The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay has found its head swimming and diving head coach after starting the 2021-22 season without one. Former Cleveland State swimmer Alex Lewis will serve as the program’s next head, the school announced on Monday.
His first day will be Monday, Nov. 15.
“I’m excited for the challenges and development ahead of me at UW-Green Bay,” Lewis said in a release. “I’m looking forward to being a part of an already amazing culture of hard work and commitment. I appreciate this great opportunity from Director of Athletics Josh Moon, Deputy Director of Athletics Jermaine Rolle and everyone at UW-Green Bay.”
Green Bay competes in the Horizon League, where Lewis was a conference champion in multiple events during his 2010-14 undergraduate stint at Cleveland State.
Prior to being hired at Green Bay, Lewis spent seven years as a coach at the Mercy HealthPlex in Cincinnati, Ohio, according to the announcement. He was the head site coach from 2014 to 2017 before being named the Regional Head Swim Coach in 2017. As far as collegiate coaching experience goes, Lewis was also an assistant coach at Xavier University from 2014 to 2017, during which time the team won back-to-back Big East titles in 2015 and 2016.
“We are excited to have Alex as our next Head Coach for Swimming and Diving!” Rolle, the deputy athletic director who chaired the head coach search committee, said. “His passion for swimming and diving was evident from the first introduction. His knowledge of coaching the sport stood out among the candidates. Alex’s familiarity with the Horizon League and experience as a Horizon League champion swimmer will continue to elevate GB Swimming and Diving student-athletes. I anticipate the forward and upward trajectory of GB Swimming and Diving will continue under his leadership.”
The Green Bay squad has competed in two meets (the second a tri-meet) this season with Tom Stover, the team’s diving coach, at its helm. The men are undefeated on the season with wins over St. Thomas, Valparaiso and Youngstown State, while the women dropped the opener to St. Thomas but also defeated Valparaiso and Youngstown last weekend.
The team is scheduled to compete at home this Friday against St. Norbert, then heads to the IUPUI Invite the following weekend.
In 2020, Green Bay eliminated “tuition waivers” for the swim and dive programs along with its Nordic ski program. At the time, the school said that rather than spread the cuts out across all of its 16 programs, it made the decision to eliminate the waivers from the swimming and Nordic programs based on “roster size, program operational costs, ability to compete at the Division I level, revenue generation, opportunities to win Horizon League championships, and others.”
Very interesting, I’ve been waiting for a long time to see who they would end up hiring, I hope this is a great fit! Best of luck.
True.. congrats to him and the team, though I was kind hoping for the island of misfit toys thing to keep going. A dive coach, a swim team and a bus driver all the way through to horizon league would have made for an entertaining, straight to cassette movie.
There’s always “inspired by a true story” options.