Dartmouth University has announced that Milana Socha will take over as the new head coach of both the men’s and women’s swimming & diving teams. Socha is making her return to Dartmouth after a two-year coaching stint with Northwestern during the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 seasons. Prior to her time at Northwestern Socha served as an assistant coach for Dartmouth from 2017 to 2020.
Socha is taking over as head coach of Dartmouth for Jesse Moore who was recently added to the Cal women’s coaching roster after serving as head coach of Dartmouth for only one year.
Socha was reportedly an instrumental member of the Northwestern coaching staff during her two seasons at the school. Socha was the “lead coach for the butterfly and mid-distance training groups” and according to Northwestern head coach Katie Robinson was “paramount” to the school’s success. “Milana is an outstanding hire for Dartmouth,” said Robinson.
The Wildcats scored 70 points in the butterfly races at the 2022 Big Ten Championships, and 108.5 points in the 200 and 500 freestyles, among their most successful stroke groups at that meet.
The Dartmouth women are coming off a 7th place finish at the 2022 Ivy League Championships where they narrowly beat Cornell with a total of 538 points. The men from Dartmouth on the other hand placed in last place with 206 points.
While there’s room for Dartmouth to improve, it was just over a year ago that the future of their program was in question when the school cut both the men’s and women’s teams altogether before reinstating it a few months later.
After graduating from Carleton College in 2014, Socha began her coaching career at Smith College as the head assistant women’s coach. She then made the move to the University of Toledo for the 2016-2017 season before joining Dartmouth’s coaching staff in 2017 and Northwestern’s in 2020.
In addition to her coaching resume, Socha has been active off the pool deck as well, having run dryland training, strength and conditioning, and teaching as an undergraduate physiology course fellow over her years as a coach. Additionally, was involved in equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives both at Northwestern and within the Big Ten Equality Coalition.
I expect Milana to do amazing things with the Dartmouth program. It’s always great to see great people given great opportunities.
Congrats Milana! A great hire for Dartmouth! She was passionate about the SA and the school when she was there last, and will create an amazing atmosphere for them all to grow and bring stability they need!
Milana and I were teammates in college, and I can’t think of a better person for this job. She’s an excellent hire for so many reasons; I think Dartmouth knows this as well as anyone since she’s already worked there as an assistant. Congrats, Milana!
I hope she has a great year before she leaves
Congratulations to Coach Milana!
Congrats to Milana! Glad to see Dartmouth made such a great hire.
A great hire by Dartmouth! You will not find a more passionate, organized, driven, inclusive and compassionate coach than Milana. She cares deeply about the student-athlete experience and building the Dartmouth program.
Anyone checked on Jesse Moore recently?!