The University of Virginia has turned to its fast-rising ACC rival to fill its recent head coaching opening, signing NC State associate head coach Todd Desorbo.
Desorbo’s name has gotten a ton of head coaching buzz as NC State has continued its meteoric rise into the NCAA’s top echelon of teams. Desorbo works specifically with the sprint group, which has been NC State’s bread and butter in its rise. The Wolfpack men have won a pair of NCAA relay titles over the past two years while the sprint group produced Olympic finalist Simonas Bilis and Olympic gold medalist Ryan Held.
Desorbo has been with NC State since 2011, when he jumped to Raleigh after five years assistant coaching at UNC-Wilmington, where he was also an all-conference swimmer before he started coaching. He was a head coach at the club level back in the mid-2000s with Cape Fear Aquatic Club.
He’ll take over a Virginia program that has a pretty bare cupboard in the coaching staff at present. Augie Busch had coached the team the previous four seasons, but moved back to his alma mater, the University of Arizona, when their head coach retired. Busch took his top two assistants – younger brother Sam Busch and another Arizona alum Cory Chitwood – with him to his new job, though Sam Busch wound up diverting to become the head coach at TCU.
Virginia’s website currently only lists Jason Glorius as the head diving coach, with three assistant coach openings and the head coaching gig listed (though the combined program could have as many as 6 coaches in all).
Man. What a change for Wahoo Nation – a program whose distance group has been the bedrock. GO HOOS
Virgininia clearly gives a damn about swimming
Definitely. Last fall the Canes football team coincidentally played Virginia and North Carolina State on the road back to back. I took a road trip and attended both games. Even on a game day Saturday afternoon I was surprised at how much activity was going on at the nearby intercollegiate pool and activity center. Great facilities. I found myself staying there for a long time including scanning the pool records.
I could understand why a coach would want to be a part of that.
Yes, we (the UVA Swimming Family) do give a damn, and not just about swimming! I can’t speak for the Busch era, but those of us who swam for Mark Bernardino (“Dino”) took so many life lessons beyond swimming from him and his staff. I’m still swimming (Masters), but whether it’s in the pool, at work or in my family time, I’ve always got Dino’s voice in the back of my head encouraging and motivating. As Dino said in his “retirement letter”, “I have endeavored to be a teacher, mentor and winner as a coach and I have strived to produce young men and women who are both champion people and athletes. I have preached family, team ethical conduct and… Read more »
Wonder if anyone might change their commitment at this point. Not just NC state commits, but across the board. He’s a dynamite coach. Exciting. Georgeous, phenomenal school with a nice facility. Fully funded. Remember those so far are just verbal commitments. You would think some folks might give him a look and think about it. They should.
MUVAGA (Make UVA Great Again)
Hopefully, he didn’t get one of those diamonds tattooed on his chest.
Its a sharpie not a tattoo.
Any word on assistant coaches coming on board?
They’re just promoting Bobby from within to keep the same atmosphere
I think aquaman is referring to UVA assistants…
The mid and long distance swimmers are probably a little anxious to find out who Todd can pull on deck for their training groups.
Wonder if Bobby will be named to Todd’s old position. Definitely deserving, does a great job with the sprinters and has some of the best energy on that deck
Athletic Director Craig Littlepage best hire since UVA men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett.
You’re right.
This is a walk off home run hire for the Hoos. Virginia has always been fertile ground for great swimmers from Jeff Rouse back in the day to Townley Haas today. A real question now is whether UVa will take the tack of international recruits. They could load up real quick & then the in-state ringers see a better training venue. Great school, so…