Jon Sakovich, Kayla Kumbier Added to Complete LSU Swimming Staff

New LSU head coach Rick Bishop has made quick work in refilling the staff as he takes over his first collegiate head coaching gig this fall.

Jon Sakovich will join the program as an associate head coach, while Kayla Kumbier will join the team as an assistant.

They’ll line up alongside Steve Mellor, who returns as an associate head coach from the previous regime. Lyle Robelot has also been retained from the prior staff as an assistant.

Sakovich has spent the last 2 years as an assistant coach with the Lakeside Aquatic Club in Flower Mound, Texas. Prior to that, he spent almost 19 years with the famed Bolles School program in Florida. From 2015 through 2019 he was the program’s head coach and aquatics director, and for 14 years before that he was an assistant to various coaches, including names like Sergio Lopez and Jeff Poppell, who are now both head coaches of NCAA “Power 5” teams.

During his time at Bolles, he also worked briefly under Bishop, who spent 1 season as the head coach there from 2006-2007.

Prior stops for Sakovich include as the head age group coach at the Clearwater Aquatics Team from 1996-2000 and a short stop as an assistant age group coach with the Florida Aquatics Swim Team.

In total, Sakovich has coached 10 US Olympic Trials qualifier and was the 2016-2017 NFHS National Swimming Coach of the Year.

A graduate of the University of Florida, Sakovich represented Guam at the 1988 Summer Olympics. There he set Guam Records in the 400 free, 1500 free, and 400 IM. His record times in the 400 free (4:06.89) and 1500 free (16:26.77) still stand.

He later represented the United States internationally, including at the 1995 Pan American Games. There, he won bronze in the 400 free.

While he was a 7-time CSCAA All-American at Florida from 1989 to 1992, this will be Sakovich’s first collegiate coaching job.

“I am honored and excited to be part of the LSU Swimming and Diving program and the LSU Athletics family,” Sakovich said. “Working with the talented student-athletes and alongside the amazing coaching staff is an opportunity I could not pass up.”

Kumbier, who is the other new addition to the staff, has less total coaching experience than Sakovich does, but most of hers has been at the collegiate level.

She comes from the University of San Diego, where she served as an assistant coach. Prior to her time at USD, she spent two years at UCSD as the lead coach for the middle-distance group, recruiting coordinator and alumni and parent liaison.

She also has stops with David Marsh’s Team Elite Stingrays in San Diego, as a volunteer assistant at Minnesota State University – Mankato, and Division III Allegheny College in Pennsylvania.

Kumbier swam at the University of Northern Iowa (then as Kayla McCormick). There, she finished 11th at the Missouri Valley Championships in the 200 fly as both a freshman and a junior, and also finished 11th in the 100 fly as a freshman.

With Mellor and Roblot returning, plus the two new additions to the LSU staff, that means three-year assistant coach Caroline Maxvill won’t return to the team next season. Bishop was announced as the new head coach in June after the resignation of long-time LSU head coach and assistant coach Dave Geyer.

At the 2021 SEC Championships, LSU finished 10th out of 12 women’s teams, and 9th out of 10 men’s teams. The highest the men’s and women’s teams finished at SEC over the past 11 years was 5th. The Tigers men took 5th in consecutive seasons (2011 & 2012), while the women’s team took 5th in 2011, 2012, and 2015.

So far, it appears as though the team’s top swimmer, 2020 SEC Champion and Tokyo Olympian Brooks Curry, will return next season. Curry trained primarily under Mellor.