North Dakota Hires Chris Maiello from Navy as New Head Coach

Former Navy asistant Chris Maiello has been hired as the new head coach of the Men’s and Women’s Swimming & Diving Teams at the University of North Dakota.

For Maiello, this is his second stint as a collegiate head coach. His NCAA career began at the University of Rochester, where he was an assistant from 2005-2006. He then became the head men’s and women’s coach at Darton State College, a Junior College in Georgia for two seasons. There, his team broke 31 out of 39 school records and earned him an assistant coaching job at Navy.

Maiello has some international experience as well, as he was the head swimming coach for the Navy swimmers, and the rest of the U.S. National Military Team, who competed at the 2010 World Military Swimming Championships in Germany and the 2011 World Military Games in Brazil.

He takes over a North Dakota program that struggled last season; their men finished 10th (last place) at last year’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships, which was eventually won by UNLV, and their women were 7th (out of 9) at last year’s WAC Championships, which were won by San Jose State. What’s more, the women’s program graduated their best swimmer, Veronica Medon.

The school does have a solid diving program upon which they can build for the future.

Both programs will compete in the WAC next year, as the conference has re-added men’s swimming.

Maiello has a history of recruiting big classes everywhere he’s been, however, which could be crucial to turning the program around in a hurry.

The school chose not to renew the contract of Steven Parsons at the end of last season. Parsons had been an assistant before North Dakota transitioned to Division I, and returned as the head coach in the 2009-2010 season.

Full results of the 2013 Women’s WAC Championships.
Full results of the 2013 Men’s MPSF Championships.