Tennessee Promotes Sarah Collins to Full-Time Assistant Coach

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Tennessee Promotes Sarah Collins to Full-Time Assistant Coach

The University of Tennessee is promoting Sarah Collins to a full assistant coaching position, the school announced on Monday.

Collins served as a volunteer assistant in the 2021-22 season and is returning in a larger capacity on coach Matt Kredich’s staff.

“We are incredibly fortunate to be able to bring a coach of Sarah’s experience, skills and ability into our team,” Kredich said in a press release. “Sarah has great experience at a variety of levels and circumstances, and has been tremendously successful at every level of our sport. She understands what it takes to drive and sustain an elite team culture, and resonates with the culture, history and vision of Tennessee Swimming and Diving. She was great in her volunteer role for us a couple of years ago, and I’m thrilled to bring her onboard full time.”

SEC Swimming News

Collins helped Tennessee’s women’s team win the SEC title last year, the program’s second conference championship. Knoxville is the latest stop of many in the journey for Collins, a 2012 graduate of Purdue.

“I’m thrilled to join the staff at Tennessee and to be back on pool deck,” Collins said. “It’s evident that Rocky Top is a place that’s full of passion and pride. The team is made up of highly motivated student-athletes who exude that every day through their work ethic and attitude. I’d like to thank Matt Kredich for bringing me on board. He’s built a top-tier program and culture. I’m excited to learn from and work with him as well as the rest of the coaching staff. Go Vols!”

Collins was a three-time Academic All-Big Ten pick with the Boilermakers. She served as a team captain and won the athletic department’s John Wooden Leadership Award her senior season.

Her coaching career started in the 2012-13 season at Illinois State, where she worked with the sprint and IM groups. She spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Kentucky, where she worked with five NCAA qualifiers and five Olympic Trials qualifiers. Collins made the jump to Pitt in 2016-17, where she was an assistant coach and director of women’s recruiting.

Those stops landed her at the University of California from 2017-19, where she helped the Golden Bears’ women’s team finish as NCAA runner-up in 2018 and 2019, coaching Olympic medalist Abbey Weitzeil, among others. Collins then spent two years as a recruiting consultant for the Sierra Marlins, based out of Folsom, California. Her husband, Rob Collins, was the CEO and head coach of that program and joined Tennessee as an assistant coach in 2021.

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