{"id":590266,"date":"2024-06-27T11:23:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T18:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=590266"},"modified":"2024-06-27T11:23:02","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T18:23:02","slug":"west-virginia-hires-alum-michael-walker-as-associate-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/west-virginia-hires-alum-michael-walker-as-associate-head-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"West Virginia Hires Alum Michael Walker as Associate Head Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>West Virginia Hires Alum Michael Walker as Associate Head Coach<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>New West Virginia coach <strong>Brent MacDonald<\/strong> on Monday hired former Mountaineer <strong>Michael Walker<\/strong> as an associate head coach.<\/p>\n<p>Walker swam in Morgantown from 2005-09, a team captain in the 2007-08 season. He helped lead the Mountaineers to the Big East championship in 2007 and was a three-time Big East champ in the 200 back and 400 IM in 2008-09. He finished 11th in the 400 IM at NCAAs in 2009 and qualified for U.S. Olympic Trials in 2008.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am extremely humbled to represent the Mountaineers once again,\u201d Walker said <a href=\"https:\/\/wvusports.com\/news\/2024\/6\/24\/mens-swimming-diving-walker-named-associate-head-coach-for-wvu-swimming-and-diving.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in a university statement<\/a>. \u201cThis place is truly home to me and my family. I am incredibly grateful to Athletics Director Wren Baker, coach MacDonald, and the entire athletic department leadership for this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Walker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/texas-am-adds-michael-walker-as-assistant-coach\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">was an assistant coach<\/a> at Texas A&amp;M for the 2023-24 season. From 2018-23, he was an assistant coach and then associate head coach at Delaware.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/meet\/big-12-swimming\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Big 12 Swimming News<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Walker\u2019s coaching career began in 2010 with five seasons at the Bolles School in Jacksonville, serving as an assistant coach for <strong>Sergio Lopez,<\/strong> Walker\u2019s head coach at West Virginia. He was the head coach of the Guatemalan national team for two years, including at the 2015 Pan Am Games and 2015 World Championships. Walker was the head coach of Fairmont Area Swim Team (FAST) in West Virginia and an assistant coach at Fairmount State from 2016-18.<\/p>\n<p>Walker is one of the first hires for MacDonald, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/brent-macdonald-hired-as-west-virginia-swimming-coach\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hired last month as head coach<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt took me very little time after being named head coach at WVU to realize that Michael would be my main target for associate head coach,\u201d MacDonald said. \u201cIt\u2019s not very often a candidate can pair a diverse coaching background with being an alum and native son of West Virginia. He and I are aligned on the potential we see for this program, and it will be great working alongside him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>West Virginia Hires Alum Michael Walker as Associate Head Coach New West Virginia coach Brent MacDonald on Monday hired former Mountaineer Michael Walker as an associate head coach. Walker swam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8367,"featured_media":400573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[65633,65998,30220,132686,2754],"class_list":["post-590266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college","tag-big-12-conference-coverage","tag-big-12-swimming","tag-brent-macdonald","tag-michael-walker","tag-west-virginia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is 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