The IU swimming and diving team officially announced the hiring of two assistant coaches Monday, filling two of the three vacancies left by departures from the 2018-19 staff.
IU Head Coach Ray Looze will be adding Jonty Skinner, former University of Alabama Associate Head Coach, and Cory Chitwood, former University of Arizona Associate Head Coach.
Former IU assistants Kirk Grand, Coley Stickels and Caitlin Hamilton all left the program this summer, opening up the positions Skinner and Chitwood are filling. Stickels took the head coaching job at Alabama, and Hamilton was named the head coach at Illinois State University.
At IU, Stickels was the associate head sprint coach, a job that will now be taken over by Skinner. Before coming to IU, Skinner spent seven years at Alabama.
According to the IU press release, Skinner has coached 21 Olympic medalists. Skinner was the director of performance science and technology at USA Swimming for nine years, a background that could fit in well with Looze’s desire for innovative training methods at IU.
“Jonty Skinner is one of the most respected and accomplished sprint coaches in the world,” Looze said in the release. “We are certainly humbled that Indiana could attract such a wise and successful coach.”
Skinner is a four-time NCAA champion during his own swimming career and held a world record for five years. He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1986.
“I am a huge fan of Doc Counsilman and it will be an honor to join the rich tradition that surrounds the Hoosier Swim & Dive program,” Skinner said in the release. “I visited the program a few weeks ago and really enjoyed the energy and commitment that the athletes, coaches and administrators give to the program and it’s exciting to jump into the middle of that and get involved.
Chitwood spent the last two years coaching at Arizona, and he has also spent time with the University of Virginia and Louisiana State University. Chitwood will be an assistant coach with both the IU men’s and women’s teams. Chitwood coached with Team USA for six years, and during this time he was part of the 2017 and 2018 World Championships coaching staff.
“Cory Chitwood is one of the great up-and-coming coaches in the United States,” Looze said in the release. “He is exceptional at building relationships and taking care of his swimmers to the highest degree. Cory joins our staff at a critical time as we push toward Tokyo 2020.”
IU is still down one assistant from last year’s staff.
