It seems like every time the number of available head coaching spots lefts in Division I seems like it might be starting to dwindle, another position opens up.
This time, it’s the top spot at Eastern Illinois University, which has a combined women’s and men’s program. After five seasons at the helm, Jacqueline Michalski stepped down last week. She will reportedly be named head coach elsewhere this week, the school announced in its press release.
After completing her own swimming career at SUNY Oswego, Michalski served as an assistant coach at King’s College. She then went on to serve as an assistant at St. Francis (now also seeking a head coach) from 2012-2014. At Eastern Illinois, Michalski coached six All-Summit League performers on the men’s side, and her swimmers set 13 individual men’s and women’s school records, as well as five relay records.
Michalski was one of the fewer than 20 female head coaches of combined-gender Divison I programs in the country.
In the last week, the head coach job also opened up at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, as Reed Robelot resigned from his position to take over as the head coach of LSU-based Tiger Aquatics. There are now nine open Division I head coach positions remaining: Saint Francis, Binghamton, William & Mary, Old Dominion, West Point, University of the Pacific, SMU (men), Denver, and Wisconsin-Green Bay, and Eastern Illinois. By our count, 25 DI positions have opened overall – and that’s not including Division II UCSD, transitioning to DI, now seeking a head coach with David Marsh‘s departure.
Northwestern cleaned house and brought in a top notch coaching staff. Program is on the rise! ISU may be the team to watch. Hamilton swam for Klinge at Purdue and learned from the best at Indiana. Illinois is the graveyard where good swimmers go to die. Last 2-3 years cannot get a decent recruit. Novitsky has proven time and time again that she cannot coach a team. McGill has left his last two jobs before the ax came done on him. Illinois needs to clean house and bring in quality coaches. Otherwise the swim program will continue to be exist simply to boost the athlete gpa.
The entire state of Illinois is in dire need of better college swimming options. Northwestern is solid and seems to be on the rise, but man o man is that a big drop to the next best team.
Yeah, it’s kind of sad… Illinois has the worst women’s team in the Big Ten. Western almost lost their team a few years back, Eastern is on the verge. SIU and UIC seem to have hit a dip. D2s you have Lewis and McKendree – the latter is actually getting some traction the past couple years. There are a few D3s but nothing really stands out – U of Chicago is pretty good but not elite for D3.
Glad to see you getting out and moving on, good luck coach!
The EIU job is a dumpster fire… poor facilities. Poor equipment. Poor staff. This program should have folded 10 years ago
35K for a HC position is tough
Make it 5. The men’s team was pretty competitive in their conference until Bos left. Their recruiting class in ’09 was really good for a lower tier D1 team. Then they went on a coach merry-go-round and had funding hits that really hurt recruiting.
Prediction: Going to Binghamton.
Denver still open!