Friday saw another NCAA coach leaving their team a week out of the start of conference championship season when Savannah Erickson left the program at Maryville University in St. Louis. Student-athletes were reportedly informed of the move on Thursday, and on Friday her name and bio were removed from the team roster.
Erickson was in her first season as the team’s head coach and her first season of collegiate coaching. She had spent the last six years in club coaching, including as the head coach for the Crocs Swim Team and as a coach for the Frontenac site of the Life Time Swim – Missouri site, where she is still listed.
Mary Jane Woehler, who is also a coach at Life Time – Missouri, is still listed as the team’s assistant coach.
Maryville currently lists 7 women and 11 men on its roster.
Both teams compete in NCAA Division II in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, where the conference championship meet kicks off on Tuesday, February 11th in Elkhart, Indiana. Both teams finished last at the 2024 conference meet, with the men placing 10th out of 10 teams and the women placing 11th out of 11 teams.
The women’s team has a 3-9 record this season, with all three wins coming against colleges outside of the NCAA system. The men’s team has the same record.
Erickson, a native of Kansas City, swam for Division II William Jewell College for a few meets in the fall 2020 semester before getting a degree in psychology from the University of South Florida. Outside of coaching, she works full-time as a research technician at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Neither Erickson nor Maryville University has responded to SwimSwam’s request for comment.
Rumor on deck is the program is being cut as soon as the meet is over.
Any confirmation yet?
It is now confirmed.
Bring back Lori Payne
You must be kidding. Her coaching lacked in every area possible. My guess is that you have not swam under her leadership. I got to see her collapse happen and still feel bad for the athletes that had to deal with that mess.
I know this is D2, but the whole college coaching profession needs to raise their game now that roster sizes are being cut. That lack of knowledge, qualifications and professionalism is alarming! We shouldn’t be surprised when schools drop their program. The athletes deserve better…
Then pay them a fair wage. At the midmajor level and down pay isn’t very good. When a coach can make a better life coaching club or leaving the profession entirely its hard to blame them.
Coaches deserve to be paid better
GLVC’s are at Elkhart, not Indy:
https://glvcsports.com/tournaments/?id=177
Thanks
So if I understand this right, they hired someone to be a head coach who had literally just finished their undergrad and also had another full-time job at the same time?
Correct
Smart plan, right?
Desperation hire
Probably pays about $20K. If that.
I think in the $40,000 range