Newly-appointed Stanford women’s head coach Greg Meehan has brought in Tracy Duchac as his new assistant now that he’s taken the reigns for the No. 4 team in the country last season.
Duchac comes just weeks after stepping down as an assistant at Arizona. Her decision to resign at Arizona came just days before Meehan was hired at Stanford (or, depending on the speed of information, perhaps simultaneously).
Duchac spent one season at Arizona, and prior to that spent 5 seasons at Texas A&M, where they were in the country’s top-10 all 5 years.
Duchac’s specialty throughout her career has been working with sprinters, which is also what her specialty was as a swimmer at Purdue. Assuming she continues that role with Stanford, the job will be a tiny amount of rebuilding one of the country’s best groups after the graduation of Besty Webb and Sam Woodward.
Fortunately, The Cardinal still have a returning star in Maddy Schaefer, who will be just a sophomore. Last year, she broke the National Age Group Record in the 17-18 girls’ 100 free. The group also brings back Andi Murez, who will be a senior. Murez is a phenomenal 50-100-200 swimmer, including a 1:43.5 last season at NCAA’s in the 200 free (and the fastest returning 200 freestyler in the conference from last season).
Interestingly, both of the coaches on the new Stanford staff come from other Pac 12 schools.
Duchac is expecting her first child this winter.
What kind of program does Stanford have?
mary – with a new coach, that has yet to be determined…though one would presume it would be very similar to what Dave Durden runs at Cal (very sprint-based).
Fact: Tracy Duchac has yet to make a public statement. Speculation: People usually do this when advised by their attorney.
Fact: Shortly after she took her job at Arizona, Tracy and her husband purchased a house in Tucson and got pregnant. Speculation: This is not something you do if your husband can’t find work, you don’t have money or you might be leaving the job you just started for the same job in another state.
Fact: The publications that have written about Tracy’s departure from Arizona have only disclosed sources that would have an interest in seeing her go quietly if she were in a position to disclose sensitive information and/or take legal action. Speculation: The information about… Read more »
OMG So what you’re saying is Tracy was having an AFFAIR with Amanda Kendall?! IT ALL COMES OUT!
SwimzonaFANNNN: Fact: you’re idiotic. Specultion: very bitter.
Cheeky.
And these are the days of our lives…
Can’t wait to watch you eat your words.
Tracy’s married a guy with lots of $$ – don’t worry about the Palo Alto situation.
Also, kiss the Stanford program goodbye… Duchac was not well liked at A&M or Arizona
I thought Eric Hansen was the one everybody hated at Arizona? I guess I’m not in the know.
As I understand it, she never stated she was leaving to focus on motherhood. Everyone just “inferrered” that. The spokesperson at Arizona simply stated that she was leaving on good terms .Tracy’s husband had been looking for an engineering job in Tucson and was having a difficult time finding one. The couple felt it was an important time to rev up that search somewhere with more job opportunities.
I remember all of the responses this brought out about women/coaches and leaving for motherhood—all along I was thinking “you people have it all wrong. She wants to continue coaching- its just that her partner needs a job” Nothing more, nothing less.
to live in palo alto, her husband will definitely need a job….a real good job! that place is ridiculously expensive!
the best to her, her family and stanford. good hire for meehan.
so who is durden going to find? shouldn’t be hard to find a replacement for the 2 time defending champs!!!
It was also rumored that her husband has been looking for work as an engineer in Tucson for the past two years. He will probably have better luck in the bay area than he did in tucson. Best wishes to her, her family, and both teams.
She was only in Tucson a little over 1 year. But she did say that she was leaving for Texas because of her husbands job and was leaving coaching.
I am guessing that it was not Tracy that released the “I am having a kid and don’t want to coach statement” great hire for Stanford! Arizona kind of looks like a duck on te water right now, calm on the surface but scrambling to keep it together under the surface. Just my opinion though.
We didn’t see any statement where she said that Truth – do you have a link?
http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/College/31802.asp?q=Tracy-Duchac-Leaves-Assistant-Coaching-Post-at-Arizona-to-Focus-on-Motherhood
I believe there was an actual statement from Arizona in regards to this as well but I cannot seem to locate it at this time! Someone else had to see this too!