Evansville Hires Alum & Former Head Coach Toby Wilcox As Next Head Coach

Division I University of Evansville has announced the hiring of Toby Wilcox as the next head coach of its men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs. This will be his second stint as head coach with the program.

“I am extremely grateful to the administration of President Pietruszkiewicz and Athletics Director Ziggy Siegfried for the chance to come back and guide the Swim and Dive program,” said Wilcox.  “UE is home to me and I’m excited about working with this group of outstanding young men and women, Plus, seeing where this program can go to new heights. Go Aces!”

Wilcox enters his second stint as head coach of Evansville as he was an assistant coach with the team from 1986-1988 and then was promoted to head coach from 1988-1997. During that time span, he earned three Midwestern Collegiate Conference “Coach of the Year” honors.

Wilcox most recently was the head coach of Division III Birmingham Southern College. He began the swimming and diving program at Birmingham Southern 13 years ago. Birmingham Southern is set to close tomorrow, May 31st. During his time at Birmingham Southern, he led the team to 16 conference titles. He also sent 35 student-athletes to the Division III NCAA Championships including three male divers this past season.

He returns to his alma mater as he graduated from Evansville with a Bachelor of Arts in History in 1985. As a student-athlete, he earned Midwestern Collegiate Conference and Heartland Collegiate Conference MVP honors in 1984. He was a two-time MVP and also served as a team captain.

Wilcox also returns closer to home as he is originally from Rensselaer, Indiana, about four hours north of Evansville.

The Evansville women finished 8th out of 9 teams at the 2024 Missouri Valley Championships and were led by diver Madison Rollett who finished 2nd on the 3 meter. The men’s team competed in the Mid-American Conference, finishing 5th out of 6 teams. Boris Tavrosky led the men, as he got on the podium with a 3rd place finish in the 200 backstroke (1:46.25).

Wilcox takes over the program that was previously led by Stuart Wilson who stepped down to pursue other professional opportunities after spending five seasons with the program.

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Randy
3 months ago

I had the honor of working at BSC with Toby. He is an outstanding individual and nothing but professional.
Director of Facilities

BackstrokeBabe
5 months ago

Toby was my coach at UE. I was happy to finish my senior year with him as head coach. Welcome back home.

Philip Kraus
5 months ago

Congrats Toby! Glad to have shared the deck against you and your teams, class act all the way. We will miss seeing you in Birmingham. Best of luck!

D3 Coach
5 months ago

Amazing hire for UE. Toby is one of the best Freestyle coaches around! Congratulations Toby!

joannietheswimmer
Reply to  D3 Coach
5 months ago

But he’s just so nasty.

Swimbynight
Reply to  joannietheswimmer
5 months ago

Why leave such a vague comment? Nasty how?

joannietheswimmer
Reply to  Swimbynight
5 months ago

One instance: he told another coach to f*** off on deck at a meet. Loudly.

Swimbynight
Reply to  joannietheswimmer
5 months ago

Definitely not professional but not sure I would say nasty. Coaches say things just like the rest of the world. Now if he tells every coach to f off then I would question his leadership.

About Anya Pelshaw

Anya Pelshaw

Anya has been with SwimSwam since June 2021 as both a writer and social media coordinator. She was in attendance at the 2022, 2023, and 2024 Women's NCAA Championships writing and doing social media for SwimSwam. She also attended 2023 US Summer Nationals as well as the 2024 European Championships …

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