Matthew Gearing Hired As Assistant Coach at Little Rock Swimming & Diving

Photo Courtesy: Little Rock Swimming and Diving

The Little Rock swimming and diving team has hired Matthew Gearing as the new assistant swimming coach, as announced by the program on Thursday.

“I am beyond excited to welcome Matthew to the family,” said head coach Amy Burgess, entering her 13th year at the helm of the Trojans this season. “With his enthusiasm and experience he is going to make an immediate impact in our program, help continue our growth in the Missouri Valley Conference and develop NCAA qualifiers.”

Gearing joins Little Rock swimming and diving after spending the last year with the Indiana Hoosiers, a powerhouse program whose women finished third in the Big Ten conference this past season and were projected to place within the top eight teams at the NCAA DI Championships before the meet’s cancellation. He began as a volunteer assistant coach in May 2019 and was promoted to a full-time assistant in February this year.

At Indiana, Matthew Gearing played a role in the recruiting process as well as logistics within the team. Not only was he responsible for creating workouts for the mid-sprint group, but Gearing also tracked every training group’s volume and intensity throughout the season to analyze effectiveness and suggest future improvements. He also coordinated Indiana’s social media accounts, notably boosting their team Instagram page to become the most-followed collegiate swimming and diving team account at the time.

Gearing also directly assisted in the preparation of several professional athletes for the now-postponed 2020 Olympics, including well-known swimmers such as world record holder Lilly King, American record holder Zane Grothe, bronze medalist Cody Miller, and relay gold medalist Blake Pieroni.

Before joining the Hoosiers, Gearing studied at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina, serving as an volunteer assistant coach for the Division II swimming and diving team all four years of his undergraduate experience before receiving his degree in exercise and sports science. He helped the Royals to eight DII National Championships between the men’s and women’s teams during his time there, assisting with operations and management.

Concurrently, Gearing also worked as a volunteer assistant coach with the club Team Elite Aquatics directly under David Marsh, the head coach of the 2016 United States women’s Olympic team. He organized training plans for various athletes at the National team level as well as handled communication administratively.

“I am extremely excited to be heading to Little Rock and joining the Trojans for what is sure to be an interesting year in college swimming,” said Matthew Gearing. “I also want to thank Amy Burgess and George Lee for this opportunity to help grow and challenge the program. Throughout the process I left every phone call knowing that Amy was someone I wanted to work for. I’ve had some amazing opportunities over the past few years and I’m excited to bring what I’ve learned to Little Rock and learn a lot more along the way. Both Amy and I are really looking forward to see what these amazing women can accomplish both in the pool and the classroom.”

The Trojans, which expanded their program from 22 to 30 members last year and will now have 36 swimmers and divers during the 2020-21 season, competes at the Division I level in the Missouri Valley Conference.

— The above press release was posted by Swimming World in conjunction with Little Rock Swimming & Diving. For press releases and advertising inquiries please contact Advertising@SwimmingWorld.com.

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