About Coach Deselm
Rich DeSelm, a highly successful head coach at Davidson College and long-time assistant coach at nationally ranked programs at the University of Florida and the University of North Carolina, assumed the full-time duties of men's and women's head swimming coach at Carolina on July 1, 2007.
During DeSelm's second year at UNC, he continued to build upon the successes of his first season. DeSelm sent nine women and five men to the 2009 NCAA Championships. All-American senior Whitney Sprague placed second for the second year in a row at NCAAs in the 1650 freestyle. Sprague broke the ACC and UNC records in that event. Sophomore Katura Harvey swam an All-American time in her 1650 free as well and placed seventh at NCAAs. Harvey broke the ACC record in the 500-yard freestyle at ACCs and was named All-ACC in the 200, 500 and 1650-yard freestyles. Freshmen Laura Moriarty and Layne Brodie also had outstanding seasons under DeSelm. Moriarty was named All-ACC in the 200-yard breast and 400-yard IM. Brodie was named ACC Freshman of the Year after having outstanding performances in the breaststroke and IM events. She qualified for NCAAs in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes. Brodie broke three UNC records in the 100 breast, 200 breast and 200 IM. She also broke the meet and conference records in the 100 and 200-yard breaststrokes. Brodie was named All-ACC for her performances in the 200 breast and IM. Freshman Katelyn Martin also competed at NCAAs in the 500 and 1650-yard freestyles. On the men's side, sophomore Tyler Harris competed in the 200 IM, 400 IM and 200 breast at the 2009 NCAA Championships. Harris placed 12th in the 400 IM and was named NCAA All-America Honorable Mention for the second year in a row. Harris broke the 200-yard IM school record as well. Sophomore Joe Kinderwater placed eighth at NCAAs in the 1650-yard freestyle where he was named All-America and broke the UNC record. Kinderwater also placed fourth at World Champ Trials this past summer in the 1650 free. Junior Chip Peterson competed in the 500 and 1650 freestyles along with the 400 IM at NCAAs. Peterson placed 10th in the 1650 earning him a NCAA All-America Honorable Mention. He also broke the 500-yard freestyle school record.
DeSelm, in his first year at the helm of the Carolina program, coached the Tar Heels to two second place finishes at the ACC Championships. The men's second place finish was their highest finish since 2001. DeSelm also led the Tar Heels to two impressive finishes at the NCAA Championships. For the first time since 2004, three Tar Heel men achieved All-America honors. Tyler Harris, freshman All-America and ACC Champion, set a new UNC Record in the 400 IM under DeSelm's tutelage. Harris also finished twelfth in the 400 IM at U.S. Olympic Trials. Fellow freshman Joe Kinderwater claimed an ACC Championship and All-America in the 1650 freestyle and set UNC school records in the 1000 & 1650 free while making the finals of Olympic Trials in the 1500-meter free. Another freshman, Andy Brake, received All-ACC honors in the 400 IM with a third place finish. Junior Whitney Sprague continued her record-setting career under DeSelm with two ACC Championships, the 500 & 1650 free. She placed second at the NCAA Championships in the 1650, an improvement over her third place finish in 2007. Sprague placed eleventh in the 800-meter free at U.S. Olympic Trials. Chip Peterson, after redshirting the 2007-08 season, had an impressive summer placing thirteenth at World Open Water Swimming Championships and 12th in the 1500-meter free at U.S. Olympic Trials.
DeSelm has been an elite coach at every level during his nearly 30-year coaching career. As an assistant coach at North Carolina and Florida, he helped coach teams that won 16 conference championships and placed in the Top 25 on 36 occasions at the NCAA Championships, including 21 Top 10 finishes. As a head coach at Davidson College, his teams won seven conference championships and placed in the Top 10 of the ECAC Championships seven times in eight years.
