Buffalo Adds Ian Walsh As New Assistant Coach

Photo Courtesy: UB Swimming & Diving Facebook

11th year head coach Andy Bashor announced the addition of Ian Walsh as assistant coach for the UB women’s swimming & diving team on Thursday morning. Walsh comes to the Bulls after one season at Cal Berkeley as assistant coach.

“I want to take this opportunity to welcome Ian Walsh to the UB Swimming and Diving family as the next assistant coach of the program,” said head coach Bashor. “Ian is going to bring new excitement and energy to the team. His experience at Cal, one of the best women’s programs in the country, and working with elite level student-athletes is going to benefit our team. I am looking forward to coaching with him and taking our women’s team to new heights in the MAC and in the NCAA’s.”

Walsh replaces Michael Camper who took a similar coaching position at the University of Pittsburgh last month. The former Duquesne swimmer brings four years of division I coaching experience to Buffalo as he spent his first three seasons at Marshall and his last at Cal Berkeley.

In his lone season at Cal Berkeley, Walsh was able to help guide the Golden Bears to a second place finish at the NCAA Championships while also posting four individual national champions and two relay team national champions. With Walsh’s assistance, the Golden Bears raced to a second place finish in the Pac-12 Championships while also posting five school records throughout the season.

During his tenure at Marshall, the Thundering Herd broke women’s swimming school records 28 times, finished a program-best third at the Conference USA Championships in February 2016 and produced four individual conference champions. Walsh primarily worked with the sprinters and middle-distance swimmers and served as the recruiting coordinator at Marshall. In 2015, the program was named one of the top 16 most improved teams at the NCAA Division I level and, in the fall of 2014, sported a fall team GPA of 3.53, which ranked as the fifth-highest in the country among women’s swimming teams.

While at Marshall, Walsh also served as head coach of the YMCA Charleston Aquatic Team from 2013-16.

Walsh spent one year as the head assistant coach at Albright College in Pennsylvania prior to his term at Marshall. He helped lead the men’s and women’s swimmers to a combined 13 school records and 19 individual or relay conference championships. Both teams captured the 2013 Middle Atlantic Conference title, and Walsh was part of a staff that received the league’s Coach of the Year award.

Walsh began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Bloomsburg University, where he implemented dryland and weight training programs for the sprint and middle-distance groups, as well as managed on-deck coaching responsibilities.

As an undergraduate student, Walsh had a stellar career at Duquesne University, setting school records in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke and being a member of two medley relays that set school marks. He won the Atlantic 10 title in the 100 breaststroke in 2009.

Wash received his degree in business administration in 2010 from Duquesne and later earned his master’s degree in business education from Bloomsburg University in 2011.

The above press release courtesy of Buffalo Athletics.

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Julie Straub

6 years ago

Good luck Ian.