The Oregon State women’s swim program has posted a job listing for women’s head swimming & diving coach.
The previous head coach, Larry Liebowitz, began coaching at OSU back in 2003 after spending the prior 8 years as an assistant at USC. Liebowitz led the Beavers to a 21st place finish at NCAAs in 2008, and has coached distance stud Sammy Harrison the last four years. Harrison won OSU’s first ever Pac-12 title in swimming with a win in the 1650 free as a sophomore in 2014, and then went on to place 10th in that event at NCAAs. In 2015, as a junior, Harrison earned All-American status with a 7th place finish in the mile at NCAAs.
The Beavers, however, haven’t scored at NCAAs since 2009 other than Harrison’s individual points.
Here’s the mission of OSU’s athletic department, as mentioned in the posting for this job:
The mission of the OSU Department of Athletics is to provide opportunity to young people and develop leaders through a tradition of academic and athletic achievement in a progressive, inclusive environment of mutual respect.
OSU, located in Corvallis, OR, is seeking a full-time head coach to take over the program. We’ve asked for any comments on the coaching change but have yet to hear anything back from the school. Again, here is the link to the job posting on the OSU website.
Sammy Harrison the stud didn’t transfer from osu like the SoCal girls and far out exceed any of their individual accomplishments. Check the stats on those girls! The program has a lot of potential if the girls are pushed consistently and better recruiting is done.
The swimmers from the So Cal area that committed to OSU circa 2011/2012 all transferred to other programs after a season or two.
Don’t know if I’m late on knowledge here or anything, but did the school push Liebowitz out seeking a ‘higher quality coach’ for their team, or did he retire?
Know nothing about him, and there is little to no news on google about his leaving.
Curious – we don’t know. We’ve asked both coach Liebowitz and the school about that, neither has responded.