The Florida swimming and diving teams will operate under a new structure during the 2011-2012 season, and that means new opportunities for a few Gators assistants.
Head coach Gregg Troy will retain his position but also coach the 2012 U.S. Olympic Men’s Swimming Team, leading to former assistant head coaches Anthony Nesty and Martyn Wilby becoming associate head coaches.
Nesty said he is grateful for the opportunity and excited about the increased duties, especially spending more time working with the swimmers.
“It’s a great title, but as far as us coaching, it gives me a lot more responsibility on deck as well as in the office,” he said.
“The way we’ve set it up, the coaches will have more time to spend poolside with the athletes, and every coach wants to be able to do that.”
Both coaches are committed to keeping the team operations the same. Nesty swam for Troy in high school, and he and Wilby worked as assistant coaches when Troy was the coach at The Bolles School in Jacksonville.
“We’re still intact. We were all brought here by Gregg under his philosophy, and I swam for him, so my philosophy is kind of the same,” Nesty said.
Both coaches have been with UF since 1998. Wilby works mostly with the women, and under his coaching, Gemma Spofforth became only the second swimmer to ever break the 1:50.00 mark in the 200-yard backstroke, swimming a 1:48.34 to win the Southeastern Conference Championship and break the NCAA record in 2009.
Nesty has primarily worked with the men’s team, and his work with Shaune Fraser helped him finish in the top five in the 200 fly during his first season in 2007.
Fraser’s continued training under Nesty brought him two NCAA gold medals in 2009 in the 200 free and 200 fly, in which he set an NCAA record.
Nesty won five NCAA championships at UF, taking first place in the 100 fly three years in a row from 1990-1992. In the 1988 Olympics, he won the gold medal in the event for his native Suriname.
Wilby and Nesty have another goal in mind: helping some of UF’s swimmers reach the Olympics in 2012.
“We’ve set up so that we can compete at the NCAA level and also send athletes to the Olympics,” Wilby said.
In addition to the coaches’ new positions, UF made a few other structural changes.
Assistant coach Steve Jungbluth was named recruiting coordinator, and Evra Gilliam will be director of swimming operations.
