In a somewhat unusual move, Notre Dame announced yesterday that they have added Josh Arndt to the coaching staff. Arndt was serving as Virginia’s head diving coach as recently as this past Friday (October 18), when the Cavaliers hosted Florida for a dual meet. Notre Dame head coach Chris Lindauer then announced the hiring of Arndt as the Fighting Irish’s new head diving coach on Monday (October 21).
Arndt had been at Virginia since August 2022, helping the Cavaliers to NCAA titles in 2023 and 2024. During his time in Charlottesville, Arndt did a lot of work to revitalize the Virginia diving program. The highlight of his stint there came this past season, when Elizabeth Kaye took 8th in 3-meter diving at NCAAs, helping the Cavaliers defend their NCAA title. Kaye was the first Virginia diver to earn All-America honors.
Speaking on the addition of Arndt to the Notre Dame staff, Lindauer said in part “he [Lindauer] brings a wealth of experience in diving at the highest level. His commitment to the student-athlete experience was evident throughout the hiring process, and we are excited for him to bring a new perspective to our staff and team!”
Prior to his time at Virginia, Arndt spent 3 seasons as the diving coach at UConn. He was named the Big East Diving Coach of the Year in 2 of his 3 seasons with the Huskies. Arndt began his coaching career at UMass, where he spent 2 seasons, earned Atlantic 10 Diving Coach of the Year honors both years, and sent divers to NCAAs both years.
While a reason for Arndt’s departure from Virginia and move to Notre hasn’t yet been given, it does note in Notre Dame’s press release that Arndt grew up in the South Bend area. Arndt grew up in La Porte, Indiana, a small town less than 30 miles west of South Bend. In his statement, Arndt said “growing up in the area, I have always held the university in high regard,” which could possibly indicate he wanted to move closer to home.
Arndt should be able to jump right into his position at Notre Dame as soon as he’s in town. While Notre Dame’s men’s swim team is serving a suspension due to gambling malpractice, their 2 men’s divers, Daniel Knapp and Benedict Nguyen, are still active. The Fighting Irish also have 4 women’s divers on the roster.
Mark Bradshaw had been serving as the Notre Dame head diving coach for the past 3 seasons, however, he accepted a position at nearby Purdue over the summer.
As for Virginia, the Cavaliers don’t currently have a diving coach listed on their roster. Their next meet is on November 1, against North Carolina.
Also good reset and new years before need to produce.
Yikes, rough timing on that one
Josh, Congratulations! I am sure that you will do a great job.
Hmm, it’s almost as if UVA pays its coaches dogsh!t
Of course it’s going to be easy to snag one of their coaches if someone wants them
that wasn’t the case here. the pay there for a diving is coach is solid. if it was about pay, he wouldn’t have started the year.
^^ Josh grew up diving at that pool, makes sense he’d want to make the move home.
He made 52k base salary last year. That’s not great for a coach of a first team all American, let alone one on a national title team.
I was curious so I looked around at what I thought were comparable schools.
UNC coach made $107k, but he coached the best diver in the NCAA.
Rutgers coach made $48k
Utah coach made $86k
Georgia coach made $90k
So, it seems to be on the low end, but not the lowest – though the one on the list above lower is the coach of a women’s-only program.
I don’t know what ND pays, because it’s not public record. I would guess that it wasn’t any lower than UVa, and with the hook of coming back home, it was an opportunity that was hard to pass up.
*This is based on public websites not FOIA requests, so… Read more »
I read the * in a TV style disclaimer voice lol
Rutgers coach was $87,550 last season with a new contract starting at $110,000 this year. ACC average last year was just shy of $81k (Data on 8 of 12 programs) and SEC average was $91k (10 of 11).
We released a pretty comprehensive report this summer on NCAA Diving Coaches. You can download it for free at http://www.springboardindiana.com/reports
Thanks. Guess the public data was wrong. Good resource. Is this based on base salary, or some kind of comprehensive compensation analysis?
What do you guys have for the Josh Arndt? Do you have the info for the former ND diving coach?
Braden, email me and we can talk more.
incorrect. it was higher than that. not my place to give the actual number, but it was quite a bit higher than that.