A former team captain and longtime assistant at the University of North Carolina, DeSelm earned his degree from Chapel Hill in 1978. In April 2006, it was announced he would leave Florida after an excellent six-year tenure there to take over as the head coach for UNC men's and women's swimming on July 1, 2007.
DeSelm, 53 years old, served as head coach designate in 2006-07, and became the head coach when Frank Comfort retired on June 30, 2007. Comfort was the winningest dual-meet swimming coach in college history and he led Carolina to 26 ACC championships in his 30-year tenure. DeSelm had previously worked as Comfort's assistant for 15 seasons from 1979-93, years in which the program competed at a very high level in the conference and nationally.
In DeSelm's year as the head coach designate, Carolina showed great progress with the women claiming the ACC title for the first time in five years and both the men and women improving their NCAA finishes markedly from the previous campaign. Nine women qualified for the NCAA Championships, as did four men. Sixteen swimmers and divers were named to the 2007 All-ACC Team.
"We were fortunate to hire a person of Rich's integrity, talent and passion to be the head coach of Carolina swimming and diving," says Tar Heel director of athletics Dick Baddour. "He's been successful at Carolina, Davidson and Florida, as a head and assistant coach. He has a proven track record as a coach who recruits outstanding young people who are committed to excellence academically and in the pool. He is a teacher in the truest sense. I knew the transition with Coach Comfort would be a seamless one that allowed Frank the opportunity to finish his remarkable career knowing the program he built for 30 years was in good hands for the future."
DeSelm was an All-America swimmer in Chapel Hill from 1974-78 and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration in 1978. Ten years later he earned a Master of Arts degree from Duke in liberal studies in 1988. After 15 years as the chief assistant at Carolina, he left Chapel Hill in 1993 to become the head coach at Davidson, where he spent seven years before going on to Florida for six more years.
He was an assistant at Carolina on Comfort's staff from 1978 to 1993, in which time he became the second full-time swimming coach in school history. In his 15 years coaching at Carolina, the Tar Heels won 14 Atlantic Coast Conference championships --- nine by the women, five by the men. The women had seven Top 10 and 14 Top 20 NCAA finishes, while the men finished in the national Top 25 on 10 occasions. Comfort knew the program would be inherited by a special kind of coach when he retired.
"I could not be more pleased and excited for the program," says Comfort. "There was an extensive search, but all roads led to Rich. He has vast experience at Carolina and at two other great schools. I have every confidence that he will do a superb job for many years to follow. Coaching alongside him in my final year was an absolute joy. He knows Carolina's philosophy, goals and standards and he is a brilliant coach and person."
"It is an exciting opportunity for me to coach at my alma mater, a school for which I have so much respect," DeSelm said at the time of his hiring as head coach-designate. "The University of North Carolina is a fantastic place in so many different ways. I appreciate the confidence Dick Baddour, Beth Miller and Coach Comfort have shown in asking me to lead this program forward. I am most excited about returning to Chapel Hill and getting to work with the Tar Heel student-athletes and becoming a member of the university and local communities. I have had wonderful experiences at both Davidson and Florida, and now it is a terrific honor to return to North Carolina."
While at Florida, DeSelm helped recruit and coach the men's and women's teams that were consistently among the best in the country. Each year from 2001 through 2006, both the men's and women's swimming teams finished the season in the Top 10 nationally, posting seven Top five finishes along the way. During DeSelm's time at Florida, the men's team finished second in the Southeastern Conference five times. The women finished third multiple times, second once, and won the conference meet in 2002.
The Gators earned more than 300 All-America honors in his six years in Gainesville, including a school-record 26 citations by Carlos Jayme, who DeSelm helped mentor from 2000-2004. Jayme was the 2001 Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year, a 2003 SEC champion, and the school record holder in the 50-yard freestyle, the 100-yard freestyle, and as a member of the 200 free, 400 free, and 400 medley relay units. DeSelm also assisted in the training of many more All-America honorees, national and school record-holders, and Olympian Gabriel Mangabiera who finished fifth in the 100-meter butterfly at the 2004 Athens Games while competing for Brazil. He was also an SEC champion and Florida record-holder.
