By: MADISON MCCARTHY / STAFF WRITER
After a record-breaking year, both LIU Women’s and Men’s Swimming teams have a new head coach.
Coach Bobby Smith of Long Island, has joined Shark Nation after half a decade coaching at Adelphi University, an NCAA Division Two program in Garden City. Smith, a former collegiate swimmer, competed for the University of the Pacific in California and finished his career at the University of Pittsburgh in 2011.
After years of dreaming of leading a Division I program, he has now made that dream a reality at LIU. Smith, who is planning to be here for the long haul, sees both teams as being multi-time NEC Champions in the next few years.
The teams for the 2021-2022 season have a combined sixty athletes and makes swimming the biggest team on the Brooklyn campus. However, despite having the biggest team in LIU swimming history, he plans to keep growing in order to meet the goals he has set.
So far, Coach Smith has enjoyed living in Brooklyn and the accessibility the city offers. He says the most surprising part of his move to LIU is how friendly everyone on campus has been. He also had a lot of fun getting to know his new team and appreciates the swimmers' ability to adapt to the new expectations he has set for them.
Outside of his goal of winning the NEC title, Smith wants to see each individual on the team get better and grow, both in and out of the pool. Coach Smith strongly believes that one person’s personal growth is a success for the whole team and he hopes to continue the team’s history of excelling academically, with last semester’s team achieving an overall GPA of 3.69 for the Women’s team and 3.38 for the Men’s.
After winning the title of Coaching Staff of the Year in the 2020-2021 season, Smith is confident that he will be able to attain that for a second year in a row. Smith is also in the process of hiring two new assistant coaches to add support for his athletes and plans on continuing that legacy this season.
LIU Swimming kicked off their season this weekend, on October 1st at St. Francis College for the annual Battle of Brooklyn with both the men's and women's team claiming victory. Be sure to check out LIUathletics.com for updates on the team and you can also find LIU swimming on Instagram and Twitter @liuswimdive.
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