Bengal Tiger Aquatics Acquires Tiger Aquatics, Hires Craig Harris as New Head Coach of Tiger

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana, May 5. FOLLOWING the recent decision of LSU to hire Dave Geyer and Doug Schaffer as the Head Coaches of the LSU Swimming and Diving programs respectively, Bengal Tiger Aquatics (BTAC) announces its acquisition of Tiger Aquatics (TAQ) from former LSU Swimming and Diving coach, Adam Schmitt. "I am proud to pass on the Tiger Aquatics program and look forward to seeing continued success of the program I supported and developed. This will ultimately benefit the young swimmers and give them the opportunity to be involved in a high level swimming program in the Baton Rouge community", says Schmitt.

Geyer, who served for 5 years as the senior assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for LSU and as the head coach of the TAQ program will continue to be intimately involved in the Tiger Aquatics program at the LSU Natatorium as Program Advisor. Under Geyer's leadership, TAQ has been generally recognized as having the highest quality coaching staff in the state.

As such, BTAC is proud to announce the recent hiring of Craig Harris as Head Coach of Tiger Aquatics. Harris is an ASCA Level 5 Coach and will be joining the team the first week of June this year. Harris received a BS in Education from the University of Louisiana-Monroe in May 2000. Since then he has been Senior Assistant Coach with City of Plano Swimmers in the Dallas, Texas area. In 2007 he assumed additional responsibilities as Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator with City of Plano Swimmers.

Harris began his swimming career in Natchitoches, Louisiana, where he swam for the Natchitoches Northwestern Neptunes. In his senior year of high school he joined the Indian Aquatic Club in Monroe, Louisiana with the late Coach John Pittington. He attended the University of Louisiana-Monroe on a four year swimming scholarship under Coach Pittington and was Co-Captain his Junior and Senior years at ULM.

Harris' coaching career began during college with several summer league swim teams and with Indian Aquatic Club part-time. He spent his 5th year of college as a student assistant under Coach Pittington. After graduating he became Plano Senior High School Head Swimming Coach from 2000 to 2007. Simultaneously, he has served as the Senior Assistant Coach with the City of Plano Swimmers is recognized by USA Swimming as an accomplished leader in coaching and club development.

In addition to Harris, Tiger Aquatics is also excited to announce Jeannine Malbrough's acceptance of a full-time position as Assistant Head Coach. Malbrough is in her third year with TAQ and has produced several state champions in the 14 and younger age groups. She graduated from LSU in 2005 and is a former member of the LSU Swimming and Diving Team where she was on the SEC Championship team, SEC Academic Honor Roll and a 3 year varsity letterman, specializing in Breaststroke and the Individual Medley.

LSU Head Coach Dave Geyer commented, "I am very excited about the future of TAQ under Coach Craig's leadership. He is an outstanding coach and person and will lead Tiger Aquatics in continuing to offer the highest level swimming program in Baton Rouge and the surrounding parishes."

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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