The University of Pittsburgh has announced the hiring of Roman Willets to its staff as an associate head coach. Willets’ previous role was as an assistant coach at the University of Alabama, where he served for the last three seasons as an assistant coach.
“I am incredibly excited to announce the hiring of Roman Willets as an Associate Head Coach for our program,” said Kreitler. “Roman is a phenomenal coach who is great at building meaningful relationships with student-athletes and has a mentorship-based coaching philosophy that falls perfectly in line with the rest of our staff. As we look to continue the success of the 2022-2023 season and build one of the premier swimming and diving programs in the country, Roman will make an immediate impact on our team culture, our performance in the pool and in our recruiting. We are very excited to welcome Roman and his wife Liz (Pelton)to Pittsburgh!”
Willets is married to former American Record holder and three-time World Champion Liz Pelton.
Pitt head coach Chase Kreitler and Willets have a shared history: before Willets began at Alabama, he was a volunteer assistant with the Cal men in the 2020-2021 season when Kreitler was Cal’s full-time assistant. That was the year coming off COVID when the Cal men finished 2nd at the NCAA Championships.
Prior to that, Willets worked primarily in club swimming. That includes a year with the North Baltimore Aquatic Club’s high performance group in the last season before Bob Bowman and his most famous swimmer Michael Phelps moved to Arizona.
Club Coaching Timeline:
- 2018-2021: Senior and Age Group Assistant Coach, Ladera Oaks Swim & Tennis Club
- 2016-2018: Director, The Bay Club Tidal Waves
- 2015-2016: Head Age Group Coach, The Bay Club Tidal Waves
- 2014-2015: High Performance Assistant Coach, NBAC
- 2013-2013: Age Group Coach, San Clemente Aquatics
Pitt spent last season short an assistant coach of what was then the maximum allowed, though programs are now allowed to add two more paid positions to their staff. That was the first year under new head coach Chase Kreitler.
At present, this sends Pitt into August with a staff of 6 coaches:
- Chase Kreitler, head coach
- Katie Kasprzak, head diving coach
- Samantha Pitter, associate head coach
- Roman Willets, associate head coach
- Kevin Arakaki, assistant coach
- Kelsey Reott, assistant coach
Pitt showed immediate improvements in its first year under Kreitler. The men finished 7th at the ACC Championships, which was a two-spot improvement over the year prior and scored their first NCAA All-America relay honor since 2002. The women were 11th out of 12 teams for the third-straight season, but junior Sophie Yendell finished just .04 seconds away from scoring points at the NCAA Championships in the 50 free.
Alabama’s Echo
This means another vacancy on the Alabama staff from last season, where their first year head coach Margo Geer mostly kept the staff she inherited from her prior coach Coley Stickels when he resigned.
The only holdover from Geer’s swimming staff last season then is associate head coach Reed Fujan. Other departures include Ozzie Quevedo, who became the head coach at SMU; and James Barber, who took a job off-deck with American College Connection recruiting.
Geer has brought in former Northwestern associate head coach Andrew Hodgson and Wisconsin volunteer Michael White to back-fill those positions. That leaves Alabama’s staff for next year as:
- Margo Geer, head coach
- Beau Bunn, head diving coach
- Reed Fujan, associate head coach
- Andrew Hodgson, associate head coach
- Michael White, assistant coach
Alabama also still lists Rudy Aguilar and Rohan Sood as volunteer assistant coaches, but Aguilar took a position at The Baylor School.
The NCAA has eliminated the role of volunteer assistant next season. Sood could fill one of the remaining positions that Alabama has to offer – Geer can add up to three more full coaches (paid or unpaid) to her staff. She would need to hire one more coach to bring the program up to the baseline four assistants that most Power 5 co-ed programs had prior to this season.
Gavrilo Blijden is also listed as a graduate assistant, but he was announced last month as the new head diving coach at UNCW.
Geer received a three year contract extension in the off-season that has her scheduled to lead the program through the 2025-2026 season.
The Alabama women finished 14th at NCAAs last year after finishing 4th a year prior. That is in spite of starting the 2023-2024 season with all of their NCAA scoring points from the prior year coming back (though two big pieces, Cora Dupre and Morgan Scott, didn’t finish out the season).
The Alabama men finished 19th at the NCAA Championships in 2023, five spots lower than their 14th-place finish in 2022. That was the men’s team’s lowest finish since 2013.
Good luck Roman!
Congrats Roman! Great coach and a great person.
At least he’s good to leave behind his house key since he’s moving this time
This whole story is incredible, if Margo adds another coach with at least as much college experience as Hodgson things could start looking up. Very interested to see which way she goes with the next hire.
Incredibly bad or good? People have been jumping ship left and right since Coley left.
Honestly just incredible, I enjoy watching things burn so do with that information what you will