The University of New Mexico has hired former UNLV assistant Kunio Komo as the new head coach of their women’s team, replacing outgoing coach Tracy Ljone at the helm of the Lobos.
Kono has an impressive list of teams on his resume, including his most recent stop in Las Vegas, where he was a part of the Rebels’ run at 7-straight Mountain West Conference Championships, and run to become one of the top mid-major programs in the country.
Prior to that, he has spent time in different capacities at Arizona, Alabama, and with the Trojan Swim Club wing of USC.While at Arizona and Alabama, he wrapped up his undergraduate and Masters’ degrees, and is now ready to make the leap into the world of head-coaching at the college level.
“My son, he’s 2 years old and he is already wearing a Lobo hat; he looks good in it,” Kono said. The school colors are “not a big change. I loved red and gray; now I love cherry and silver. It’s perfect.”
New Mexico is a Mountain West Conference rival of the women’s program at Kono’s former school. The Lobos finished 6th in the Mountain West last season, and have a few good pieces to work with in the form of sophomore-to-be Samantha Moss, who was a 2:03.84 200 butterflier last season, and junior Jorgi Hobson, who was a 54.75 last season in the 100 fly.
While Kono was there, the Rebels turned out some of the top butterfliers in the country like Cody Roberts and Katelyn Herrington.
We’re told that Kono will be the first Japanese native to ever coach a team at the Division 1 level, though that would be difficult to confirm.
This is a GREAT hire. UNM has definetely had its struggles. They have a fantastic Assistant Coach in Krystal Forbes whose husband is the Head Coach at Lobo Aquatic Club that consistently produces powerhouse senior swimmers for the area. The entire area in club swimming is on the rise, however, the UNM program continued to be stagnant in February after looking great in the fall.
This will be good for New Mexico and UNM is not short on talent in an area where a lot of kids look for lottery opportunities for college. It has been a long time coming and we are pleased.
p.s. The diving program is excellent at UNM. A rise in the swimming will help… Read more »
CC,
Think he was before Kunio’s arrival – 1996,200,2004 games… MAybe worked with him a bit for 2004?
Kunio was in charge of the sprint group during my twilight years. Every once in a while he would let me come over and whoop up on them =)
Im glad he got the head coach job he did a great job at UNLV. I’ll be on the look out for the up and coming Lobos.
It’s a good hire UNM is def coming out on top, too bad for him its a women’s only team. He’s really excelled with mens teams. Too bad other schools passed him up. At UNLV he punched out a few Olympians – Joe Bartoch (2xCAN), Richard Hortness (2xCAN), Jonas Anderson(’08SWE), Zsu Jacobos (’12HUN).
What about Andrew Livingston (200 fly Puerto Rico)?
Great hire! Congrats to him and his entire family. He becomes the first Japanese native to become D-1 swim/dive coach in the US.