Harvard Officially Begins Search For Men’s Swimming Head Coach

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, March 7. HARVARD University has officially posted its job offering for a men’s swimming and diving head coach, according to a letter sent to the fundraising arm of the women’s and men’s teams.

Harvard Athletic Director Bob Scalise sent the following letter Wednesday to the Friends of Harvard Swimming and Diving as the university begins a search to officially fill the vacancy left by Tim Murphy when he moved to coach the Penn State teams last August. Since then, Kevin Tyrrell has served in an interim capacity.

Dear Friend of Harvard Swimming and Diving:

When Tim Murphy left Harvard to become the head coach of the Penn State men’s and women’s swimming and diving program, I appointed Kevin Tyrrell as the interim head coach of our men’s program for the year. By University policy we are now charged with running a search process to name the Ulen-Brooks Endowed Coach of Harvard Men’s Swimming and Diving. The process for this search will mirror the process we have used to successfully select other head coaches. I have established a search committee and have asked Pat Henry, Senior Associate Athletic Director, to chair the committee which will also include Fred Schernecker ’89, Director of Harvard Men’s and Women’s Golf; Paul Gompers ’86, the Eugene Holman Professor of Business Administration at HBS; and Gary Brown, Associate Director of Athletics. As Athletic Director I will be a member of the Committee and will follow its activities closely.

We have recently posted the job and ask you to please encourage interested parties to apply. While we have an outstanding internal candidate, in order to be good stewards of the program, we believe it is in the best long-term interest of swimming and diving at Harvard to look outside as well and to do a full, thorough search for the next head coach. If you have comments/suggestions please feel free to share with us.

Our head coaches play a key role in the lives of our students so when such positions have opened up in the past we have used the following guidelines to fill the position. We have found that these steps have allowed us to be thorough but move quickly:

• The position is posted and widely advertised
• The search committee will review the candidates and begin narrowing the group to a small number of people for interviews
• A parallel process may identify a small list who may be recruited to apply
• During the interview process candidates will meet with the Committee as well as various administrators (Admissions, Dean’s Office, Alumni Affairs) at Harvard. We will also give each candidate a chance to meet with a group of students and a small group of alumni.
• Following the interviews we will gather input from all groups and the search committee will make a decision or bring in the finalists for a 2nd round of interviews
• At this point I may also choose to meet with each candidate again before a final decision is made
• We anticipate having a new coach on board as soon as we have completed a thorough search.
Please be aware that we are trying to find candidates who are the best fit with our swimming and diving program at Harvard. Ideally the new head coach is someone who:
• Will maintain the competitive excellence we have all come to expect of our swimming and diving program
• Will honor the commitments of the athletes to academic excellence
• Is a great educator who will have a positive influence on the lives of our students
• Will foster collegial relationships in the pool and across programs
• Will maintain the traditions of Harvard Swimming and Diving
• Will help to shape and positively influence the future of intercollegiate swimming and diving
• Will build on the legacy of Harvard Swimming and Diving

Pat Henry will serve as the point person for the process. Please be in touch with Pat (pwhenry@fas.harvard.edu) with any comments, concerns or suggestions you may have. Although Pat may not be able to reply directly to all emails, she will share all information with the members of the Search Committee for their consideration.

Many thanks for your continued interest in and support of Harvard Swimming and Diving and Harvard Athletics.

Sincerely,

Bob Scalise

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