NC State has hired former Utah Tech head coach Dan Kesler as their new associate head coach for swimming & diving, filling the role previously held by Brian Barnes, who left the program last month to take over as the head coach at nearby Duke.
Kesler spent two years working as the head coach at Utah Tech (formerly known as Dixie State), which sponsors a women-only swimming & diving program.
That was Kesler’s first head coaching gig, after two years as an associate head coach at Florida State, a seven year stint as an assistant at Arizona State, and five years as an assistant with Division II power Wingate University. At most of those stops, he focused on middle-distance and distance groups.
His career spanned both the Dorse Tierney-Walker and Bob Bowman eras at Arizona State.
Utah Tech had a historic season last year under Kesler. The women’s team wound up with four gold medals and 10 total medals at the 2023 MAC Championships, which is far and away the biggest medal total in program history. They finished 4th as a team, which is also the best finish in their three seasons in the WAC.
For that effort, Kesler was named the 2023 WAC Coach of the Year.
Kesler’s hire is a return to his alma mater – he swam for the Wolfpack from 2000 through 2003 and was a team captain.
The NC State men are the defending ACC Champions, while the NC State women placed 2nd last year at ACCs behind only the NCAA Champions from Virginia.
Both teams placed 5th at the 2023 NCAA Championships.
Dan is the MAN! Great coach, mentor, and person. I would have loved swimming for him. NC State is lucky to have him – he’ll be movin’ on up in no time…
Dan is the actual man – made me love swimming again in my last year at FSU.
Why is he accepting a demotion?
Is it a demotion? He just watched another associate head from NC State get a power 5 head job, unless you’re making magic it’s a little harder to go from mid major head to power 5 head vs power 5 associate to power 5 head. There’s also a good chance that he gets paid more to be associate head at State, most mid major head jobs don’t make much money
And they just announced promoting Michael Baric to assistant
“They finished fourth as a team”.
Perfect fit
2023 MAC??????
Slam dunk hire!!!! Great recruiter, better coach and man!
Dan will be a great addition. Go Pack!