SwimMAC Carolina Eliminates All Non-Coaching Management Positions

According to an email sent out by the SwimMAC Carolina Board of Directors on Sunday, all non-coaching administrative positions have been eliminated. This will only impact the business side of the team, and SwimMAC Carolina has eliminated all non-coach management positions withing SwimMAC Carolina. 2016 U.S. Olympic women’s team head coach David Marsh has confirmed that he will maintain the title of CEO and will continue to sit on its Board of Directors.

“SwimMAC has a long, storied history, one I’m proud to be a part of, but to continue that success we must meet financial challenges,” Marsh said of the changes. “Maintaining a successful club is no easy task, and we have our work cut out for us this year.  We will be restructuring our dry-side management to better service club needs and ensure our continued success at all levels, from our lessons program to our dynamic age groupers and the elites.”

This is a stark shift from a program that was built as a model around having a full-time dedicated, professional management staff, duties that will now shift over to volunteers, which the club believes are highly qualified to do the job.

“The result is that the Board has created an Executive Committee to direct all business operations through the fiscal year end, August 31, 2016. The Executive Committee consists of four volunteers who are business owners, attorneys, accountants, corporate executives, coaches, SwimMAC parents and two SwimMAC Board Members.  Not only are they experts in their field, they are also committed members of SwimMAC.”

The letter confirmed that the move did not include removing any coaches from their on-deck coaching duties.

Our coaches are the backbone and face of our program and we will continue to recruit and hire the best coaches. While there were many changes at the management level, there are no intended changes at the coaching level.

The letter speaks to many of the financial challenges that the club has faced recently, which includes having not yet broken ground on a new planned aquatics facility. Former Executive Director Brandon Drawz, who was leading the club’s capital campaign, was relieved of his duties in August, 2015. SwimMAC is a significantly bigger enterprise than most club programs, and is estimated to bring in around $5,000,000 a year in revenue.

In 2007, SwimMAC was once designated a USA Swimming “center of excellence” before that program was discontinued, and Marsh was hired at that time to lead the program. SwimMAC Team Elite sent 5 Americans to the Olympic Games: Micah Lawrence, Kara Lynn Joyce, Davis Tarwater, Nick Thoman, and Cullen Jones. The current Team Elite roster has expanded to include 20 swimmers: 6 U.S. Olympians, 6 international Olympians, and 12 U.S. National Team members.

In August of 2013, Marsh signed a contract extension with the club through 2018.

SwimMAC Carolina was ranked the #2 club in the country in the most recent USA Swimming Club Excellence rankings.

 

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Jory
8 years ago

Circuit city

ERVINFORTHEWIN
8 years ago

One of the best Swimming clubs in the world needs to go on .

mikeh
8 years ago

What a shame, I hope everything is okay.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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