Matt Leach Explains Why Iowa State Was the Best Decision for His Coaching Path and Family

Sam Hoekstra was an NCAA All-American for Louisville, graduating in 2013. Since then, Hoekstra has stayed close to the sport via coaching club and doing clinics for Fitter and Faster. Hoekstra wasn't swimming regularly, though, and certainly not sprinting regularly. However, after the idea of sprinting a 50 free for 100 days straight was presented to him, Hoekstra decided to give it a go. His first 50 was 22.2 (25-yard pool). After the first week, he switched from a brief to wearing a tech suit. He didn't do any in-pool warm-up or warm-down before or after the 50 sprint, but he did do a dryland warmup routine for safety and injury prevention. He didn't do any other form of exercise outside of this during the 100 days. On day 100, Hoekstra swam his fastest 50 of the entire experiment, 20.4. Listen to what Hoekstra learned during this process as well as what he will now carry over into his workout routine moving forward.

Blaire Anderson was recently named Director of Swimming & Diving at Texas A&M University, marking a big turning point in Aggie swimming history. With coaches Steve Bultman and Jay Holmes stepping down after their combined 60+ years at the helm of the respective women's and men's programs, Anderson looks to build upon the legacy that is already palpable in College Station. Anderson has already hired 3 coaches for her staff and is looking forward to continuing to build the network of people she trusts around her. The former UVA Associate Head Coach is excited at the potential that she sees for the Aggies moving from two separate programs into a combined one.

University of Virginia swimming hosted a media day for a number of their top athletes and coaches. Listen to Alex and Gretchen Walsh, Todd DeSorbo, Kate Douglass, and Jack Aikins field questions from the national media before the upcoming US Olympic Trials next month in Indianapolis. 

SwimSwam's Coleman Hodges sat down with Ben Loorz, the new head coach of swimming & diving at the University of Arizona. Loorz breaks down why this was the right move for both him and his family at this time as well as how he plans to start carrying out his vision for UofA in these first few weeks. Loorz is coming from UNLV, where he was the head coach for 8 seasons and produced NCAA qualifiers in all of them.

This week on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discuss the Canadian Olympic Trials, the Mid-May flurry of meets in the US, and if any of the swims this past weekend moved the needle on the Paris Podiums. 

Joining us today, we have a man in his 33rd year of coaching college swimming, 28 of those years as head coach. He is a 4-time Big Ten Coach of Year. Today we have The Ohio State Director of Swimming & Diving, William "Bill" Dorenkott.

Chase Kalisz is a 2x Olympian and the reigning Olympic champion in the 400 IM. He's gearing up for his 4th Olympic Trials, which are just one month away, with a training camp in Colorado Springs. His coach there, Bob Bowman, has thrown some pretty gnarly sets at him throughout the last couple weeks, which Kalisz explains. The former Georgia Bulldog also speaks about recovery away from practice, his mentality heading into his 4th Olympic Trials, and the importance of his sponsors heading into Indianapolis.

This week in the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discuss the Brazilian Olympic Trials, the Sydney Open, and the upcoming May Meets in the USA

Olympic medalist and World Champion Alex Walsh and NCAA swimming superstar  Gretchen Walsh, take us behind the scenes of their latest SPORTI collab, the Star Spangled Summer Collection.  The collection is inspired by Americana vibes as a nod to the country’s, and the sister’s, collective spirit going into the 2024 Olympic Summer. Coming off of UVA's 2024 NCAA Championship Team Title, the Walsh Sister dove right into their SPORTI photo capture for this collection.  They only took a few days off.  They did the photo shoot and launched their STAR SPANGLED SUMMER COLLECTION May 8th.  A lot had to happen to make this collection a success. We talk about that process, and we look ahead to the Olympic summer and the Walsh Sister's goals in the pool.   Notably, Alex unpacks her decision to take a 5th year UVA...and she was on the fence about doing it.  The Walsh Sisters cover a lot of ground in this podcast. We hope you like it!

Matt Leach was recently announced as the new head coach for Iowa State Swimming and Diving. This surprised many as Leach had massive success at his last stop, Washington State, and most likely could have landed a job at a more traditional powerhouse. However, Leach explains that his first priority is family and his wife's parents live nearby. He also dives into his coaching journey and why building a team into a family is much more fulfilling to him than having the status of coaching at a Top-10 swimming program.