Another blow came to the athletic department Monday afternoon as head coach Randy Julian resigned. He had coached the men’s and women’s swimming and diving team for seven seasons. Julian accepted a position with USA Swimming yesterday. He will be serving as the Sport Development Coordinator for the central United States.
“The opportunity to work with USA Swimming, which is the top of our industry in this country, was the major attraction to me,” Julian said. “This is a really awesome opportunity. This is a grass-roots level situation where you work with clubs, coaches and local swimming associations. There is a lot of travel involved, and I’m really excited.”
The women’s team is happy for him, but the news came as a surprise to the team.
“I was just shocked,” sophomore Sarah Agnew said. “Randy has always been there for us whenever we needed him. He has been on the deck every day. It’s definitely going to be a change.”
And this isn’t the only change the swimming and diving program has been faced with. At the beginning of the season, the women’s team got a new assistant coach in Kevin Darling. Then, a little over a month ago, the men’s team found out that its program was cut. Now, its head coach is leaving.
“He never mentioned anything to us about leaving,” Agnew said. “Randy has been a really good coach for us. If you needed to talk to him, he would stop everything. We were his kids. We’re going to miss him.”
Julian was appointed to the Falcon swimming program’s top post in June 1995. Prior to coming to BG, he served as an assistant coach at Notre Dame from 1990-95 and was an assistant coach at his alma mater, Southern Illinois-Carbondale, from 1988-90.
While at BG, he has coached a lot of great swimmers, including Tom Stoltz, who received Honorable Mention NCAA Academic All-American honors in 1997, and Cheryl Patterson, who was named Outstanding Mid-American Conference Women’s Senior Swimmer in 1996.
In 1997, Julian’s hard work paid off as he was named MAC Women’s Coach of the Year.
“It has been an incredible experience for me here at BGSU, and I think this will be a great situation for someone to come into,” Julian said. “I think we have the best women’s program we have had in more than 10 years.”
According to Agnew, the Falcons have a great group of girls coming in next year with a lot of talent.
“People are still optimistic,” Agnew said. “(Athletic Director) Paul Krebs talked to us (yesterday). He said we should get a new coach sometime over the summer, but everybody is wondering what will happen and who will get the job.”
The athletic department will be conducting a national search, and the women swimmers will be allowed to talk to the candidates before a new coach is hired.
Julian will leave for Colorado Springs in the coming weeks.
