Western State College Names Brad Smith Head Swimming Coach

GUNNISON, Colorado, February 16. WESTERN State College of Colorado Athletic Director Dr. Greg Waggoner is excited to announce that Brad Smith will be the new head coach to restart the Mountaineer women's swimming and diving program. Smith will start his new duties no later than March 1.

"I'm excited to be a part of a wonderful community at an excellent institution for learning that has a long history of success in athletics," Smith said. "I'm really excited to have this program start up again and to be able to roll with it from the beginning."

Smith will begin this spring after spending the last three seasons as an assistant men's and women's swimming and diving coach at the University of Maine. As an assistant coach for the Black Bears, he coached the sprint, distance, specified strokes and the individual medley groups. Smith was involved in several aspects of the administrative side of the program, including meet entries, recruiting and academic monitoring.

Smith was part of a staff that coached the men's team to a fourth-place finish at the America East Championships in 2010 and 10 broken team records in 2011. The women had the highest team grade point average among all of the athletic programs at Maine in 2009 and had the highest team GPA among swimming programs in the conference in that same season.

Smith doubled as the Head Swim Coach and Assistant Aquatics Director at the Greater Burlington YMCA in Burlington, Vt., and as the director of operations for the women's swimming and diving program at the University of Vermont from Sept. 2007 through Oct. 2009. At the Burlington YMCA, he was responsible for training swimmers for the National Team, for budget, travel and scheduling of the short course and long course seasons and for maintaining the equipment and sponsorships. He had four swimmers ranked in the top 10 and one swimming ranked first by USA Swimming in 2009 among a team of 80 athletes. Smith coached six swimmers to the national championship meet between the long course and short course championships in 2009 and 13 team records were broken in 2007 and 2008.

At Vermont from 2007-09, he assisted in recruiting and with the preparation and management of home meets. He spent the previous season as the men's club swim coach and led the team to a third-place finish at the American Swimming Association University National Championships in 2007.

Smith was also the Head Swim Coach at the Burlington Country Club in the summer of 2008 and led the team to a fourth-place state championship, 12 first-place individual or relay championships and one state record.

"We are very excited to have Brad aboard," Waggoner said. "He is a high energy guy with great people skills and he comes highly recommended from some very credible people in the business. I think Brad will be a great fit for Western and get our women's swim program launched in fine fashion."

Smith graduated with a B.S. in Art Education from Vermont in 2007. He was the recipient of the Joe Fischer Award for dedication, commitment and excellence in swimming from Vermont in 2003. Smith holds memberships in the American Swimming Coaches Association and USA Swimming and is ASCA Level 3 Swimming Physiology certified.

Western State last sponsored women's swimming and diving at the varsity level from 1981-84 and posted a pair of top five finishes at the NAIA National Championships. The Mountaineers posted 32 All-Americans and won three RMAC Championships during the four seasons.

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.

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use