LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) – UNLV has looked to its past for its coach of the future, as former assistant coach Ben Loorz (pronounced LORS) will become the fifth head coach in UNLV swimming and diving history, Director of Athletics Tina Kunzer-Murphy announced on Wednesday.
“I am truly humbled and honored to have the opportunity to lead the UNLV Swimming and Diving program,” said Loorz. “My wife, Jennie, and I are excited to once again be a part of the Rebel family.
“I want to thank Tina Kunzer-Murphy. Her belief in the future of the program, and her expectations of high-level success, are motivating. My previous tenure at UNLV has given me a strong vision for what the program is capable of, and we are going to immediately and systematically begin doing the work necessary. I look forward to providing leadership and mentoring as we pursue conference championships and elite-level finishes at the NCAA Championships.”
“We are excited to have Ben return to the Rebel family,” said Kunzer-Murphy. “He stood out early as the candidate who will give the program the best chance to keep its status as one of the top programs on the West Coast, a tradition that he helped to develop during his first time on the UNLV staff. The experience he gained as a head coach leading Cal State East Bay to multiple top-25 finishes will be invaluable as he returns to our campus.”
Loorz takes over the program after it spent the past year under the direction of interim coach Bobby Folan. Previous to that, the Rebel swimming and diving teams had been led by Jim Reitz, who retired in April of 2015 after 35 years and a total of 14 conference championships. Three of those league titles came while Loorz was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator under Reitz, from 2007-10, while the UNLV women also placed second in the Mountain West in 2008-09.
He left Las Vegas following the 2009-10 season for his first collegiate head coaching position at Cal State East Bay. In his six years as the head coach at CSU East Bay, Loorz led the Pioneers to three Pacific Collegiate Swimming Conference championship runner-up finishes (2012-13, 2013-14, 2015-16) as well as a 15th-place finish in the 2013-14 NCAA Division II Championships. His squad also placed in a tie for 21st at the 2012-13 national championship meet. Under Loorz, the Pioneers produced six All-Americans and he was named the PCSC Coach of the Year twice (2012-13, 2013-14) and Coach of the Championship Meet twice (2013-14, 2014-15).
Prior to his first time at UNLV, Loorz spent two years as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Utah (2005-07), where he helped coach the women’s squad to the MW championship meet title in 2006, and a regular-season crown in 2007. Loorz was a volunteer assistant for the women’s team at California for the 2004-05 season, and also an assistant coach for American River Community College in spring of 2004.
Other coaching experience for Loorz includes having spent the past five years as head coach of the EBAT Masters, a masters swimming program he founded at the CSU East Bay, while also serving as a coach for East Bay Aquatics for the post-grad and college level swimmers.
Loorz swam collegiately at American River College in Sacramento after graduating summa cum laude with a bachelor of music from University of Southern California in 1999. He also earned a Master of Science in Communication from Utah in 2008.