From one educational mecca to another, Chris Morgan is headed east from Stanford to take over the women’s assistant job at Harvard under Steph Morawski.
SwimSwam’s own storyteller will join the staff at Cambridge after one year as the top assistant under Lea Maurer at Stanford; this was his second stop at Stanford, as he was previously a volunteer assistant under the legendary Richard Quick from 1994 to 1998.
In between, he had a long, successful tenure in Europe, where he became one of the top coaches in Switzerland – winning the country’s 2007 Coach of the Year Award and a total of 8 National club championships.
Morgan worked with some of the top swimmers in Switzerland, most notably Flori Lang and Jonathan Massacand who combine hold a total of 14 individual or relay National Records. He also took three swimmers to the 2008 Olympics – Massacand, Barbados’ Andrei Cross, and Montenegro’s Marina Kuc. His swimmers earned a total of 8 World Championships and 30 European Championship qualifications.
Morgan was himself a former conference champion at UC-Davis in the 100 fly.
Harvard has a very good class coming in, highlighted by 53.7 backstroker Kendall Crawford out of South Carolina.
Chris is immensely more qualified than many of his predecessors. Looks like Harvard is trying to build up again and bring in some true experience and talent. Coaches Tim and Steph definitely have the best for the team in mind.
I heard things at Stanford were rocky.
Hopefully for Chris’ sake, things go better at Harvard. He could really thrive there.
AND
Hopefully the Cardinal Women will get a new assistant who is better suited for the job. Coaching at a place like Stanford can’t be easy.
Rocky from what point of view and with whom? Head coach, swimmers, or administration? I thought Chris was the assistant coach with the late Richard Quick when Lee was swimming for Stanford. They should know each other well. It was a surprise to see the departure after only one year.
I think Chris was just a volunteer assistant under Richard.
Why did Chris leave Stanford only after one year and who is Stanford looking at?
exactly what i was thinking?
Didn’t Chris Morgan get fired from Stanford?
Nope.
Chris is an AMAZING hire and the Harvard Women are a team on the rise! GoCrimson!
Not fired. It was a mutual decision from what I’ve heard. Chris was doing more administrative tasks at Stanford and wanted to coach somewhere with a more day-to-day coaching role.
Sure bodes well for the future of Harvard swimming. If Chris has half the energy and enthusiasm as Matt, he will keep the momentum moving forward. Then add his background and expertise, some great talent to work with, and a head coach who knows what she’s doing, and this will be one exciting program to watch. Harvard sports are moving up!
Big hire for Harvard! The team has great leadership and chemistry and Chris should help them maintain a high level of success. Best of luck to Matt on his new venture.
Congrats, Chris! Well deserved!
Matt Davidson carried this team. Plus, he is pretty easy on the eyes. He is going to excel in whatever his next venture is. If Chris is half the coach Matt is, the girls are in good hands.