UCLA’s Cyndi Gallagher is retiring following her 31st season as head coach, multiple sources have told SwimSwam.
Gallagher graduated from UCLA in 1983 and was named head coach in 1988, and coached Bruins to an initial string of top three Pac-12 finishes. Her team won Pac-10 titles in 2001 and 2003, but has not finished higher than fourth since 2006.
Gallagher has placed swimmers on multiple Olympic teams and was named an assistant coach on the 1996 staff, as well as for the 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2006 World University Games. She was also an assistant for the 1995 U.S. National Junior Team, the 1994 U.S. National Distance Camp, and for the Japan International Grand Prix and the 1993 US Olympic Festival. Her biggest appointment came in 2007, when she was named USA Swimming’s head coach for the World University Games. She was more recently named to the 2014-2015 U.S. National Team coaching staff.
Gallagher’s women’s team tenure saw the UCLA men’s team cut in 1994, a decision about which she was vocal.
“When we had a men’s team, we were always in the top 10,” Gallagher told the Daily Bruin in 2004. “When we talk to recruits, the issue is brought up of why we don’t have a men’s program… Swimming is a community sport. You swim together growing up and there’s a visibility factor whether you train together or not.”
The UCLA women have not cracked the top-10 at NCAAs since the 2003-2004 season. Gallagher saw the unveiling of UCLA’s $14 million Spieker Aquatics Center in 2009, which many thought would draw more national talent to the school, but the Bruins have not capitalized on the situation.
The team’s highest national finish under Gallagher came in her second and third seasons, when the team was fifth, and its highest finish in the past decade is 17th in 2013 and 2016, and 2019. Last season, the team scored 75 points in total at NCAAs, with 20 coming from Diver of the Meet Maria Polyakova, who notched first- and second-place finishes on the 3-meter and 1-meter boards, respectively.
Gallagher was one of three female head coaches of Division I top-25 schools nationwide, the others being Cal’s Teri McKeever and Texas’ Carol Capitani.
Thoughts about potential new coaches?
Cheers to a great coach! I think Naya is also a solid choice for her replacement.
Hope UCLA will pay a new Head Coach well enough to live there…..maybe not as expensive but not cheap either.
Public records indicate the Head Coaching job at UCLA has salary north of $160,000 annually.
A great job done and a fantastic coach. Learned so much from you. All the best to you Cyndi!
Not sure what all the congrats are for, the women’s program should be way more competitive. It’s more like a good riddance.
And bring back the men’s program for Christ’s sake!
Zero points from swimming at this years NCAAs. Either the program didn’t recruit well or it failed to develop its swimmers. I don’t know which it is.
The congrats are for a woman who spearheaded a program for over 3 decades, who accepted the job in the 1980s amid pressure to NOT hire a woman or someone lacking considerable experience, who has turnouts out numerous Conference champions, NCAA swimmers and Olympians , has coached numerous top 3 finishes in the gauntlet that is the Pac-12 and has done so on a shoestring budget with limited resources much of which including scholarships she has had to self fund meaning raise the money herself. She has done all of this with an unparalleled system of morals and values, with a Rolodex of alum that wouldn’t have had it any other way. To be clear, the athletic programs at many… Read more »
Steph Williams has to be a top candidate.
How about Allison Reed from Kentucky, Jordon Wolfrum from OSU, Blaire Bachman from UVA as possible replacements?
Job is already posted on NCAA website with a start date of June 15th…looks like they’ll move quick.
Faster than UNC for sure