Former Hawaii head coach Mike Stephens is headed to Stanford as the new associate head coach for the Cardinal men under head coach Dan Schemmel — also a former Hawaii head coach from 2016-19.
Stephens replaces Neil Caskey, who recently left his position as assistant coach to pursue another career outside of coaching. According to the job posting, the expected pay range was between $90,000-$100,000.
Stephens will step into a supporting role after coming off successful stints as head coach at Hawaii (2022-24) and Boston College (2017-22). His arrival on The Farm comes right as Stanford is moving from the Pac-12 to the ACC, meaning he’ll now face off against BC (also his alma mater) at conference championship meets.
Last season at Hawaii, Stephens guided the Rainbow Warriors to a sweep of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) titles, earning him Coach of the Year honors for both the men and women. The Maryland native won the MPSF Women’s Swim Coach of the Year award in 2022-23 after leading the Hawaii women to the conference crown.
“I’m extremely grateful and excited to have Mike joining us on The Farm,” Schemmel said. “His character, passion, and expertise will be tremendous assets to the growth and success of everyone in our program.”
During his five seasons at BC, Stephens’ swimmers broke 171 school records across five seasons, including 41 in his final year alone. He was a breaststroker as a swimmer for the Eagles, graduating in 2012 as the owner of the school record in the 200 medley relay.
The Stanford men are fresh off a runner-up finish at the last-ever Pac-12 Championships in February, where they scored 733.5 points to place 2nd behind eventual NCAA champion Arizona State (1,036). The Cardinal went on to place 8th at the NCAA Championships with 177 points, holding the same spot as the season prior but with more total points. Next year, they’ll have to go up against the likes of NC State, Cal, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, and Louisville at the 2025 ACC Championships.
Stanford is losing top 2023 recruit Rex Maurer, who announced his transfer to Texas last month after just one year with the Cardinal. But they still boast plenty of returning talent between rising sophomore Henry McFadden, rising senior Aaron Sequeira, rising senior diver Jack Ryan, and rising redshirt junior Andrei Minakov.
The Stanford women also made a recent coaching hire to fill out their staff. Former Cal assistant Kim Williams returned to her alma mater as an assistant coach earlier this month to replace Kim Bracken after her short six-month stint with the Cardinal women ended this summer.
I bet he’s glad he’s going to the men’s side and not that dumpster fire of a situation with Greg Meehan on the women’s side!
Women are actually doing quite well at the moment. Men’s side cannot say the same.
Relay names person must be your mother.
The best in the business, congrats to Stanford on a great hire.
so hot right now
Brinkman to Hawaii!?
Next year will be a tough year for the Cardinal men, with all those transfers and graduations. Hopefully Stephens can help inspire the team to perform well. Would love to see freshmen perform significantly better than in high school.
Hopefully he can stop the bleeding and the disaster Greg Meehan has produced in the past few years.
Wrong team brother
nah he’s just got that kind of shine
You pretty much don’t know anything about either program.
Stanford got a good one…….this is a young coach on the RISE!
Is minakov confirmed to be coming back?
I would be shocked by it if he does. Believe he already would have graduated this summer since he started school a year before coming to campus.