By Anya Pelshaw on SwimSwam
George Washington University head coach Brian Thomas has left the program, according to sources on Monday. The program had been battling to keep its on-campus pool.
Thomas was hired as head coach of GWU in the summer 2018 after spending two years leading the St. Bonaventure women. Since arriving at George Washington, Thomas has led the men to be Atlantic-10 conference champions in five out of his six seasons with the team. The women’s team has won in four out of six seasons, including the last three years. Thomas has also won A-10 coach of the year honors in the last three seasons.
Not only has Thomas led the program to success at the conference level but the program has also sent swimmers to NCAAs in recent years. This past season, the program sent both men and women to the 2024 NCAA Championships. This marked the first time that George Washington had swimmers at both the men’s and women’s NCAA Championships in the same year as well as the most swimmers (three) the school has ever had make the Championships in the same season.
Two out of the three NCAA qualifiers will return this upcoming season as Ava DeAngelis returns for her senior season and Ava Topolewski will enter her junior season. Djurdje Matic just finished his redshirt senior season.
In February, the school announced that it would fill the on-campus pool that the team practiced in to add a practice facility for the men’s and women’s basketball programs. This would have made the swimming and diving programs move off-campus. A petition to save the pool began in March by junior Julia Knox and received more than 3,000 signatures.
At the end of April, the school announced that it would not go through with construction plans for the foreseeable future as it was found the renovations would have caused structural issues to the building. This means that the team will continue to be able to practice on-campus at the Smith Center pool that is an eight-lane, 25-yard facility.
SwimSwam: George Washington University Head Coach Brian Thomas Departs Program
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