"North Carolina got a great person to be its next head coach," says Gator head coach Gregg Troy. "Rich did an outstanding job here and he is missed by all of us at the University of Florida."
DeSelm led Davidson College to four women's and three men's titles at the Southern States Championships and he earned five coach-of-the-year awards. Mary Shell Brosche won three consecutive Southern States Female Swimmer-of-the-Year awards under his tutelage. The Wildcats placed in the Top 10 of the ECAC meet seven times in eight years.
He coached a pair of Tar Heels to berths in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Yann deFabrique, a first-team All-America at Carolina, was the 1993 French national champion in the 400-meter freestyle and he placed 14th in the Olympics in that event. David Monasterio, a first-team All-America at UNC in the 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard butterfly, swam on the 1992 Puerto Rican Olympic Team. Other notable UNC swimmers coached by DeSelm as an assistant from 1979-93 include Sue Walsh, Polly Winde, James Hamrick, Carrie Szulc, John Davis (an 11-time individual event ACC champion), Gary Gauch, Melissa Douse and Sarah Perroni. Walsh and Winde were members of the 1983 United States Team in the Pan American Games. "You will not find a person with more integrity, passion for swimming and loyalty to his alma mater than Rich DeSelm," says Walsh, an 11-time national collegiate champion, American record holder in the 50 and 100-meter backstrokes, and currently the Director of Endowment and Stewardship at the UNC Educational Foundation. "Few coaches would be able to successfully follow what Frank Comfort has accomplished, but Coach DeSelm has the qualities necessary to drive this program to be one of the best in the ACC and nationally. He is well-positioned to carry on the tradition of winning with integrity that we have all come to expect at UNC."
DeSelm was the assistant manager for the United States team at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, and the 2004 FINA Short Course World Championships. He was the head manager for United States teams at the 1997 and 1999 Pan Pacific Championships and the 1995 Pan American Games.
DeSelm and his wife, Tracy, a physician, have two children, Grant, 13 years old, and Claire, 11 year old. DeSelm is a native of Knoxville, Tenn., and attended high school there and in Jacksonville, Fla., where he graduated from The Bolles School in 1974 before embarking on his long journey that led him back to Chapel Hill nearly 30 years later.
The Gators earned more than 300 All-America honors in his six
years in Gainesville, including a school-record 26 citations by Carlos
Jayme, who DeSelm helped mentor from 2000-2004. Jayme was the 2001
Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year, a 2003 SEC champion, and
the school record holder in the 50-yard freestyle, the 100-yard
freestyle, and as a member of the 200 free, 400 free, and 400 medley
relay units. DeSelm also assisted in the training of many more
All-America honorees, national and school record-holders, and Olympian
Gabriel Mangabiera who finished fifth in the 100-meter butterfly at the
2004 Athens Games while competing for Brazil. He was also an SEC
champion and Florida record-holder.
"North Carolina got a great person to be its next head coach,"
says Gator head coach Gregg Troy. "Rich did an outstanding job here and
he is missed by all of us at the University of Florida."
DeSelm led Davidson College to four women's and three men's
titles at the Southern States Championships and he earned five
coach-of-the-year awards. Mary Shell Brosche won three consecutive
Southern States Female Swimmer-of-the-Year awards under his tutelage.
The Wildcats placed in the Top 10 of the ECAC meet seven times in eight
years.
He coached a pair of Tar Heels to berths in the 1992 Barcelona
Olympics. Yann deFabrique, a first-team All-America at Carolina, was
the 1993 French national champion in the 400-meter freestyle and he
placed 14th in the Olympics in that event. David Monasterio, a
first-team All-America at UNC in the 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard
butterfly, swam on the 1992 Puerto Rican Olympic Team.
