Cal Assistant unofficially named Pitt Head Swim Coach

[Nfred38]

https://swimswam.com/cal-assistant-chase-kreitler-will-be-the-next-head-coach-pitt-informs-athletes/

Kreitler has spent the last eight seasons as assistants with Cal's men's team, Stanford's women's team, and Texas's men's team. All of which are considered the very top programs in the country. Stanford women won three national titles from 2017-2019, Texas is the winningest men's program of all time including five national titles since 2015, and Cal has finished either first or second at the national championship meet since 2012, including a national title this season. While Kreitler does not appear to have any head coaching experience, his recent coaching resume rivals any assistant in the country. As stated in the article, he is also credited with working with 2019 NCAA Swimmer of the year and 2020 Tokyo Olympian Andrew Seliskar.

 

[pittchagg]

Kreitler’s tenure at Eastern Michigan might have briefly overlapped with Lyke’s - Kreitler was at EMU from 2011-2013, and Lyke was hired there in 2013. Even if they never met, there’s likely a little bit of familiarity there, even if it’s from a “the assistant who just left was a really good coach” reputation perspective.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

That seems like a good hire.

 

[pittchagg]

The salary information included in the article would put Pitt comfortably in the top-25 swimming coach salaries in the country, based on a report from the same website in February.

 

[mike412]

It seems like after a few paid assistant positions he took non-paying positions at Stanford and Texas before taking a paid position at Cal. I’m wondering how much he was involved in recruiting as a volunteer assistant. That is going to be a key to rebuilding this program.

 

[pittchagg]

It seems like after a few paid assistant positions he took non-paying positions at Stanford and Texas before taking a paid position at Cal. I’m wondering how much he was involved in recruiting as a volunteer assistant. That is going to be a key to rebuilding this program.

His bio at Cal indicates that he “worked directly with all of Texas’ training groups, performed video analysis, and assisted with recruiting.” I’m not sure what the NCAA allows or doesn’t allow from volunteers in recruiting, but it looks like he did whatever he was allowed to do. And he was only at Stanford very briefly, maybe only a couple months, before the paid position at Cal opened up.

 

[pittchagg]

It’s official, with some really glowing quotes:

NCAA Champion Assistant Chase Kreitler Named Pitt Head Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Coach - Pitt Panthers #H2P

PITTSBURGH—Chase Kreitler, who earned stature as one of college swimming's top assistants while working at perennial NCAA power California, has been named the new

pittsburghpanthers.com

 

[Nfred38]

Here is a video by Swimswam, one of the leaders in worldwide swimming coverage, where their analysts speak about the hiring of Chase Kreitler and compare that with Notre Dame's recent hiring of another top-tier assistant. The crew seems to be split on which one they think will have had more success in five-years time, and given that Notre Dame isn't going through nearly the rebuilding process as Pitt, the fact that it is a close comparison seems to be a positive for Panther fans.

They begin talking about Kreitler at the 3:10 mark in the video.

 

[zookeeper2000]

He looks like he’d be Dan Fisher’s brother.

 

[mike412]

Is there a swimming transfer portal? Maybe some of the Cal swimmers who couldn’t be regulars there might follow him to Pitt.

By the way, isn’t it about time to update the reference to the “Big East” swimming and diving team in the Olympic Sports lead-in blurb? It’s been nine (?) years already.

 

[HOF Coach]

 

[Nfred38]

Is there a swimming transfer portal? Maybe some of the Cal swimmers who couldn’t be regulars there might follow him to Pitt.

By the way, isn’t it about time to update the reference to the “Big East” swimming and diving team in the Olympic Sports lead-in blurb? It’s been nine (?) years already.

There is a portal for swimming, however it is only accessible to certain people like coaches / media. I happen to work for a local college team which is active on the portal so I do hear rumblings and such, however if any Cal member were to transfer, it would likely be bigger news. I have heard rumors that a few schools across the country (one of them being our friends a few hours east) are being forced to reduce roster sizes due to decreases in funding, so from those schools there will likely be an influx of transfers looking for a new home. Some of the programs too, I heard, were top 25 programs.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

There is a portal for swimming

There's actually a portal for every sport.