http://swimswam.com/2012/04/carol-capitani-to-coach-longhorn-women/

Seems like Capitani is not an obvious choice. Not splashy, not a head coach, no current Olympians (?).

Re olympians... allison schmitt and wendy trott disagree with you. romano forthcoming.

besides, Texas doesn't have any either, so why worry?

I admit I didn't check the Olympian issue.

I would want a coach with a proven record developing Olympians.

Texas has one potential Olympian - Bispo. I do not know who she is training with though.

This should be a huge improvement from Brackin but I still don't think they got the best coach available. I think Dorsey would have been the better hire. Georgia has been underproducing at NCAA's. Oh well, at least they won't have to taper for Big 12's any more...

Interesting fact: The head coaches for the two power women's teams in the state have both come directly from the Georgia program.

[This message has been edited by Look Out Below (edited 4/20/2012 10:45a).]

well if we're going down that road then Texas has several potential olympians. sogar, bispo, and gingrich come to mind.

LOB - i thought steve collins went to Florida State?

I don't think it's a BAD hire. Everyone seems to like her.

Of course, everyone liked Kim coming out of Auburn as well.

I'm not so much surprised by who they decided to hire...I'm more surprised by who they didn't even talk to.

Schmitt will do her Olympic prep at NBAC, not sure if that counts as Capitani's (unless you count Hersey as a Brackin Olympian...). Trott is a South African Olympian, wouldn't necessarily make the American team, but should be an Olympian none the less (though no guarantee ever in SA).

Bispo is now training with Eddie and the boys. Don't know if she'll come back to work with Capitani.

I wonder if Eddie Reese was consulted on the hire. That would say a lot about the womens AD if he wasn't. I wonder if Texas will schedule A&M for a dual meet now. Any word on Jim Henry staying in Austin?

Reese and Kubik were both on the search committee.

[This message has been edited by AGBlastoff (edited 4/20/2012 11:37a).]

Blastoff - Trott came 9th in the 800 and 12th in the 400 at Beijing... She's not just an Olympian, she's a pretty good one.

I gotta agree, I think Dorsey might have been a better hire...

As for Brackin being liked coming outta Auburn, I dunno. A lot of people didn't think that hire was very good, just going off what I heard through the grapevine.

Maroon - As far as press releases go, I *think* the men will still swim each other from what I've seen. Holmes certainly said as much when discussing the move

[This message has been edited by Aquabullet (edited 4/20/2012 11:49a).]

Blastoff...I would not count Hershey as a Brackin Olympian as she went to the Olympics the summer before her freshman season and subsequently went south under Brackin before jumping ship. It will be interesting to see how many of the UT girls improve with an up grade in coaching.

I don't think anyone remotely close to college swimming would associate Hersey with Brackin in a positive way.

I think the only potential Olympian is Bispo. Sogar is nowhere near Soni, Hardy, and Larson in any distance.

Maybe Gingrich will swim better, but I don't think she can A final at Trials in anything. Bispo would kill her in the 200 - Bispo's best chance is the 4x200 relay.

Trott made the Olympic Team the summer before freshman year as well ;-). Like I said, she probably won't swim a time fast enough tomorrow that would have made the American Team, regardless of how fast she swam in 2008.

What I'm curious about is Capitani's husband. I seem to recall her almost moving to Singapore (or moving and coming back?) because of his work once before.

Sounds like a decent hire..

Her husband worked for a software company, SAP. Austin might be a good spot for him.

I wonder if they will have any cast offs now that the coach is hired.

How did Nakita swim at the Russian trials? Any more aggies make the Olympics? We should get a few from Mexico. On another note, Julia's website is awsome! It would be great to get a picture of all the girls at the Olympics.

Not sure how Nikita spells his name in the Cyrillic alphabet, but here's the results if someone wants to dig through.

http://russwimming.ru/upload/live/moscow_olympictrial/index.html

Also, I'm 90% sure that Gingrich probably won't even swim at Trials.