Other notable UNC swimmers coached by DeSelm as an assistant from
1979-93 include Sue Walsh, Polly Winde, James Hamrick, Carrie Szulc,
John Davis (an 11-time individual event ACC champion), Gary Gauch,
Melissa Douse and Sarah Perroni. Walsh and Winde were members of the
1983 United States Team in the Pan American Games.
"You will not find a person with more integrity, passion for swimming
and loyalty to his alma mater than Rich DeSelm," says Walsh, an 11-time
national collegiate champion, American record holder in the 50 and
100-meter backstrokes, and currently the Director of Endowment and
Stewardship at the UNC Educational Foundation. "Few coaches would be
able to successfully follow what Frank Comfort has accomplished, but
Coach DeSelm has the qualities necessary to drive this program to be
one of the best in the ACC and nationally. He is well-positioned to
carry on the tradition of winning with integrity that we have all come
to expect at UNC."
DeSelm was the assistant manager for the United States team at
the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, and the 2004 FINA Short
Course World Championships. He was the head manager for United States
teams at the 1997 and 1999 Pan Pacific Championships and the 1995 Pan
American Games.
DeSelm and his wife, Tracy, a physician, have two children,
Grant, 13 years old, and Claire, 11 year old. DeSelm is a native of
Knoxville, Tenn., and attended high school there and in Jacksonville,
Fla., where he graduated from The Bolles School in 1974 before
embarking on his long journey that led him back to Chapel Hill nearly
30 years later.
National and International Highlights of Selected Individual Swimmers Coach DeSelm has worked with during head coaching tenures at UNC and Davidson and an assistant an at UNC and Florida.
•Joe Kinderwater (University of North Carolina): ACC Champion, 1650 Free, 2008; 5th place at NCAAs, 1650 Free, 2008; Olympic Trials finalist, 1500 Free, 2008. 8th place at NCAAs, 1650, 2009 - named first team All-America; 4th place finish in the 1650-meter free at World Champ Trials, 2009.
•Chip Peterson (University of North Carolina): ACC Runnerup, 1650 Free, 2007; 6th place at NCAAs, 1650 Free, 2007; National and World Open Water Swimming Champion. 10th place finish in the 1650 at NCAAs, 2009; NCAA honorable mention All-America in the 1650 free, 2009; 500-yard freestyle school record holder.
•Whitney Sprague (University of North Carolina): 2-Time ACC Champion, 500 & 1650 Free, 2007 & 2008; 2-time 2nd place at NCAAs, 1650 Free, 2008 and 2009; 3rd place at NCAAs, 1650 Free, 2007. Holds the ACC and UNC records in the 1650 freestyle.
•Katura Harvey (University of North Carolina): ACC 500-yard freestyle record holder. Finished 7th at NCAAs, 2009; NCAA All-America, 2009; All-ACC in 200, 500 and 1650 free, 2009.
•Darian Townsend (University of Florida): 6-time NCAA All America in 2005; 2005 SEC Champion, 200 Freestyle; member of NCAA record setting 800 Free Relay Team; South African Commonwealth Games Team member; 2-time NCAA All-America in 2006.
•Maureen Farrell (University of Florida): 17-time NCAA All-America from 2002-2005; NCAA record holder 800 Free Relay; 5th at 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials in 200 Back.
•Candice Weimann (University of Florida): 5-time NCAA All-America in 2005 after transferring from Alabama where she was a 4-time NCAA All-America in 2004; broke Dara Torres' 17-year-old Florida school record in 100 Fly; 5-time NCAA All-America in 2006.
•Gabriel Mangabiera (University of Florida): 2004 Brazilian Olympic Team (5th in 100-meter Butterfly); 2004 3-time Brazilian National Champion; South American Record holder in 100-meter Butterfly; 15-time NCAA All-America; SEC Champion, 100 Back, 2003; Florida school record holder in 100 Back and as member of 200 free relay, 400 free relay, 800 free relay, 200 medley relay & 400 medley relay teams.
