University of Minnesota associate head coach Jeff Kostoff, 57, has announced his retirement from coaching. He spent the last four seasons of his career on deck with the Gophers.
“Working with the Gophers for these four years has been a tremendous honor,” Kostoff said. “I’m forever grateful for all of the student-athletes, fellow coaches, and everyone else who made my time at the ‘U’ so wonderful. This sport has provided me countless memories that I’ll never forget, and I’ll carry them with me into my next chapter.”
Best known for his exploits in the pool, Kostoff is a two-time US Olympian, 5-time NCAA Champion, and a member of the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame. During his collegiate career, he also swam on two U.S. World Championship teams, setting 12 American records from 1982-86 and winning three NCAA team championships from 1985-87. Kostoff graduated from Stanford in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History.
Until 2007, he held the Stanford record in the men’s 1,650 freestyle for 21 years, and from 1983 until just a few months before starting his coaching career, had a 30-year reign as the fastest 500 freestyler in the history of high school swimming. That record was broken in 2013 Jack Conger, who was a 4:13.87 to Kostoff’s 4:16.39.
Kostoff also spent time coaching at his alma mater, Stanford, for three years and at Indiana for three years.
Prior to Indiana, he was working in the Washington DC area in the technology industry, and was an assistant coach at Maryland from 1993 to 1997.
“Jeff is a wonderful person and coach. While he earned icon status as a swimmer in our sport, I would argue he has meant more to this sport as a coach,” said head coach Kelly Kremer. “Jeff is kind and caring, and he gave his all for our student athletes. He has touched countless lives. We are going to miss him dearly.”
A recent Minnesota staff restructuring, which didn’t include any changes to contracts, saw promotions for Mike Joyce (men’s team) and Stacy Busack (women’s team) to be head coaches of the respective swimming programs, with Kelly Kremer being named the Director of Swimming and Diving.
Other Gophers Weigh In:
Rising senior Chris Nagy on the impact Kostoff has had on him during his time with the Gophers: “Jeff is one of the most caring, funny, and knowledgeable people you could ever meet. I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to swim for him and learn from him for the past three years,” said Nagy. “Jeff is one of the main reasons that I decided to come to Minnesota in the first place, and I will forever be grateful that I did. He created an amazingly welcoming and hardworking training environment that made you want to come to practice every day. I’ll never forget the memories I made with Jeff, and I only wish him the best going forward.”
Associate Coach for Swimming and Diving Maddy Olson on how Kostoff has been a guiding force for her during their time together: “Jeff has become an incredible mentor to me,” Associate Coach Maddy Olson said. “I am very thankful for the time that we got to share a pool deck together. The impact he has made on myself, our student-athletes and the sport of swimming is great.”
Two-time All-American and Big Ten Champion Megan Van Berkom on her experience with Kostoff: “Jeff has been an awesome coach and mentor for me. I have learned so much from him and am very grateful for the time I was able to spend training and learning from his expertise in swimming,” said Van Berkom. “I will also miss all the home cooked meals, laughter and fun times we have had together with our training group. I wish him all the best in the future.”
Jeff you are and always will be a great coach and mentor. It was great to get to know you on deck and off. I wish you well my friend.
Any thoughts that the Coach with the LLC (former Gopher coach) may be back “in the mix”
The Gopher program has really gone down the drain over the last 7 or 8 years. Pitiful.
A man whose whole life has revolved around this sport, decided to retire from it for what I am sure is a very good reason. This has nothing to do with the program. Instead of disrespecting the place he retired from how about we honor this man and everything he has done for this sport. You truly are pitiful.
I was lucky enough to be coached by Jeff. He’s a walking legend who has great insight and ideas about the sport. His Panama hat and red suits will be dearly missed on the pool deck. Doing the hardest sets of my life every Sinatra Saturday morning has left it’s mark to this day – that music still makes me tense up.
Jeff creates great swimmers everywhere he goes, and D1 programs should have been fighting to have him as head coach.
Good luck with the next chapter, glad you’ll be able to stay closer to family, and hope to still see you in the swimming universe some more
Well earned retirement old friend and competitor…it was an Honor swimming against you.
Go Columbia, TONY
Real recognizing Real 🔥
I dont get the assumption that every good college swim coach aspires to be a head college swim coach. Maybe he felt his skill set would be best applied as an assistant.
Jeff interviewed for the Stanford head coaching job when Ted Knapp retired in 2019 (he was one of the assistant or associate coaches then). He was disappointed when Dan Schemmel got the job.
I had the pleasure of swimming for Jeff in college- the expertise, passion, and Panama hat he brought to the pool deck daily will certainly be missed. Anyone around the sport who spent time around Jeff can attest to his unique ability to extract the most out of his swimmers (through utterly brutal but specialized workouts) while establishing a uniquely lighthearted environment. Without Jeff’s strategic race plans and training, there is no way my teammates and I would have achieved the goals we had set out for.
Honestly, I am somewhat bewildered by no other programs picking him up as a head coach. He is truly a diamond in the rough, but nevertheless sending all the best in his… Read more »
I won’t discredit his knowledge as a swim coach.
But I will say two things:
1) It’s hard to build championship programs around distance coaches, and
2) Jeff is not always the easiest person on earth to work with.
Those are probably the two things that prevented him from getting a head coaching position.
Sure, getting passed up once or twice for a gig can just be the AD didn’t like you. But when you have worked with the programs he has, have the resume he has, and you get passed up as many times as Jeff has (including having a younger coach get promoted over him at Minnesota, and a younger coach get the head gig at his… Read more »
I am sure they knew about his retirement well before they announced the coaching change. I am also sure he has been offered head coaching positions before. Sometimes that’s not what people want.
COREY CHITWOOD TIME BABY