Adam Schmitt Named LSU Swimming and Diving Head Coach

BATON ROUGE, La., June 24. ADAM Schmitt, a former All-American at LSU, has been named the Tigers’ head swimming and diving coach for both men and women, LSU Director of Athletics Skip Bertman announced this week on LSUsports.net.

"This is a very exciting opportunity for me and my family," Schmitt said. "To come back to LSU and serve as head coach at my Alma Mater is very special to me. I see a lot of parallels right now to when I was a swimmer at LSU back in the 1980's. I think Coach Bertman is a terrific athletic director who has the entire LSU athletic program going in the right direction and I certainly look forward to working with him.

Schmitt, a native of Houston, Texas, comes to LSU after three years as associate head coach at Arizona State, where his expertise in the sprints helped produce multiple top eight NCAA finishes in both individual and relay races. Before that he served as an assistant coach at Auburn for four years, helping the Tigers to one NCAA title and pair of NCAA runner-up finishes. At Arizona State, Schmitt's He also served as head coach at Long Beach City College for one season.

"We're very excited about having Adam join our coaching staff here at LSU," Bertman said. "It's great to have a former Tiger come back to serve as head coach for a team that he enjoyed so much success with during his days as a student-athlete."

Schmitt lead the 1988 Tigers to the school’s only Southeastern Conference title and their highest NCAA finish at sixth. He won three SEC title in the 50-yard freestyle and earned All-America honors 10 times, spanning the 50 and 100 freestyles and the 4 x 100 freestyle and medley relays. His :19.65 and :43.22 sprint double from 1988 stand 2nd and 1st on the all-time LSU list, respectively. On the international level, Schmitt was a member of U.S. teams at the 1986 Goodwill Games, the 1987 World University Games and the 1991 Pan-American Games. He won the 50-freestyle at the 1989 U.S. Open and was a finalist in the event at the 1992 U.S. Olympic Trials. On the lighter side, he was also invited to swim with Matt Biondi and Tom Jager in the "Dash for Cash" series popular in that era.

Schmitt, a 1989 LSU marketing graduate, is married to former Stanford swimming All-American Aimee Berzins. The couple has two daughters, Hannah and Haley.

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