Hurst Brings Collegiate Coaching Experience to Mercersburg Swimming

courtesy of Mercersburg Academy

Mercersburg is pleased to introduce Matt Hurst as the new head swimming coach.

Hurst, who coached swimming at Penn State University and Southern Connecticut State University–his alma mater, is excited to work with his longtime acquaintance and former coach, Glenn Neufeld, during a transition year.

“When he decided he was moving on, he gave me a call and let me know that the job would be opening,” said Hurst, who grew up in Haverford, PA, and was familiar with Mercersburg. “With the history of the program, strength of the academics, support of the administration and the alums, and obviously, the facility, the sky’s the limit.”

Hurst swam in college, has 16 years of NCAA-level coaching experience, and has coached swimmers who qualified for the Olympics. Two athletes he coached are competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics–Shane Ryan will represent Ireland, and Gabe Castaño will swim for Mexico.

Hurst, who comes to the position from Chelsea Piers Aquatics Club in Stamford, CT, will work closely during the 2024-25 school year with Neufeld, who has been at Mercersburg since 2014.

“First and foremost, he’s a really good person and educator who happens to be a swim coach, and, more than anything else, that’s what you need at a place like Mercersburg,” said Neufeld, noting that Hurst will be working in the Office of College Counseling. “With his background in college coaching, it’s really a natural fit, because if you’ve done recruiting in the college environment, you’ve got a sense of how kids look for schools.”

Neufeld was Hurst’s coach for two years at Upper Main Line YMCA in Berwyn, PA. During the second year, Hurst was a postgraduate and helped Neufeld with the swimming program.

“I’ve known him for about 25 years,” said Hurst, 41. “The idea of sharing a deck with him again … that’s one of those fairytale, storybook endings, especially if we end up winning Easterns, which is obviously the goal every year. This year, I think it’s a little extra sweet because we’ve got a good team coming in and the opportunity to do it. That’s exciting from a professional level, a performance level, but it’s also really exciting and heartwarming from a personal level, too.”

As Hurst contemplates his new role, his goal is to build a program where swimmers are autonomous in the pool.

“My most important role as a coach is to make sure they don’t need me,” said Hurst. “I’m supposed to give them the tools and the space to think and learn and fail and create and understand. But at the end of the day, if they don’t need me, I’ve done my job.”

He doesn’t plan to make any major changes but to follow the course that has been set by the coaches who came before him.

“I think I bring an energy and a levity to the pool. Swimming is something we do. It’s not who we are,” said Hurst. “It’s something that complements our daily lives and our goals and our routines, and at times it can be a reprieve from whatever else is going on. That doesn’t mean that life outside the pool is chaotic or troubling, but it can be challenging at times, and the pool can be a place to come and be with friends and challenge ourselves in a different way. I know that’s been done before I got there, but that’s something I look to continue as we again focus on the development of young men and women in the pursuit of their goals.”

Hurst, his wife, Theresa, and their children, Annabelle, 9, and Michael, 7, will relocate to Mercersburg in August.