Pitt Hires Josh Larcom as Head Diving Coach as Part of New Look Swimming & Diving Staff

The third shoe has dropped in Oakland, as the Pitt Panthers have named Josh Larcom as head diving coach. Larcom has spent the last four years at Florida International University, where his divers dominated at the conference level and earned All-America honors at the national level.

The move is new territory for college swimming and diving after the shakeup at the top of the program since the NCAA Championships. Chase Kreitler, who as head swimming & diving coach led the team to its most successful season in decades (including 73 years for the men), resigned at the end of the season, saying that he was informed that his contract would not be renewed at the end of next season.

The program then promoted its diving coach Katie Kasprzak to Director of Swimming & Diving. While not the first program to put a diving coach in charge (notably, Georgia Tech did it a year earlier amid a program scaleback), it is uncommon.

Ian Walsh was brought in as head swimming coach earlier in June, coming from leading the program at Marshall that has an unclear future after being cut and reinstated earlier this year.

But then the new territory was broken on Monday when the Panthers hired Larcom as their new Head Diving Coach. Larcom’s resume would warrant a Power 5 head diving coach role in its own right, meaning the Panthers now have two coaches on staff who are Power 5 caliber diving coaches.

SwimSwam has reached out to Pitt to get a better idea of how Kasprzak will spend her time as Director of Swimming & Diving, but has not heard back.

Pitt does not make coaching salaries public.

Last year’s Pitt swimming & diving roster listed 12 divers and 42 swimmers. Five members of the coaching staff were swim coaches, while two were dive coaches. That included diving assistant coach Ford McLiney.

The Larcom File

Courtesy: Pitt Athletics

Larcom built Florida International’s diving program into one of the American Athletic Conference’s most competitive. He was named AAC Co-Diving Coach of the Year in 2023-24 after guiding FIU to the conference title and coaching Paige Burrell to a meet-record 1-meter gold at the AAC Championships. Burrell went on to qualify for the NCAA Championships and became the first FIU diver in program history to compete at the U.S. Olympic Diving Trials. Larcom also coached Maha Gouda to a 14th-place finish on platform at the NCAA Championships, earning Second Team All-American honors, and led FIU to its best-ever diving finish at the AAC Championships in 2024-25, collecting four medals across three events.

“I’m incredibly honored to be named head diving coach at Pitt,” Larcom said. “I’d like to thank Katie for giving me the opportunity to carry on what she has built as she moves to her new role within the Swimming & Diving program. I’d also like to thank Randy Horner, Brien Moffitt, the FIU Swimming & Diving program and the rest of the university for helping me grow as a person and coach to help me get here. The Pitt Swimming & Diving program and the University of Pittsburgh are special and I felt that the minute I stepped on campus. I’m excited to build on the success of this program by upholding the strong culture that has been established and continuing to develop our student-athletes both in and out of the water to their highest potential. I can’t wait to get started and join the Pitt community.”

Prior to FIU, Larcom served as a diving graduate assistant at West Virginia, where he helped qualify seven athletes for NCAA Zones and guided one to the NCAA Championships. He also served as head diving coach at Niagara University from 2018-20 and spent time as a volunteer assistant at Buffalo, helping that program claim its first MAC Championship in 2020-21. At the club level, Larcom coached a program-record five divers to USA Junior Nationals at Wings Diving Club in Buffalo, N.Y.

A native of Deer Park, N.Y., Larcom competed collegiately at Canisius, earning NCAA Zones qualification as a senior. He holds a bachelor’s degree in health and wellness and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Canisius, as well as a master’s degree in higher education administration from West Virginia. He is a USA Diving-certified competition coach.