Neil Harper has resigned as the head coach at the University of Nevada after one season in charge of the Wolf Pack women’s-only team to take over the women’s-only team at Arkansas.
Harper was ousted as the head coach at Florida State in 2013, and spent the next two years coaching at the club level for the Aitken-Augusta Swim League. Last fall, he jumped back in to college coaching to take over at Nevada shortly after their coach Abby Steketee left to take over the women’s program at Northwestern.
In his lone season in the desert, Harper’s Nevada team finished 20th at NCAAs, and while all of those points were scored in diving (including double springboard gold from Sharae Zhang, the national diver of the year), Nevada was one of a handful of mid-major teams that sent a relay to the women’s NCAA Championships. The 20th-place finish was the highest finish from a team outside of the ‘power 5’ conferences at last year’s NCAA Championship meet. Nevada also finished 7-0 in dual meets and won the team’s first-ever Mountain West Conference Championship.
“I had an incredible year at Nevada, from the team to the diving coach and everyone,” Harper said. “The athletes from all around the world, they bought in from day one, and it was just fun and we did really well.”
Harper takes over an Arkansas program that saw its coach Sean Schimmel resign at the conclusion of the last season. Arkansas finished 9th at last year’s SEC Championships, one spot better than their 10th place finish the year prior, but well behind their back-to-back 6th-place finishes in 2013 and 2014.
Harper was the head coach at Florida State from 1999-2013, where he coached 168 students to All-America honors. Before that, he spent two years as the head coach of the women’s team at Ohio State. As an athlete at LSU, Harper was a 7-time All-American, and competed at the 1984 and 1988 Summer Olympics representing his native Great Britain.
“Throughout his career, Neil has distinguished himself, first as a student-athlete in the Southeastern Conference and then as a head coach at several prominent Division I institutions,” Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Jeff Long said. “His wide range of experience competing and coaching at the highest levels of the sport has given him invaluable insight into what it takes to be successful both in the SEC and NCAA. Neil has proven not only to be one of the best coaches in the nation, he has helped guide student-athletes to success and achievement in the classroom. We are pleased to welcome Neil, his wife Paige and their two daughters Katherine and Kelly to the Razorback Family.”
“This is an amazing opportunity for me and my family,” Harper said. The University of Arkansas provides a great venue for the best student-athletes in the country to come challenge themselves both athletically and academically. The facilities and services afforded to Razorback student-athletes are second to none, and I am excited and honored to be part of the Razorback Tradition and Family.”
Welcome to the SEC!
GREAT COACH: Good luck in the SEC.