USA Swimming has assembled its international coaching staffs for all three major international competitions next summer – the World Championships, World University Games and Pan American Games.
The staff for the World Championships in Kazan, Russia will be headed up by coaches of rival Pac-12 programs in a staff that is pretty heavy on coaches from the collegiate conference. USC’s Dave Salo will return to head the women’s team as he did for the 2013 World Championships. Meanwhile Dave Durden of the California Golden Bears will serve as the men’s head coach after a great spring and summer from his crew.
They’ll be joined by fellow Pac-12 coaches Greg Meehan (Stanford) and Teri McKeever (Cal) on the women’s side, plus Rick DeMont (Arizona) on the men’s side. Other Worlds coaches are Nation’s Capital’s Bruce Gemmell (a Coach of the Year candidate after Katie Ledecky‘s unbelievable season) for the women and Wisconsin’s Whitney Hite and SwimMAC’s David Marsh for the men.
If Worlds is dominated by Pac-12 coaches, World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea will rely heavily on Big Ten coaches. Ray Looze is the women’s head coach, while Michigan skipper Mike Bottom leads the men’s programs. Also notable there is that Cal put its third coach on an international team with Yuri Suguiyama – that’s the most of any program, college or club.
Pan Ams in Toronto, Canada will feature the only U.S. head coach who works completely with a swim club and not a college program – that’s Jason Turcotte, who coaches the Dynamo Swim Club that has produced some of the nation’s top young talent over the past several years. He’s the women’s head coach, while Tennessee’s Matt Kredich was named men’s head coach
Stanford (Ted Knapp) and SwimMAC (Bob Groseth) both both placed their second coach on an international team with that Pan Ams staff. Nation’s Capital also had two coaches included on the three teams between Gemmell and John Flanagan, who’s on the World University Games roster.
Full Staffs
2015 World Championships
Women’s Head Coach: Dave Salo (USC/Trojan Swim Club)
Women’s Assistant Coaches:
Bruce Gemmell (Nation’s Capital Swim Club)
Greg Meehan (Stanford/Stanford Swimming)
Teri McKeever (Cal/California Aquatics)
Men’s Head Coach: Dave Durden (Cal/California Aquatics)
Men’s Assistant Coaches:
Rick DeMont (Arizona/Tucson Ford Dealers Aquatics)
Whitney Hite (Wisconsin/Wisconsin Aquatics)
David Marsh (SwimMAC Carolina)
2015 World University Games
Women’s Head Coach: Ray Looze (Indiana)
Women’s Assistant Coaches:
Steve Bultman (Texas A&M)
Augie Busch (Virginia/Cavalier Swimming)
Harvey Humphries (Georgia/Athens Bulldog Swim Club)
Men’s Head Coach: Mike Bottom (Michigan/Club Wolverine)
Men’s Assistant Coaches:
John Flanagan (Nation’s Capital Swim Club)
Kris Kubik (Texas)
Yuri Suguiyama (Cal/California Aquatics)
2015 Pan American Games
Women’s Head Coach: Jason Turcotte (Dynamo Swim Club)
Women’s Assistant Coaches:
Arthur Albiero (Louisville)
Michael Brooks (York YMCA)
Erik Posegay (North Baltimore Aquatic Club)
Men’s Head Coach: Matt Kredich (Tennessee/Tennessee Aquatics)
Men’s Assistant Coaches:
Bob Groseth (SwimMAC Carolina)
Ted Knapp (Stanford/Stanford Swimming)
Greg Rhodenbaugh (Missouri)
I wonder why Terri is not the head coach of the Women’s team? Hmmm.
Way to go NCAP with two coaches on staff!!
I wondered how long it would take Frank to name his son onto a staff?! Did he really deserve it?
weirdo – while a heavy dose of skepticism with anything swimming-and-nepotism related is healthy, Augie did put two swimmers on the women’s national team and has one on the WUG’s team. When you start looking through coaches who put a swimmer on the team, aren’t on the staff, and didn’t get chosen for another staff…he’s at least as deserving as anyone else, and given the summer Leah Smith had, it was probably a fair selection.
I guess especially since several programs have multiple representations on the staffs. I think there are a couple coaches that have multitple swimmers on the National Team, etc that weren’t on the list but maybe they turned it down???
Great representation by the Pac-12 in all the coaching assignments. And add to that two Trojan Alums – Mike Bottom and Ray Looze and you get a real west coast flavor.
Great coaching staff for all three teams! Great to see Durden finally on after missing Pan Pacs, I had a feeling Salo would be the HC for the women.
Overall, the coaches had been put in the right place for the right competions.
It’s great to see Durden finally get a slot as head coach of a major international team. That should set him up to be a coach at the Olympics in 2016. It’ll be nice to see a fresh young face on the (presumably men’s) coaching staff.