Penn State University has announced the hiring of Dan Flack as a new assistant swimming & diving coach. Flack is best known as the former head coach of the club and high school programs at the Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Flack left the Baylor Swim Club in summer 2022. A source close to the situation that Flack was fired from his job while on “medical leave” for four weeks.
The move is a homecoming of sorts for Flack, who is a native of Pennsylvania.
Flack was the head coach at the Baylor School from 2005-2022, where his teams won 10 girls’ high school state championships and 12 boys’ high school state championships. That includes a sweep of the boys’ and girls’ titles in his last three years with the program – 2020, 2021, and 2022.
Individually, Flack trained 15 different Olympic Trials Qualifiers and one athlete, Dustin Tynes, who went on to compete in the 2016 Olympic Games for The Bahamas. Over 120 Baylor swimmers earned All-American honors, and over 50 went on to compete for colleges, most on either athletic or academic scholarships. Members of his teams set five national high school records, for both individual competition and relays, and his squads rewrote the Southeastern Swimming record books with more than 50 new marks.
That role is more like a collegiate job than at most high school programs, as Baylor School had double-digit boarding students as part of its swimming program for most of his time there.
Flack also has some prior NCAA coaching experience. He was an assistant at Georgia when the team won the 1999 women’s NCAA Championship, working with distance swimmers, and at his alma mater North Carolina.
The Penn State men finished 33rd at last year’s NCAA Championships with 4 points scored by sophomore Victor Baganha’s 13th-place finish in the 100 fly (45.04). He was their only NCAA qualifier last year. The women scored no points at NCAAs and were represented only by senior diver Daphne Wils at the meet.
The Penn State men finished last out of 8 teams at the 2023 Big Ten Championships. Their 577 points left them 41 points back of Northwestern for 7th. That was a second-straight last place finish from Penn State’s men, who haven’t been better than 7th at Big Tens since the 2014 season (5th place).
The Penn State women finished 8th out of 12 teams, 17.5 points behind Rutgers. The Penn State women last finished in the top half of the conference in 2014, when they were 3rd. That was current head coach Tim Murphy‘s first season with the Nittany Lions.
Flack joins a Penn State coaching staff that includes head diving coach Jeff DiNicola, associate head coaches Dan Carrington and Erin Matyus, and assistant coach Mia Nonnenberg. Flack fills the role previously held by Austin Padillo, who announced that he was leaving the staff last week.
After putting a lot of thought into posting, here is a general statement. In the best interest of young elite (and even non elite student athletes) we as adults have to stop enabling unacceptable behavior regardless of coaching accolade on a resume.
Great hire for the Penn State Nittany Lions! This team will improve quickly with his assistance. Good luck!
setting the table to replace Murphy in a couple of years?
Whether it’s a current assistant or an outside hire taking over, Penn State NEEDS to get rid of Murphy. The article says it best, one of the wealthiest athletic departments in the country in one of the best swimming states in the country has not had its flagship school finish in the top half of the conference for men or women since Murph got there. Always tons of promise with that program, but damn could some of those kids be good with a real coach at the helm.
He should take the team over
CONGRATULATIONS DAN!!! Penn State picked up a FANTASTIC coach!
Now…if we could only do something about his choice of NFL team…Eagles…PAH – LEEZE!!!! 🙂
Austin Pillado Is now part of the staff at ASU not sure if Dan is replacing him or not but Austin is no longer there
Surprising that Penn State is the team trading up in this scenario.