Erik Posegay Named Associate Head Coach At Texas, Marking Bowman’s First Hire

The Bob Bowman era of the Texas swimming & diving program is underway, as the newly-announced men’s head coach has made his first hire, adding Erik Posegay to his staff.

Posegay was announced as the new associate head coach of the Texas men’s team on Thursday, aligning the two coaches who previously worked together at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club (NBAC) for four years.

Most recently, Posegay served as USA Swimming’s National Junior Team Director and National Coach.

Posegay held the National Junior Team Director role for over two years, taking over that position in March 2022, and was promoted to add the National Coach title in September 2023.

The promotion came after the Allentown, Pa., native led the U.S. team to the top of the medal table at the 2023 World Junior Championships, and then in January, he followed up by being named the head coach of the U.S. team at the 2024 World Championships. The Americans once again topped the medal table, earning Team of the Meet honors.

Prior to USA Swimming, Posegay was on staff for four seasons at Wisconsin, working three years as an assistant coach (2018-21) before being promoted to associate head coach prior to the 2021-22 campaign. Prior to that, he was an assistant coach at Penn State for two years. At both schools, Posegay worked primarily with the distance and IM groups.

Posegay’s time at NBAC came during Bowman’s second stint with the club following his time at the University of Michigan. Posegay started as an assistant under Bowman in 2011, and when Bowman left for Arizona State in 2015, Posegay was promoted to head coach and CEO of NBAC.

On April 1, Bowman was named the new Director of Swimming and head coach of the men’s team at Texas, taking over the latter role from the legendary Eddie Reese following the conclusion of his last NCAA Championship meet after 46 seasons in Austin.

The news broke less than 48 hours after Bowman finished the job at Arizona State, leading the Sun Devils to their first NCAA title in program history.

Upon news of Bowman’s hiring, there was an assumption that longtime Texas coach Wyatt Collins would be heading elsewhere—especially after Carson Foster essentially said his goodbyes to both Reese and Collins in an Instagram story—and the hiring of Posegay seems to confirm that.

Last season, Reese and Collins were the only two full-time swimming coaches listed on Texas’ staff along with volunteer assistants Will Glass and Manny Pollard.

Bowman said in his introductory press conference that diving coach Matt Scoggin would remain on staff.

With the Texas men’s and women’s teams set to become more “combined” in a sense moving forward, with Bowman’s new Director of Swimming role made to share resources between the two teams after they were previously completely separate, the Longhorns now have two former National Junior Team Directors on staff.

Prior to Posegay, Mitch Dalton, the current associate head coach of the Texas women’s team, was USA Swimming’s Junior Team Director for nearly five years from 2015 to 2020.

The Texas men are coming off their lowest finish at the NCAA Championships since 2005, placing 7th last month in Indianapolis.

Posegay has plenty of international experience under his belt beyond his two recent appointments as the head coach at World Juniors and the World Championships, having worked on U.S. staffs at the 2015 Open Water World Championships, the 2013 Duel In The Pool and the 2010 Junior Pan Pacs. He’s also worked on staff for North Macedonia (head coach at 2016 Olympics) and France (assistant at 2014 Euros).

Before he joined Bowman at NBAC, Posegay was the head coach at Parkland High School and Parkland Aquatic Club in his hometown of Allentown for six years, winning a Class 3A high school state title in 2006. He started his coaching career as an assistant at Emmaus Aquatic Club and Emmaus High School (Emmaus, Pa.) from 2002 to 2005.

40
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

40 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Cate
8 months ago

Welcome to Austin, Coach Bowman! Hookem! Sorry about the traffic.

Inthedeep
8 months ago

Will he coach just the men or entire distance group? How does this work with Mitch? Carol? Assuming Posegays main focus will be to get men back on track…

Follow my bubbles
8 months ago

I’m trying to decide if Posegay is the most appropriate or inappropriate name for Austin.

Cate
Reply to  Follow my bubbles
8 months ago

Are you 12?

MaryTistheGoat
8 months ago

Fun experiment. Interesting to see the intensity of these two combo in the college environment. Gonna definitely have to recruit kids with the right fit for how they’ll coach.

Just another dude
8 months ago

Alright now’s the time … potential candidates to coach the sprinters

+ where are the candidates for A&M/PSU/WVU??

Tomek
8 months ago

I want Texas to contend for championships but Bowman rubs me a wrong way…I can’t fully explain why but I never liked the man even during all Phelps glory days.

Swimm
Reply to  Tomek
8 months ago

Plenty skeletons in that closet!

Swammer TX
Reply to  Tomek
8 months ago

Ask Michigan staff members what it was like when he was there

Montana
Reply to  Swammer TX
8 months ago

Spill!

Free Thinker
Reply to  Swammer TX
8 months ago

people can, you know, change and stuff.

Cate
Reply to  Swammer TX
8 months ago

He was there in 2008.

Iceageswmer
Reply to  Tomek
8 months ago

I think he has mellowed in certain ways since back then. Certainly seems to be having more fun. Maybe he can win you over.

Cate
Reply to  Tomek
8 months ago

Then don’t swim for him. Hookem!

YGBSM
8 months ago

“The Texas men are coming off their lowest finish at the NCAA Championships since 2005, placing 7th ….. ”

Okay. Excuse me. WHAT?! Yes, 7th is lower than normal for Texas men in the past twenty years. No doubt. But let’s not associate 7th with “terrible”. There are about 100 D1 men’s teams that would really love to be 7th. Coach Bowman (and Posegay) are not “rescuing” the program. Why include mention of 7th at all?

saltie
Reply to  YGBSM
8 months ago

dude take a chill pill. They were literally just stating their place of 7th, they didn’t ever say that was “terrible.” And it’s important to include because for the Texas Longhorns, 7th is not normal and its not good, and it’ll be fun to see Bob and his staff work the program back to the top.

Dan
Reply to  saltie
8 months ago

One thing to keep in mind is that they finished 7th with a lot of Olympic Redshirts (some of those might become Pro’s after the Olympics)?

JeahBrah
Reply to  Dan
8 months ago

A lot or just David Johnston?

25Back
Reply to  JeahBrah
8 months ago

Without Carson going pro early + DJ redshirt, they’re probably 4th or 5th at NCAAs

nealnan8
Reply to  saltie
8 months ago

SEC dual meets next year will be off the chain!

Cate
Reply to  YGBSM
8 months ago

The article didn’t say anything about “terrible”.

Go Bucky
8 months ago

Oh man, miss that guy. Great addition.

About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

Read More »