The NCAA Division I Cleveland State Vikings have hired Paul Graham as the new head coach of their men’s and women’s swimming & diving programs. He takes over for the recently-retired Wally Morton, who is retiring after 39 seasons of leading the program.
Graham comes from Division II power Ashland University, where he was the head coach for 14 years, and is slotted for an official start date of May 19th.
He was named the NCAA Division II Women’s Coach of the year in 2010, and coached several Division II NCAA event Champions. His Ashland teams didn’t end on their highest note, with the women placing 20th and the men 18th at the 2014 Division II National Championship meet, but from 2009-2012 his women placed in the top 7 in the country all four seasons.
This will be Graham’s first appointment as a Division I head coach, though from 1995-2000 he was an assistant at Division I Wright State University. Prior coaching jobs include as an assistant at Dayton from 1994-1995 and as the head coach of the Valley Area Swim Team in Harrisburg, Virginia from 1989-1994.
While the move from Division II and Division I will be a change, it won’t be a huge jump for Graham. For example, in the 2013-2014 season, there were many events (especially the backstrokes) where at the top end, his Ashland team had faster results than did Cleveland State. The primary difference will be the increased depth in his new role (in almost every instance, Cleveland State’s 3rd-or-4th best swimmer in an event would have blown away Ashlands); and the fact that the times that got his Ashland swimmers to NCAA’s in Division II in most cases won’t in Division I, so the mindset for those results is a little different.
Last season, the Cleveland State women finished 4th (of 8) and the Cleveland State men finished 2nd (of 7) and the Horizon League Championships. In general, Graham had more success with his women’s program at the Division II level, so we might see the women start contending for league titles sooner-rather-than-later as well.
Congratulations Paul and congratulations CSU on a great hire!
Congratulations Paul, we will miss you on deck at DII NCAA. Best wishes.
Paul is an excellent coach of both men and women. The women’s success though more recent was preceded by a long run on the men’s side. All along he’s developed most of these swimmers. He will excel at Cleveland State with the resources there . He is very familiar with how to succeed in this conference from his many titles while working with Matt Liddy at wright state And serving as the primary recruiter and primary coach of 200 and up swimmers both men and women while there. 20 years of mid major type experience will make him hard to beat!
Excellent hire CSU, Congratulations Paul! We’ll miss your presence and comraderie on the deck at DII’s.
What are you gonna do with all that Purple!!!
Graham will have no difficulty what so ever with making the “adjustment” from DII to DI. He has proven himself to be an excellent recruiter and his ability to get the most out of his swimmers is unquestionable through his results at Ashland.