The Purdue men’s swimming and diving program has hired James Bretscher as an assistant coach for the 2023-2024 season.
Head Coach Alex Jerden made the announcement saying, “The entire staff connected with James almost immediately through his interview process. Even more importantly, he connected with the team in such a short amount of time. For us, James is a home run hire – someone who embodies the Boilermaker spirit, who values the person behind the athlete, and who knows the sport really well and loves to learn. He will be a tremendous addition to the team. We can’t wait to have him on campus.”
Bretscher spoke of his excitement saying, “I am excited to hop on the train and join the Boilermakers. It is a full-circle moment to have the opportunity to coach at my sister’s alma mater. Alex Jerden has an incredible vision for this program and is passionate about building something special with these young men. I am thankful to be a part of it and look forward to seeing where this journey takes us. Boiler Up.”
Bretscher joins the staff after most recently spending two seasons as an assistant at Marshall University. He will be switching from a women’s-only program to now a men’s-only program. While at Marshall, he also was the head coach for Thundering Herd Aquatics.
Prior to his time at Marshall, Bretscher spent two years at his alma mater, NC State. He spent his first year as a student assistant and the second year as an assistant coach for Wolfpack Elite.
Bretscher graduated from NC State in 2019 with a degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing and a minor in graphic communications. During his time as an athlete at NC State, Bretscher qualified for the NCAA Championships twice. In 2019, Bretscher finished 16th in the 100 fly at NCAAs.
Bretscher joins the Purdue men’s staff alongside Jerden who was hired as the next head coach at the beginning of July. Jerden took over the program after Dan Ross retired. Jerden was the program’s old assistant coach prior to his promotion.
This past season, the Purdue men finished sixth out of eight teams at the Big Ten Championships. Brady Samuels scored the team’s lone point at NCAAs as he finished 16th in the 100 backstroke. That earned the team a 38th place finish. Samuels enters his junior season this fall.
Congrats to James!
Great hire. Dino trained! Go James!!
So the entire staff at a Big Ten school has a combined paid collegiate coaching experience of *checks notes* 4 years
You are forgetting about diving!
They did have a swimmer do 2 dives in the team event at their invite last year, so I guess that’s an important distinction
The diving coaches have a combined 20 years experience in college coaching I believe? Where’s Andrew? Is this another diving and swimming team?
please present your preferred candidates then
When they hired a less-experienced/young head coach, he had almost no choice but to go the same direction with his staff. Not defending the guy. It’s just a reality. He needs to be “senior” or at least “equal” to the staff, in order to establish/maintain some credibility (particularly in the case of inevitable disagreement).
How did the more experienced staff work out for Margo at Bama?
While I understand the argument, that sucks for;
1. The program
2. The swimmers
3. Anyone more experienced that applied
Sometimes it’s better to swallow your pride and hire a better coach that can help you. In Margos case I’m sure those coaches weren’t happy with the her hire and those coaches were significantly more experienced. Someone with 5+ years full time and has elevated a program or two would’ve been a good choice for a program that only has 2 swim coaches.