Penn State has added Mike Smiechowski to its staff for the upcoming 2026-2027 season, the school announced on Friday. Smiechowski will join the program as an associate coach. The university parted ways with previous associate head coach Sean Schimmel back in April.
Smiechowski joins the program after most recently serving as head coach at St. Bonaventure in New York. He had been with the Bonnies since 2022. During that time, the women were the only Atlantic 10 program to improve their team score four years in a row at the A-10 Championships. The St. Bonaventure men finished 2nd at the 2025 A-10 Championships, its highest finish since 2016. During those four seasons, the Bonnies set 30 program records.
Prior to his time at St. Bonaventure, Smiechowski was the head coach at Division III Alfred State College from 2019-2022. He earned 2022 Men’s Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) Coach of the Year and 2022 AMCC and Empire 8 Combined Coach of the Year honors. He also won the 2020 Men’s and Women’s AMCC Coach of the Year. Alfred State cut its program at the conclusion of the 2025-2026 season.
Before serving as head coach at Alfred State College and St. Bonaventure, he had two Division I assistant coaching stints. He spent the 2013-2014 season with Villanova before spending the 2014-2015 season at Towson.
Smiechowski spent his collegiate career at UNCW and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in criminology in 2012. He helped the UNCW men to four CAA Championships. He went on to earn his masters of education in higher education from Iowa State in 2013.
The Penn State women were 13th out of 14 teams at the 2026 Women’s Big Ten Championships while the men’s program was 9th out of nine teams. The women moved down one spot from 2025 while the men were also 9th out of nine teams back in 2025.
Mike did a wonderful job at Bonaventure—he worked tirelessly to strengthen the team and its culture. He revitalized the program and built athletes who would succeed in life after swimming. Sad to see him go but excited for him to thrive at Penn State.
Enjoy your 8-24 months before it is your fault
Well there’s a big difference in type of athlete from SBU to Penn State, just say you didn’t care and move on. If you bothered to get to know Coach Mike maybe you would know he did everything he could for all of his athletes and never gave up on them. If he truly felt the way you think, there probably would have been a lot more cuts/quits/transfers.
I don’t think he was talking about Coach Mike being the problem but a history of the HC at Penn State blaming others (specifically her staff) for problems that she created.
There’s a reason none of his former swimmers (especially female swimmers) are sad to see him leave and its definitely not because they “didn’t care”. PSU will see in a couple of years.
Former female swimmer of his here and actually very sad he is leaving Bonas. He pushed both the men‘s and women‘s team and made us better swimmers individually and as a team.
HBC building something big in State College! Excited for the future! This team is really built to accomplish great things going forward! Many all star athletes and coaches on this roster! Don’t be surprised when they challenge the “Big 3” (soft 3) in IU, UM, OSU in a few seasons! Watch out world, here come the Nittany Lions!
Uh huh….
On the Men’s side…they only need +118 points and the Nittany Lions will surpass the Mighty Gophers!
It’s a great day to be a Bonnie!
Coach Mike was an instrumental part of my daughter’s success at St. Bonaventure. He has a huge heart and genuinely cared about his athletes, both in and out of the pool. His support, encouragement, and dedication made a lasting impact, and we’re incredibly grateful for everything he did for her.
Why the negative votes???
Had the opportunity to coach against Mike for a number of years. He’s a talented recruiter, great coach, and even better person. Very excited to see how quickly he can help to rebuild the program in Happy Valley
Rebuild????
Very excited to see what Mike can do in a power 4 conference with some money. This is probably the best possible hire Hollie could have made, if anyone can help revive that program it’s Mike.