Megan Oesting will become the new head coach at Bend Swim Club after parting ways with SwimMAC Carolina earlier in the summer. The club, located in Bend, Oregon, is a nonprofit, board-governed organization.
Oesting takes over for Christopher Pfaffenroth, who had been in charge of the club since 2019.
“I’m so thankful for the opportunity to return home to the Northwest. I’m loving reconnecting with long time friends and coaches, every swim meet will feel like a reunion,” Oesting told SwimSwam in a statement. “Bend Swim Club has a legacy of success and “David”-ing Goliaths for 35 years, so it’s an honor to take the baton and run with it. I want to thank the community for welcoming me and my family, I already feel valued and a part of the family.”
After less than a year of coaching at SwimMAC Carolina, Oesting left due to differences in “management and cultural styles.” Oesting’s tenure marked the first time a woman became the head of a super-club in USA Swimming, and it marked a new approach for the team in coaching. She was involved with coaching every age group, rather than just the senior swimmers.
Prior to her role at SwimMAC Carolina, Oesting founded the Eastern Iowa Swimming Federation in 2016. Her swimmers there broke national age group records and over 40 Iowa state records. The American Swimming Coaches’ Association (ASCA) named her the 2019 Fitter and Faster Age Group Coach of the Year.
Oesting also serves on the ASCA Board of Directors, with her term set to expire in 2023.
Her own swimming background goes back much further: She is a former UCLA All-American and former U.S. National Team member. She qualified for the 1991 Pan American Games, where she won gold in the 400 freestyle relay and silver in the 100 freestyle, and represented Team USA in both Paris and East Berlin during the FINA World Cup Series.
“We had a lot to consider through this quick but inspiring national search,” the Bend Swim Club Board of Directors said in an email to the team. “With over 20 exceptionally qualified applicants from all over the world, we had the opportunity to focus on finding the coach that we believe can lead this club through its next 20 years of excellence!”
The club has around 175 members, and has been in existence since 1963. It is one of only two USA Swimming recognized clubs in Bend, a town of almost 100,000, along with High Desert Aquatics.
Just got fired from the Bend Swim Club. Took her 2 years to destroy a program that had years of success under coaches Mark Bernett and Shane Bennett.
How’s that hire working out for year on? LOL, rumors are flying again about her lying, incompetence, and favoritism to her kid.
Megan took SwimMac from 1000 swimmers to 600 in a matter of 6 months….lets see what she can do for you!
I swam with the Bend Swim Club from 1997 (when the population was only 33K) all they way until I left for college in 2009. Replacing the former head coach who trained countless Junior, National and Trials qualifiers is always a tough task but it sounds like BSC found an awesome coach. Excited to see how this team will continue to grow.
This is a positive and healthy attitude to club coaching changes that we rarely see. Cheers to you.
Welcome back to the PNW a megan, great hire!
In six months you will have a very different perspective.
I actually won’t, I’ve known Megan for over 10 years, know that we have many similar thoughts about coaching, and have respect for her as a coach/person.
This is really a bad look. As that one kid movie says… Let it go.
Leveraging the pandemic and ASCA to get to SwimMAC and SwimMAC to get to Oregon. The poor athletes in Iowa…
Have you never pursued a professional growth opportunity? It didn’t work out in Charlotte, so move on. Megan is a dynamic, motivated person and coach. She is from the Northwest. I’m excited to have her back in the Pacific Northwest, and Bend is lucky to have her.
Don’t knock the hustle
Where are her priorities? Moving her family around the country this way? Why not just stay in Iowa if the club is so successful?
You ever been to Iowa in the winter?
Yeah, what are these women thinking moving their families around the country? Only men are allowed to do that. 🙄
Ha. Truth. I’m all for saying the same thing about both men and women coaches.
Megan is an excellent coach who takes time getting to know ALL her swimmers, she spends time with each group, time to start looking at things as “Coach” rather than “Man or Woman.”
Didn’t know the name of a single swimmer at SwimMAC and admitted it to the kids when she ran off their beloved coach. Not rumor, fact.
When you say things like “didn’t know the name of a single swimmer at SwimMAC,” and emphasize that it’s a “fact,” it really undercuts the veracity of everything else you say.
I don’t know how many swimmers’ names she knew at SwimMAC, but to declare so confidently that it’s a “fact” that she didn’t know “the name of a single swimmer,” which can’t possibly be true, really highlights that you intend on using hyperbole to make your point, and thereby undercuts trust in everything you say.
Well, you are wrong and you weren’t there, but dozens of swimmers were and repeated the story word for word. Reporting puff pieces is easier than doing the real job of reporting.
Well, at the very least, she probably knew her son’s name, and he was a member of the team…
Apparently just called him “son.”
😂
Trying to figure out what business it is of anyone what she does with her career and family, unless you’re a member of her family.
Congrats Bend. You could not have found a better person/coach.