Whitney Hite, who was terminated in March as the head coach at Wisconsin, has been hired as an associate head coach with the women’s program at the University of Florida. Florida recently named Jeff Poppell as the head coach of the women’s program, splitting the team into separate men’s and women’s squads after the retirement of long-time head coach Gregg Troy.
Florida has also announced the addition of 2016 NCAA Champion in the 200 yard backstroke Danielle Galyer and Florida alum Delaney Dye to the staff. Galyer will serve as a volunteer assistant, while Dye will act as program coordinator for both the men’s and women’s teams.
Hite spent 7 years as the head men’s and women’s coach at Wisconsin, where the program produced 25 Big 10 event titles and 103 All-American honors. That includes an NCAA title in the 200 back at the 2013 NCAA Championships and a runner-up finish from Ivy Martin in the 50 free at the 2015 NCAA Championships.
Notwithstanding the TeDuits title, Hite’s women’s teams had more success in his tenure at Wisconsin than did his men’s. A chart of each team’s finish at Big Tens and NCAAs is below.
Wisconsin Finishes, Whitney Hite Era
| Big Ten | NCAAs | Big Ten | NCAAs | |
| Men’s | Men’s | Women’s | Women’s | |
| 2018 | 6th/10 teams | 0 Points/1 Qualifier | 5th/13 teams | 17th – 78 points |
| 2017 | 5th/10 teams | 18th – 63 points | 3rd/13 teams | 15th – 98 points |
| 2016 | 5th/10 teams | 18th – 53 points | 6th/13 teams | 21st – 49 points |
| 2015 | 5th/10 teams | 21st – 48 points | 4th/13 teams | 13th – 103 points |
| 2014 | 7th/10 teams | t/33rd – 10 points | 6th/13 teams | 13th – 78 points |
| 2013 | 6th/10 teams | 13th – 84 points | 7th/13 teams | 15th – 65 points |
| 2012 | 8th/10 teams | 27th – 19 points | 4th/13 teams | 15th – 91 points |
Prior to Wisconsin, he spent 2 years as an assistant at Arizona, working for former U.S. National Team Director Frank Busch; and 3 years as a women’s assistant at Cal under past U.S. Olympic head coach Teri McKeever. He was also a 5-year assistant under another past Olympic head coach Jack Bauerle at Georgia, and swam at Texas under another Olympic head coach Eddie Reese. Hite was a member of the 1996 NCAA Championship team at Texas.
In 2016, Galyer became Kentucky’s first-ever national champion in swimming when she won the 200 back, and was a four-time CSCAA First Team All-American and two-year member of the USA Swimming National Team, having placed 5th in the 200 back at the 2016 Olympic Trials. She was also a back-to-back winner of the prestigious Elite 90 Award, given to the athlete competing at each NCAA Championship event with the highest GPA; and an NCAA Woman of the Year finalist in 2017.
Galyer has been coaching with the Gator Swim Club while pursuing her law degree at Florida.
Dye was a diver at the University of Florida from 2012-2016 and was a three-year member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll. She just completed her master’s degree at Florida while working as an intern with the Operations and Facilities Department there.
I swam for Wisconsin while Whitney was the coach. I can honestly say he made his swimmer lives miserable and mistreated many of them. He was mentally abusive to many and will not be missed. I’m not surprised at all that he was fired. Rest In peace to Florida’s program.
Disgusting. So so so so so very disappointed in this hire. Leah should have been retained with no other interviews. UF & Jeff, you blew this opportunity. And don’t give me this crap of “no qualified female coaches.” Try harder, open your eyes and ask around, we are here!
And your resume is as good or better that Whitney’s? I’m assuming “Female coach” must be Teri McKever.
Reap What You Sow
Maybe Danielle Galyer will be able to bring some of that Kentucky backstroke fire to the Gators!
Hite’s staff coached the women’s team, the best female athletes have wanted nothing to do with him from the get go. Word on the street is he was always angry and unapproachable, never smiled, created a toxic relationship with females. Glad to see admin hired two F assistants, gives my daughter a chance to compete for the hometown team
Can confirm.
They should haze new coaches when they come in
I’m amazed at the seemingly unanimous negativity towards this hire, myself included. I’m not even trying to be funny, but I’ve consistently seen people come to the defense of sexual predators on this website…this guy isn’t that level of evil (or evil at all for that matter) and still not one comment coming to his defense.
It is interesting to see all the negativity. Having swam for a number of coaches over the years. There are always going to be people who don’t get along with a coach and they seem to be the outspoken ones on these message boards. It really only takes one unhappy swimmer on a team to introduce a whole host of drama and create a negative environment.
My club coach used to talk about how hard it was to make it through 4 years of college swimming. It’s not easy and there is a lot that plays into transfers and retirement beyond just the head coach.
Parent
Perfectly stated! He never would have gotten another position in the Big Ten, his reputation was well known. UF should have done their research.
This was a great hire, and Florida will be much better because of Hite. A lot of people agree, including many high up in the coaching ranks. I just don’t think anybody wants to argue with the mob mentality, promoted by anonymous posting.
Some of the postings on here are defamatory. It’s a joke.
I commented on his defense 6 hours before you made this post. So maybe you should read all the posts.
“Seemingly unanimous” was my comment. I read through the comments, but the fact that I misssd one of the only/few positive ones proves my point. It’s like finding a positive needle in stack of negative hay.
“not one comment coming to his defense” was your comment……
I missed that part of my comment and stand corrected. My overall point remains and the fact is most of the comments are negative in nature and the amount of + vs – on each negative comment is pretty insane.
If you lived the FULL Whitney experience you would not be surprised at all by the unanimous negativity.
Is Leah Stancil no longer there?
That’s correct.