USA Swimming National Team member Eugene Godsoe will be returning to Palo Alto this fall as a volunteer assistant under new head men’s coach Ted Knapp, the school announced today.
While coaching, Godsoe will continue his swimming career in parallel. This could the beginning of an expanded Stanford post-graduate training program, which has been one of the criticisms of the program in years past.
Godsoe is a former Stanford swimmer who, in 2010, moved to North Carolina to train at SwimMAC with David Marsh. While in Charlotte, he earned his way onto the USA Swimming National Team in both the 100 fly and 100 back.
While a collegiate Cardinal, he was the 2010 NCAA Champion in the 100 back as a senior. All-told, he had 16 All-American honors to his name, and is the school record holder in the 100 back. He also swam the backstroke leg on the Stanford 400 yard medley relay in 2009 where he combined with Paul Kornfeld, Austin Staab, and Alex Coville to break the American Record.
Internationally, Godsoe’s biggest honor was representing the U.S. at the 2011 Pan Am Games, where he took a silver medal in the 100 back. He was also hired by Cesar Cielo’s club Flamengo to race under their banner at the 2012 Maria Lenk Trophy: the country’s premier swimming event.
Ever the talented musician in addition to his skills in the water, there is no word on what Godsoe’s first post-Trials single will be, or what this means for the future of “Take your Mark.” Their latest song can be seen here.
I think they just got a new AD and I am sure one of his top priorities was to hire a women’s swim coach. Does anyone know who interviewed for the position? Maybe they are waiting for that person to say yes.
i think the top candidates all said no or took their names out of the hat so the AD had to start from scratch with new candidates. It is a big time job but the cost of living is so outrageous that it makes it difficult for a ‘high profile’ coach to climb the ladder by going there.
There is a new AD at Stanford but I am sure he doesn’t do the search for the women’s swim coach…I am pretty sure an assistant AD is doing the work! (or lack there of)
Wow Eugene Godsoe! I would kill to have him as my coach. What a lad.
Let’s speculate who would be the next Stanford women’s swim team’s coach!
The way the Stanford athletic department has made this a complete debacle….no one.
A travesty for the athletes both at Stanford and the incoming class and a future recruiting class moving farther and farther away (although maybe not lost since early signing is still 75 days away).
However the worst served here are the incoming class. “Allowed” to transfer if they end up with a coach they don’t feel fits for them, Stanford has insidiously basically made them take a self imposed exile if they decide the new coach is not going to work for them of at least a semester if not a year since the school year is so close and other arrangements likely can not… Read more »
Not a hundred percent sure here, but I would say the fault goes to Lea more than the university itself. From what it sounds like, Lea left everyone out to dry. I was talking to one of the younger swimmers on the team and she was really upset that Lea pulled this out of nowhere without telling anyone on the team more than a few days before she stepped out. Kinda leaves Stanford in a sticky situation…
Couldn’t disagree more on this one.
If this was going on 2 months ago (yes it has almost been 2 whole months since she resigned) and swimmers were set to report within 2 weeks back in July, then yes, I would agree that Lea needed to take the lion share of the blame for this mess.
But the she’s been gone since the first week of July and we are a week away from the first week of September.
Sorry….Stanford doesn’t get a free pass on this at all. They have interviewed high caliber coaches at this point that everyone has heard about.
There is no other reason not to have named their coach at this… Read more »
I don’t mean this so much as an overt criticism of Stanford swimming, but have to put the question out there to the Cardinal faithful and those in the know:
What is wrong?
In the mid 1980’s every high school kid dreamed of being a Stanford swimmer, particularly among the Californians.
You have the best swimming facility in the United States.
You have arguably the finest university in the world.
You have a great climate in the Peninsula of the San Francisco Bay Area.
You have a happening local area in Palo Alto and beyond into Silicon Valley.
Your university and your swim program have cash flow coming out of the ears.
…And you can’t win NCAAs.
Why?
Stanford student-athletes have to study so hard to get into medical schools that they excelled in the classroom instead of the pool.
No hall pass on that one. Student athletes at other top schools study hard as well. One case in point is over the San Mateo Bridge at Cal. The current NCAA champs Cal.
I hope Nick was being sarcastic…
YES, I was being very sarcastic.
One name comes to mind as to why the team can’t, and hasn’t won NCAA’s recently.
Skip Kenney
Agreed.
Definitely agreed. Skip has been the largest roadblock in the team’s success.
Skip might have been part of the problem. But it’s also hard to get into Stanford, even if you’re a top swimmer, and that creates unique challenges. There have been years when the top four recruits didn’t get in, and when that happens, the team is handicapped. Also note that the foreign swimmers at Stanford are almost all native English speakers because of the high standardized test scores required for admission. Also, many of the Stanford swimmers have interests outside the pool, and some decide to pursue them instead of swimming all four years.
Maybe Eugene can coach the women’s team until Stanford finally decides to name a new coach! 🙂
Great hire for Stanford and a great person! Having personally trained with him for many years and been the beneficiary of the leads he would get me on medley relays, Eugene will definitely bring a great swimming mind to the Stanford program. He is an exceptional technician and did what was needed to reach the pinnacle of college swimming by winning an NCAA championship. He should make a strength of the Cardinal (the backstroke group) even stronger with his experience.
Hey- don’t use my username(commenter above!) I was just going to say don’t forget about Eric Ress returning too. Godsoe is a great addition to that staff.
What are you talking about dude…
Things are definitely going to be different at Stanford this upcoming season. I’m very excited to see how things turn out and I feel that all of these changes in the program are for the better. And I agree, with Godsoe as a volunteer assistant coach, that is going to be one heck of a backstroke group. As far as I know, Stanford has the top three returning 200 backstrokers. Obviously there are some names that are in serious contention (Cal’s Pebley comes to mind), but this will be exciting. Possible 1-2-3 sweep? When was the last time that happened at NCAA’s on the men’s side? Does anyone know?