•Carlos Jayme (University of Florida): From to 2001-2004 a 26-time NCAA Al- America (most All-America citations in Florida men's swimming history); 2001 SEC Freshman-of-the-Year; 2003 SEC Champion, 100 Free; Florida school record holder in 50 Free, 100 Free,; and as member of 200 free relay, 400 free relay & 400 medley relay teams.
•Scott Schultz (University of Florida): 2003-2004 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winner; 3-time NCAA All-America; 2-time SEC Academic Honor Roll.
•Hendrik Odendaal (University of Florida): 2001 & 2002 NCAA All-America; Champion in South African National Championships; Member of 2002 South African Commonwealth Games Team.
•Leah Martindale (University of Florida): 2001 & 2002 NCAA All-America; Member of 2001 Barbados World Championship Team.
•Mary Shell Brosche (Davidson College): 1997, 1998, 1999 & 2000 Southern States triple event individual Champion; Female Swimmer of the Meet 3 years.
•Yann deFabrique (University of North Carolina): 1992 French Olympic Team; placed 14th in 400-meter free in Barcelona; 1993 French National Champion in 400-meter free; 1993 World University Games 200-meter free Champion, representing France; 1993 European Championships in 200-meter & 400-meter freestyles for France; 200 Fly at 1993 NCAAs 6th Place; 200 Free at 1993 NCAAs 9th Place 500 Free at 1993 NCAAs 11th Place Member of 4th-place 800 Free Relay Team at 1993 NCAAs
•David Monasterio (University of North Carolina): 1992 Puerto Rico Olympic Team in Barcelona; 1992 NCAAs: 10th in 200 Fly, 10th in 500 Free; 1992 ACCs--Champion in 500 Free and in 200 Fly; Member of 4th place 800 Free Relay Team at 1993 NCAAs.
•James Hamrick (University of North Carolina): 1993 U.S. Team in World University Games in 400-meter freestyle; 1993 NCAAs, 5th in 500 Free, 8th in 1650 Free, 12th in 200 Free; Member of 4th place 800 Free Relay Team at 1993 NCAAs; 1992 NCAAs 6th in 500 Free, 10th in 1650 Free.
•Carrie Szulc (University of North Carolina): At 1993 World University Games 5th Place in 400 IM representing U.S.; 1993 NCAAs 8th in 400 IM; 1992 NCAAs 6th in 400 IM; 1992 ACCs - Champion in 200 IM & 400 IM.
•John Davis (University of North Carolina): 11-time ACC Individual event champion, 1988-1991.
•Gary Gauch (University of North Carolina): 1989 NCAAs, 13th in 100 Breast; 1991 ACC Champion in 100 Breast; 1990 ACC Champion in 100 Breast
•Melissa Douse (University of North Carolina): 1991 NCAAs - Member of 6th-place & 9th-place Free Relays; 1991 ACC Champion in 100 Free; 1990 NCAAs - Member of 4th-place & 5th-place Free Relays.
•Sarah Perroni (University of North Carolina): 1991 NCAA's - Member of 6th-pace & 9th- place Free Relays; 1990 NCAAs - 8th place in 100 Free, 14th place in 50 Free; 1990 NCAAs - Member of 4th-place & 5th-place Free Relays.
•Polly Winde (University of North Carolina): 1982-1985 Multiple NCAA & U.S. Swimming Nationals individual finalist; 1983 U.S. Pan American Games Team Member.
•Sue Walsh (University of North Carolina): From 1981-1984 an 11-time AIAW and NCAA Champion (10 individual, 1 relay); Was once an American Record Holder in 50-meter backstroke, 100-meter backstroke, 100-yard backstroke; NCAA Top 5 Award Winner. Currently holds the U.S. Masters records in the 50-yard and 50-meter freestyle, along with the World Masters record in the 50-meter free for her age group.
