Maine Swimming Names Skip Nitardy Head Coach

ORONO, Maine, July 3. THE University of Maine announced on Tuesday the hiring of Skip Nitardy as head coach of the men's and women's swimming teams. Nitardy, who has 25 years of experience coaching swimmers, is a two-time Coach of the Year. In addition, Nitardy has coached UMaine swimmers in summer training programs in recent years.

"We are very excited to have someone with Skip's experience as the head coach of our swimming program," said Maine Director of Athletics Blake James. "I am confident that we will see continued success both academically and athletically with the program."

Nitardy, who has been the Director of Aquatics at the Bangor YMCA for the past three years, has coached club programs in Maine and Connecticut which will enhance his recruiting as head coach of the Black Bears.

In 2004, Nitardy was named the Senior Director of Aquatics and Competitive Swim at the Bangor Y. In 2007, the team was second in the state YMCA swim league and had five YMCA National qualifiers. He was responsible for over 110 competitive swimmers, 500 instructional swimmers and three full-time staff members. The team improved from eleventh place in the YMCA State Swim League in 2005 to a second place finish in 2007. Swimmers with the Barracudas achieved over 30 state championship finishes in 2007. He was named the 2007 Maine YMCA Coach of the Year.

Prior to Bangor, Nitardy spent eleven years as the Senior Director of Aquatics and Competitive Swim at the Darien YMCA in Connecticut. He worked with 250 competitive swimmers as the team produced over 75 YMCA National Qualifiers. In 2004, the combined team was fourth nationally, with the women fourth and the men second overall. At Darien, he coached over 40 athletes who went on to swim at colleges such as Princeton, Cornell, Penn, Boston College, Duke, Texas and William & Mary. He was named the 2004 Connecticut Coach of the Year.

From 1988-93 he was the Aquatic Director at the Ralph B. Chandler YMCA in Mobile, Alabama. There, he started the Mobile Marlins Swim Team, which grew from 25 swimmers to 150 swimmers in the five-year period. He began his coaching career as the head age group coach and assistant senior coach for the Mustang Swim Team at Southern Methodist University. He worked with 120 swimmers from the ages of 5-18 and also was an assistant coach for the Lone Star Masters Swim Team.

Nitardy graduated from the University of South Alabama with a degree in physical education. Overall, he has coached over 75 YMCA National Qualifiers, two Olympic Trials qualifiers, and six Senior National qualifiers.

Special thanks to Maine for contributing this report.

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