Battle to Save Michigan State Swim & Dive announced yesterday that Stanford head men’s swim & coach Dan Schemmel will be addressing the MSU Board of Trustees in support of the effort to reinstate the university’s swim & dive programs tomorrow (Friday, April 22nd). Schemmel is an MSU swimming alum, having competed for the Spartans from 2004-2008 before starting his collegiate coaching career.
Prior to being named head coach at Stanford, Schemmel was the head coach of Hawaii, and prior to that, he coached at Arizona and Wisconsin. He’s expected to speak to the Board of Trustees on the value provided by sponsoring a swimming & diving program, as well as Stanford’s own efforts to maintain its varsity athletics. In 2020, while many division I universities were announcing program cuts, Stanford was set to cut 11 Varsity sports programs, but reversed course, ultimately keeping the programs intact.
Battle to Save Michigan State Swim & Dive has been working diligently behind the scenes, recently securing to major donations from two alumni, who agreed to match $8.5 million in pledges and estate donations in an effort to reinstate the programs. According to the release, Schemmel is just one of several members aligned with Battle to Save Michigan State Swim & Dive who will be addressing the Board tomorrow. Also set to speak are MSU alumni Dawn
Polk (Swimming, 1995-1999), MSU Swim Club President Alexis Lefevre, Spartan varsity swimmers Ava Boutros and Rachel Aycock, and Detroit Athletic Club Aquatics Director Robin Hartnett.
You can read Battle to Save Michigan State Swim & Dive’s full press release here.
Charles McCaffree (coach State 1941-1969) deserves to be honored with the renewal of MS swimming. Brings back
memories of Ber McLaughlin’s 440 -yard NCAA record performance after “doubling Kiphuth’s dry land program advice.
Good deal. Glad to see them not give up as quickly as EMU did. They have a huge alumni group who seems non-existent now. And never any defense from Peter Linn.
Yeahhh get ‘em Dan