USA Swimming press release update on Feb. 2
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, February 1. FRANK Busch will be named USA Swimming's National Team Director tomorrow morning. Busch is expected to begin his duties in May. Busch confirmed with Swimming World that he broke the news to his team during practice today. USA Swimming then confirmed with a press release on Feb. 2. The complete release is found below.
Busch has been the head coach of the University of Arizona for more than two decades. His time with the team included a pair of NCAA team championships in 2008. Busch has coached at all levels of the sport, with a coaching career beginning at the age of 16 when he began coaching his Brookwood Country Club summer league teammates when no other coach showed up. After seven summers (1967-74), Busch moved on to coach at the Northern Kentucky Piranhas from 1974 to 1978. He then coached a year at the senior program of the Cincinnati Marlins.
His next step came via college coaching at the University of Cincinnati from 1980-89, where he took the team to Top 25 rankings. During his 22-year career at Arizona, Busch coached his teams to 48 individual titles and 31 relay wins at the NCAA Division I level. Busch has also been named the NCAA Coach of the Year six times, as well as the Pac-10 Coach of the Year 11 times.
Busch also knows his way around the USA Swimming landscape, and has served on several national team coaching staffs including the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. His national team experience began as the 1993 World University Games coach, and continued with the 1997 head coaching gig of the Pan Pacific Games team. He also served on the U.S. staff at the 1998 World Championships, 1999 Pan Pacific Games and 2003 World Championships.
More recently, Michael Alexandrov, Amanda Beard, Annie Chandler and Christine Magnuson all made the 2010 Pan Pacific Championships on the U.S. roster under his tutelage. He also has been selected as the head coach of the 2011 World Championships team. During his career, Busch has produced 34 Olympians, including 10 medalists.
USA Swimming has confirmed that it will be making an announcement regarding the National Team Director position tomorrow morning. USA Swimming, however, would not provide Swimming World with any official confirmation regarding a hiring.
Swimming Worldhas been scheduled to have the first exclusive interview with the new National Team Director on the Morning Swim Show shortly after an official announcement has been made.
Busch replaces interim National Team Leader Jim Wood. Wood stepped into the temporary position shortly after finishing his time as USA Swimming President. Wood replaced Mark Schubert, who had a permanent parting of the ways with USA Swimming after the organization put him on a temporary leave of absence.
USA Swimming Press Release
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – USA Swimming today named two-time Olympic coach Frank Busch (Tucson, Ariz.) as its National Team Director. Busch brings a wealth of coaching experience to the role, including 31 years as head coach at the University of Arizona and the University of Cincinnati, where he coached more than 30 swimmers to the Olympics.
Busch was selected as the National Team Director following a worldwide search that USA Swimming began in November of 2010. Candidates were reviewed by an Application Review Committee, which included both coach and athlete representation.
"Frank Busch's accomplishments are extraordinary, but equally important is the fact that he is a person of impeccable character and highly respected by athletes and coaches," said USA Swimming Executive Director Chuck Wielgus. "Frank will bring a lifetime of experience and wisdom to this new role, and he will represent our sport and our country in a manner that will give us all great pride."
"This is a unique opportunity for me to continue my work with athletes and coaches at every level of our sport," Busch said. "I'll be working with a terrific organization and I can't wait to be a part of the leadership and direction of USA Swimming."
In his role as the National Team Director, Busch will provide the overall vision and leadership for America's top swim coaches and elite swimmers. He will also be directly involved in developing talent and mentoring coaches, participating in USA Swimming's international relations efforts, formulating the high performance plan and managing USA Swimming's National Team staff. Busch will serve as the National Team Leader at international competitions, working with the appointed head men's and women's coaches to prepare U.S. athletes to compete at the highest international level.
Busch, who has been the head coach at the University of Arizona for the past 22 years, will relinquish his coaching responsibilities there and with Tucson Ford Dealers Aquatics in order to focus on this position full-time. He will be based at the USA Swimming headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., and will begin fulfilling duties in this role beginning on May 2, 2011. His term will last through 2016.
Busch has demonstrated coaching success at all levels – club, college and international. At the club level, Busch was both the head coach and Executive Director for Tucson Ford Dealers Aquatics from 1989 to 2011. During his tenure, the team earned two National Championship team titles and Busch helped develop 34 Olympians, including 10 medalists.
At the collegiate level, Busch coached the University of Cincinnati swim team from 1980 to 1989. During that time he led both the men's and women's team to top 20 NCAA Championship finishes, a first in the history of the school's program. Since joining the University of Arizona in 1989, the legendary coach has produced over 48 NCAA individual national champions and 31 NCAA relay champions. Busch also led the Wildcats to the 2008 NCAA Men's and Women's national championship titles, becoming only the second team in NCAA swimming history to sweep the men's and women's national championships in the same season while being led by the same coaching staff. Busch has been named the Pac-10 coach-of-the-year 11 times, and the NCAA coach-of-the-year six times.
At the international level, Busch has contributed to Team USA's international success having served as an assistant coach for both the 2004 and 2008 U.S. Olympic Swim Teams and as a part of three World Championship coaching staffs in 1998, 2003 and 2006.
"The National Team Director position requires a leader with a unique combination of technical swimming skills and leadership experience," Wielgus said. "We are thrilled to have Frank on our team and we are confident that having him at the helm of our National Team will have a significant and positive impact on the future Olympic and international success of USA Swimming."