The DC Trident of the International Swimming League (ISL) have announced former UCLA head coach Cyndi Gallagher as their first-ever head coach. Gallagher retired as the head coach of the UCLA women’s swimming & diving team in May after 31 years in charge.
What’s more, the team has added Rachel Stratton-Mills and Stefanie Moreno of their staff, committing to have an all-female coaching staff. Stratton-Mills is the associate head coach at Arizona State, while Moreno is the associate head coach at Georgia.
“Along with the roster that we’ve been able to construct, this incredible coaching staff makes me very proud,” said Kaitlin Sandeno, General Manager of D.C. Trident. “It’s not every day that you can say you’re making history, but this group of amazing, talented, experienced and passionate women is truly making history by becoming one of the first all-female coaching staff in professional sports.”
Editor’s note: The Indiana Fever of the WNBA have an all-female coaching staff, and the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA have an all-female on-court coaching staff with a male strength and conditioning coach.
Sandeno attended and swam for USC – which is the traditional cross-town rivalry school of UCLA.
In Gallagher’s career at UCLA, the swimming & diving team produced 11 Olympians, 21 Pac-10/Pac-12 Champions, and 91 NCAA All-Americans. She has also coached internationally as head coach for the USA at the 2007 World University Games and was an assistant at the 1997, 2005, and 2007 World University Games. She was also responsible for coaching 3 swimmers at the 2008 Olympic Games – Kim Vandenberg, Amanda Beard, and Singapore’s Nicolette Teo.
Stratton-Mills currently is associate head coach at Arizona State, and has previously served as an assistant at Dartmouth and Maryland. She was the head coach for the 2011 National Select Camp and a member of the US coaching staff at the 2012 Short Course World Championships and 2011 World Junior Championships. While coaching at Asphalt Green in New York City, she trained then-high school student Lia Neal on to the 2012 Olympic Team where she won a bronze medal as part of the team’s 400 free relay. Neal is now a team captain with another ISL team, the New York Breakers.
Moreno was a 28-time NCAA All-American and 4-time national champion at Georgia as an athlete, is now the program’s associate head coach. She’s spent 1 season in that role after 6 seasons as an assistant. Prior to her return to Georgia as a coach, she spent 4 years as an assistant and associate head coach at Ohio State, and another 3 as an assistant at Missouri.
The DC Trident kick off their season on October 5th and 6th in Indianapolis, Indiana, where they’ll race against the Cali Condors, the Rome-based Aqua Centurions, and Energy Standard.
DC Trident’s 2019 Season Roster:
| Women | Men |
| Anika Apostalon | Tristan Hollard |
| Brianna Throssell | Zach Apple |
| Lisa Bratton | Kevin Cordes |
| Natalie Coughlin | Jay Litherland |
| Bethany Galat | Cody Miller |
| Sarah Gibson | Abrahm DeVine |
| Siobhán Haughey | Robert Howard |
| Madison Kennedy | Giles Smith |
| Katie Ledecky | Jérémy Stravius |
| Leiston Pickett | Zach Harting |
| Sian Whittaker | Andreas Vazaios |
| Emma Barksdale | Velimir Stjepanovic |
| Leah Neale | Ian Finnerty |
| Zane Grothe |
Currently the WNBA’s Indiana Fever and Phoenix Mercury have an all-female coaching staff:
https://fever.wnba.com/roster/
https://mercury.wnba.com/roster/
Good find! There could be a quibble on the Mercury with the strength and conditioning coach being male, though the “on court” coaching staff surely is. Fever for sure looks all female to me. I’ll update above.
I would count it, or at least I bet the NFL would count it since Tampa Bay has a female strength and conditioning coach on their staff… and another female as well. Granted they do have 29 coaches on their roster/payroll and only 2 are female, but that is still more than any other team by a lot.
This is an awesome coaching staff and it will be fun to watch the teams and see how the swimmers (and the league) do this year. I think Lisa’s comment below is a good one … will t-shirts for each team be available to the public? Hope so!
That’s pretty cool, I like to see that. I have not looked at other teams coaches yet, besides Troy with the Condors, but how does this work with collegiate coaches “double dipping” or coaching/managing these pro teams in addition to their NCAA jobs? This sounds like if a defensive coordinator for a college team was also the linebacker coach for an NFL team. And I do realize that an ISL coach is not actually the coach for all or any of the swimmers on the team which is why I can see it might work…. but again, how does that work? Will the NCAA coaches still travel to meets and take away their time with their current jobs?
Remember that many, many college coaches are already ‘double dipping’ as coaches of pro athletes in addition to their college duties, plus Olympic/international duties.
In reality, these coaches are going to fly in for a weekend, stand around on deck and cheer for 2 days, and leave. The coaching responsibilities at these meets are going to be minimal, so I can’t imagine that it will take away from their collegiate responsibilities, certainly not as much as, say, being the Olympic head coach. The biggest thing it will pull away from is more likely recruiting activities. Plus both assistants in this case come from programs with big staffs that can roll and cover for each other. So like it would be… Read more »
But from a compliance perspective, this seems very different than coaching a local club that has individual professional athletes (Wolfpack Elite, Club Wolverine, etc.). This is coaching for a true professional team (team pays it’s athletes) and a true professional league. Obviously it must be ok. Just seems wild that it is. Unless I’m misunderstanding how the ISL works, which could very well be the case.
Recruiting: “Hey recruit, I’m the coach for Big Time U and Weird Logo ISL. Come here and we’ll get you fast enough to score at NCAAs and then you’ll have a great inside shot at joining my Weird Logo team once you’re done.”
I was actually looking into this and whether there were rules against it. I couldn’t find any rules against working with pro teams, there are more rules against working with “local sports clubs.” http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/tam/genrel/auto_pdf/comp101-21-local-sports-clubs.pdf
Bingo. I know some double dip by coaching other pro athletes, but not pro teams… if this ISL thing goes well and starts to blow up or become a bigger deal, then I dont see how the NCAA would allow this and individual schools will have to put wording in their contracts that allow having another job. I can see where maybe the ISL moves its schedule to be post NCAAs through June or July (ending before big world meets) but as it sits now, it is during the NCAA season, and right in the middle of prime recruiting season.
Weird Logo team just made me chuckle so hard…
This isn’t really a league just a couple of 4-way duel meets.
Imagine if there was a team with the specific goal of having an “all male coaching staff”. How would people react?
It has happened for decades. People just don’t announce it.
All women coaching staff? Sounds good on paper but what about gender balance, fairness and seeing people as people. Seems very sexist to me.
Almost as sexist as the literally hundreds of years of all male staffs
Hundreds of years okay lmao. Decades would fit
Hmmm just checked the article that announced the all male coaching staff for the Cali Condors to see if you made the same comment. Unsurprisingly, you didn’t.
Oh I forgot to check that article – Thank you for the reminder.
Just checked the article again and while I saw you commented on another issue, you still haven’t commented on the lack of women on the staff…just keeping you honest.
Hmm
Now Rachel Stratton Mills is coaching the other Lia Neal, Leah Neale. Weird.
They should hire Allison Beebe too. She has nothing to do now.
Great idea, SwimCoach….if you want her to destroy that team too.