Swim Families,

For those who have not heard, we want to share the news that Coach Joe is leaving us to take a job at Charleston Day School in Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston Day is one of the top independent schools in the state of South Carolina, and they are getting an excellent teacher and an even better person. Professionally, this is a phenomenal opportunity for Coach Joe (and also for Alex, JR and Stetson). Personally, though, summer swim will not be the same without him.

Coach Joe started swimming for our team at the age of 4 and continued until he “aged out” at 18…. making him one of our swimmers with the longest tenure on the team. He started coaching for University Club in 2010 and has been our Head Coach since 2012. For most of our swimmers, he is the only head coach that they have ever known. He has taken our team from 37 swimmers in 2012 to 154 last year. This increase is in large part because of Joe’s commitment to excellence on our team.

We like to say that we are a team for all abilities and skill levels. We teach fundamentals of swimming, teamwork and sportsmanship. Winning meets is a bonus. Coach Joe has always been a teacher first and a coach second, and our team would not be what it is today without Coach Joe’s leadership.

When Joe was being recruited to Charleston, his biggest concern about leaving was leaving our team. He immediately began reaching out to people of influence in the swimming community to make sure that our team would continue to uphold the same values and traditions that he has worked so hard to instill in our culture.

We are happy to announce that Marshall Goldman will be joining our staff as Director of Coaching and that Allie Magrino will be serving as our Head Coach.

Marshall is a Knoxville native and swam for University Club, Pilot Aquatic Club (now Tennessee Aquatics) and Webb School. He was a collegiate swimmer for Brandeis University (inducted into Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017). Upon his return to Knoxville, he coached summer league at the AJCC for many years, and he also served as Executive Director and Head Coach for Tennessee Aquatics, as well as a volunteer assistant for Tennessee. He has been a national team coach, coached the USA in Budapest and Israel as well as US National Select camps. Has coached kids to many different levels including one Olympian. Over the course of a coaching career, Marshall has won Tennessee State High School Coach of the Year and Southeastern Swimming Coach of the Year. He is the Director of Allan Jones Aquatic Center.

Allie is a native of Orlando, Florida, where she was a two-time State High School swimming champion. She was a decorated collegiate swimmer at the University of Idaho. She has served as both an assistant and head coach in GKAISA with View Harbour and Benington-Farrington. She has worked as a manager for UT’s Swimming and Diving Team and has served as Director of Operations for UT Tennis. She is the current Assistant Director of Operations as Allan Jones Aquatic Center.

We will be announcing our assistant coaches in the coming days and will be continuing with our junior coaching program, as well. Of course, you will still see Coach Joe on deck from time to time as his schedule permits until his family heads south for the beach!

SAVE THE DATE: We want to celebrate Coach Joe and his family and to say “thank you” for all that he has done and continues to do for our team. We are planning a celebration with a TENTATIVE date of Tuesday, May 31 at 6:00 pm. Details will be forthcoming!

We look forward to seeing you at our celebration for Joe and on the pool deck this summer!