The college coaching carousel keeps on turning. UNC associate head swim and dive coach Kirk Kumbier is leaving college coaching and returning home to southeast Michigan. Kumbier has been hired as the associate head coach at Club Wolverine, an Ann Arbor based club swim team. This move leaves UNC with two open staff positions, as assistant coach Kayla Kumbier, Kirk’s wife, is also leaving.
This move marks a return home for Kumbier, who grew up in the area and is a CW alum. He’ll be joining CW head coach Dr. Josh White, who coached at the University of Michigan for 14 years, serving as the associate head coach for the majority of that time. White took over as the head coach of CW late last summer. This feels like a fairly natural pairing, as White is well known for his distance background, having coached NCAA 1650 champions Connor Jaeger and Felix Auboeck, while Kumbier has primarily served as a sprint coach.
UNC head coach Mark Gangloff, who just signed a 3-year extension with the Tar Heels, gave the following statement on Kumbier:
“Kirk has been a pivotal part of our staff from the moment he stepped on deck. His technical expertise in the sprint events and his tireless work on the recruiting trail have fundamentally changed the trajectory of our program. While we will miss his energy and leadership, we are thrilled for him to have this opportunity to return home and impact the swimming community in Ann Arbor.”
During his time at UNC, the Kumbiers helped lead the Tar Heels to their best ACC and NCAA finishes in recent memory. In the 2023, the UNC women finished in the top 10 at NCAAs, which was their highest finish in 2 decades. The men’s team managed a 4th place finish at the 2025 ACC Championships, which was their highest finish since 2016. At the 2026 NCAAs, UNC’s men recorded a 19th place finish, their highest since 2015.
Prior to his 4 year stint at UNC, Kumbier spent a year as a volunteer assistant at LSU. Before that, he was at UC San Diego for 3 years, where he coached under Dave Marsh. He began his college coaching career at Allegheny College in 2011. This will not be Kumbier’s first time in the club coaching arena. During his year at LSU, he also served as the head age group coach for Tiger Aquatics.
Kayla Kumbier‘s career has followed similar beats. She spent the last 4 years with UNC as an assistant coach. Prior to that, she was an assistant coach at LSU for the 2021-2022 season. Out in San Diego, Kayla Kumbier was an assistant coach at the University of San Diego, and two years in the same role at UC San Diego. She also had stints at Minnesota State, Mankato, and Allegheny College.
The move leaves UNC with two coaching positions to fill. The Tar Heels now only have head coach Gangloff and assistant swim coach Andrew Eckhart on the swim staff. Additionally, Kirk Kumbier was the Director of Recruiting, while Kayla was the lead women’s recruiter, so UNC will need to fill those duties quickly.
Maybe they want to have an occasional Ribeye as club coach instead of the occasional Sonic burger on a low wages as college assistant?
Good club coaching is better than college coaching.
What is it about the current college system that’s making club coaching more appealing? Two articles today seems like a trend starting.
College swim & dive is in a very precarious position. Potentially a lot more job security in club teams right now.
Tic Tok the clock is winding down quickly on NCAA Swimming & Diving my belief is by 2031 there will be no more sponsored S&D at the NCAA.
A lot of college coaches didn’t sign up to coach this insanity post House vs NCAA. It can’t be fun to be a college coach so if you can get paid the same or more doing something else it’s a no brainer. He won’t have to cut a bunch of swimmers on a club team!
My concern is how would the elimination of NCAA swimming affect the need of USA Swimming. There would be massive shifts of mindsets of the goal output of the sport at the club and HS level if the goal of many is eliminated.
As a club head coach/owner, I’m not concerned. The overwhelming majority of families on my team aren’t doing it for a college scholarship or NIL deal, as I make it clear those things are very hard to achieve, and only go to a small percentage of the top swimmers. Most parents just want their kids enrolled in a healthy activity, and going on to do it in college is considered a bonus.
The only teams that might suffer are the ones pushing the “USA Swimming is a ticket to free college” line…and those teams kind of deserve to suffer for running fundamentally dishonest business models.
I think Robert may have been addressing the desire to compete for a college team, not necessarily getting a scholarship or NIL money. Competing in college is fun, and typically the last phase of a swimmer’s career, what will happen in USS when that option isn’t available?
I suppose if college swimming were to disappear altogether, it would severely harm USA Swimming, but I don’t think that’s the situation we’re looking at. I’m fairly confident that there’s always going to be a decent amount of college swimming opportunities for year-round club swimmers.
I coached at a small state college where only about 10% of the roster even swam on a USA team growing up. The conference consisted almost entirely of former rec league/high school-only swimmers, so obviously there are plenty of roster spots for the club swimmers to trickle down to as the higher levels get more competitive.
Even without the existence of college swimming, my club and USA Swimming offer significantly more than the… Read more »
More $ in club
club swimmers have no power, college kids have all the power now.