Cal Poly swimming and diving coach Tom Milich announced that he will retire at the end of the season after 14 years leading the men’s and women’s programs.
Since arriving at Cal Poly in 2006, Milich’s Mustangs won 20 individual conference titles and sent five swimmers to the NCAA Championships.
“I’m very thankful for the opportunity to have been able to coach at Cal Poly for the past 14 years,” Milich said in a university statement. “I’m extremely proud of all the accomplishments, both in and out of the pool, of the athletes I have had the privilege to coach during my tenure at Cal Poly. I’m appreciative for the support from the staff and my colleagues at Cal Poly. The relationships that I have built with both my colleagues and student-athletes will continue to be very special to me.”
Among his best swimmers were Philippine national-record holder Jimmy Deiparine and honorable mention All-American Sonny Fierro. Milich has mentored 157 conference all-academic honorees. Since the 2009-10 season, the program has achieved a perfect annual NCAA Academy Progress Rate eight times. He also oversaw the upgrades of the Anderson Aquatic Facility in 2009.
“Tom has served this university with distinction for 14 years, working with hundreds of student-athletes whose talents in the pool are only eclipsed by their talents in the classroom,” Cal Poly director of athletics Don Oberhelman said. “His tenure includes developing All-Americans, conference champions, scholar-athletes and, most importantly, Cal Poly graduates. Men’s and women’s swimming and diving are consistently leaders in the department in team grade-point average and Academic Progress Rate scores. Coach Milich is one of the most popular figures in our program, and we will miss his steady approach to developing great Mustangs.”
Cal Poly was, however, hit with significant rules violations by the NCAA last April after self-reporting the impressible payment of benefits to student-athletes through overpaid textbook stipends. The penalty, which the school appealed in October, involved 265 student-athletes in 18 sports and led to reduction of win totals in swimming as part of two years of probation.
Milich, a 12-time American Swimming Coaches Association Coach of Excellence award winner, spent 16 years as the aquatics director at Clovis Swim Club before Cal Poly. Such American standouts at Janet Evans, John Moffet and John Mykkanen called Clovis home under his watch.
Milich hails from a water polo background, as a former player at Long Beach State. He coached Fresno State from 1989-92, and won international medals as an assistant for the U.S. at the 1988 U.S. men’s Olympic (silver), 1991 Pan-Am Games (silver) and 1991 World Championships (gold).