fine. Why can’t we ever just leave it at that, and wish him luck at his next gig?
Agreed. But in the same 5.5 years he managed to loose 2 Head Age Group coaches. In my opinion, sounds like a problem within the organization
That’s one interpretation. Someone could come to the total opposite interpretation and the facts would support that as well.
What is the average employment length of a head age group coach? Is that unusual?
It’s clear that you’re very close to this situation. If you want to enact change, you’ll have much more success having real conversations with real people than mad-posting on the internet.
First, most head age group coaches in the area are on staff for more than 2 years. Not sure what the stats are across the country. A simple guess would be a minimum of 4-5 years.
What in my thread comes off as mad-posting? I believe what I have stated are observations and opinions. Are we not allowed to state those here?
This isn’t a coach or parent problem. I believe Brad was a talented coach, but the dynamics of Cincinnati area swimming has drastically changed over the years and the Marlins didn’t evolve with it. The Marlins homebase of Keating natatorium is in a bad area of town, and very inconvenient to get to from the suburbs. They team tried to have satellite locations, but they’ve had substandard coaching or poor communication, or both. The coaching, facilities and financial resources at the YMCA’s in town are just as good, if not better, and the Mason Manta Rays is the place to go if you have an elite or promising swimmer. The Marlins needed to invest in building their own facility years… Read more »
What are the demographics like in southern Ohio and Kentucky?
Northeast Ohio clubs (LESD) has been declining simply due to having less families with kids (that traditionally swim). Columbus has been fine.
Is it the same in Cincinnati?
Cincy, more or less, is similar to Columbus. The programs in the suburbs are thriving with numbers or families with kids. The Marlins are in a horrible area for young families. Forget the northern suburbs and Kentucky. Mason, Countryside YMCA and the Clippers have those areas sealed up. ABLY & CAC has the east. And within 10 minutes of Keating Natatorium, Powel Crosley YMCA has an indoor/outdoor 50-meter pool and draws local families and westsiders because they do a good job. The Marlins have zero assets and solely rely on team fees and hosting meets and are at the mercy of the pros and cons of dealing with St. Xavier HS, who owns the pool and charges the Marlins considerable… Read more »
It would be interesting to know how many of their swimmers at their primary location actually started from their satellite locations. Last I heard most of their “top” swimmers started at a satellite so to say the coaching at the satellites are substandard is more than likely incorrect. They had a strong staff 2-3 years ago. Marlins have lost a lot of swimmers to Mason over the years, which further points to an organization problem (culture, board, head coach, etc).
Sorry, but I meant to say that the Marlins had difficulty in managing the satellites with effective communication from the central location and retaining good coaching at the satellites. The Marlins just haven’t evolved the way they needed to.
Congrats Brandon!
THATS MY BOY