New Pittsburgh head coach John Hargis continues to fill out his staff, hiring former UNLV interim head coach Bobby Folan as a new program assistant.
The school announced the move Friday. Folan, an Australian national, competed at Connecticut back in the early 2000s. He moved into the coaching realm with Texas, serving as a volunteer assistant for three years before returning to Australia until 2012. He was hired on as an assistant at UNLV, and was eventually promoted to interim head coach in 2015 when longtime UNLV coach Jim Reitz retired.
This spring, UNLV hired Ben Loorz away from Cal State East Bay to be that program’s new head coach, and Hargis has now hired Folan as the sixth and final member of Pitt’s new-look staff.
Hargis left an assistant coaching job at Auburn to take over the Pitt program when Pitt’s longtime head coach Chuck Knoles retired. Shortly after, Hargis announced three new assistants, Sarah Dunleavy, Marc Christian and James Smith.
Diving coach Julian Krug was the lone holdover from the previous staff. Krug has been coaching at Pitt for 37 seasons.
Pitt’s press release indicates that Folan will work primarily with the team’s sprinters, and also serve as the team’s director of international recruiting.
Nice hire for Pitt. I give them 3 years and they are in the top 10 in men OR women at NCAAs.
So Hargis AND Folan both have worked with Jim at UNLV. Great coaches as far as I know.
Huge pick up for the program