The University of Texas has made official what most of the swimming community knew Thursday: Carol Capitani will be the 10th head coach for the Texas Longhorns women's Swimming & Diving Team.
This is the 3rd new coach that Texas has hired this season, and continues a trend of Texas Women's Athletics Director Chris Plonsky hiring only female coaches (in her 10 seasons at the helm of the Longhorns, she's never hired a male coach). Capitani was given a 5-year contract through August of 2017. That means she will likely get the opportunity to show her own recruiting prowess by bringing two classes completely through her program at Texas.
Capitani has spent a long time first as an assistant, and then as an associate head coach, at Georgia (surrounding a stint in Singapore, where she moved in 2008 when her husband was transferred there).
Was this a good hiring move? I've never met Capitani personally, so I can't make that judgement. Everyone that I've spoken to since we announced her hire has had only good things to say about her, so she's definitely got the support of the swimming community.
Plonsky certainly sought out the right people to help identify the best candidates. The search committee included men's coach Eddie Reese, Chris Kubik, and former Texas swimmer Jill Sterkel.
One swimmer who will probably be pleased is breaststroker Laura Sogar, who will be the highest-placing returner on the Texas roster. Capitani was a breaststroker during her career at Cal, and should have a good opportunity to get Sogar to the next level during her final season at Texas.
However well the Capitani ends up working out, I am a bit perplexed by the names of coaches who didn't get calls. There were some seemingly-logical, high-level candidates who were apparently not even given the consideration of a phone call or an interview. But this is what happens with a sport like swimming. Texas has also gone back into the same bucket of hiring coaches without head-coaching experience for this role. Sometimes that works out, sometimes it doesn't. Time will tell.
With this hiring, the Jack Bauerle coaching tree grows from Georgia. Capitani joins former Georgia assistant Steve Bultman, the head women's coach at Texas A&M, as the powers in the Lone Star State.
Under the old regime, things were not looking positive in terms of continuing the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry. Many sports have said they are ending their in-state series after A&M moves to the SEC next season (though, men's swimming seems to indicate that they will continue to compete). Most indicators out of College Station were that the programs were not going to meet at least in the near future.
Bultman and Capitani, however, have a long history. They were assistants for three years together at Georgia when their women's program first rose to become and SEC power, including the 1997 season where they took their first ever SEC title. This gives hope that the two teams could continue what has been one of the better rivalries in the country for the past 6 or 7 seasons.
There has still not been any release about Jim Henry's status, though he is still listed as an assistant on the Texas website. One would presume that this is a topic high on Capitani's list for the next few days.