An anonymous donor made a gift of at least $2.5 million to endow the women’s head swimming & diving coach position at Princeton University.
“Head Coach endowments are so impactful for our programs,” said Princeton Athletic Director John Mack. “We are thrilled that the swimming & diving programs will benefit in such a meaningful way.”
At Princeton, a gift of $2.5 million endows a head coaching position while a $1 million gift endows an assistant coaching position.
Coaching position endowments are typically invested, and a portion of yearly returns go to the sport budget. A news release from Princeton says that both the women’s and men’s team will benefit from the endowment, suggesting that at least some of the money will go to shared resources.
Endowment contributors get the coaching position named after them (for example: the official title for all Yale head football coaches is called the Joel E. Smilow ’54 Head Coach of Yale Football). A name for this anonymous endowment has yet to be determined.
“(The endowment) signifies a commitment to the growth, development and success of our women’s swimmers and divers, both in the pool and in life,” said Abby Brethauer, Princeton’s current head women’s coach. “The future of Princeton women’s swimming & diving is bright and I am thrilled to see what opportunities are created moving forward because of this incredible gift.”
Brethauer is entering her second season as the head coach of the women’s swim and dive team after winning Ivy Coach of the Year in her first. She previously served as an assistant coach on the Princeton men’s team, and before that she was an Associate Head Coach at Tufts.
The Princeton women’s swim & dive team just entered its 55th year of competition. In 2024, they earned their 25th Ivy league championship, the most of any Ivy swim team.
Princeton becomes the latest of several recent Ivy League head swim coach positions to receive an endowment. In 2022, a University of Pennsylvania swim alumnus endowed the program’s head coaching position. A couple months later, the women’s head coach position for Cornell swim & dive received an endowment. According to Newsweek, Princeton ranks fourth among all U.S. universities by total endowment.
Somewhat related – given the state of college athletics and how it directly relates to swimming, if someone with deep pockets were to commit money to ensure the future of a specific program, what would the best way to utilize money? Endow coaching salaries, endow scholarships, etc.?
I honestly don’t know what the best route would be right now with the uncertainty of the landscape.
Without any evidence to support, I do feel that endowing or supporting coaching salaries at least buffers a program a bit better than endowing scholarships at this juncture.
Though experiment – If you had 5 million dollars to support your favorite program, what do you think would be the best way to ensure… Read more »
That’s a great existential question.
My instinct is “endowment,” though I think it takes about $100 million to “fully endow” a co-ed program.
But…if $5 million into an NIL pool can win you 4-6 straight NCAA titles, is that the better buy to ensure a program?
Most of the inner-circle of NCAA coaches see a long-term scenario of 16-20 varsity*, top-flight swimming programs. How will they decide where those programs wind up? Probably based on resources and success.
*barring a paradigm-shifting Hail Mary like an act of congress
So, is the belief that those 16-20 programs will be fully supported, and other schools that currently have programs will cancel their programs or move more to something like a club format? If only 16-20 programs exist at the Power 5 level in say five years, where do swimmers that aren’t making those teams go? Military academies, Ivies, D2 & D3?
Yeah I think the sense is that the remaining programs will look something like club programs if you squint a little bit. Maybe club programs with a coach, but not a $200k/year coach. Maybe more like a high school program, where there’s structure and coaching and stuff, but not the full weight of an NCAA athletics department’s resources.
I believe Abby was at Tufts before Princeton, not Dartmouth. She is an incredible coach and person! Glad to see donors investing in coaches. Hopefully a trend that catches on. Something very similar happened a year ago at Abby’s alma mater, Kenyon.