Five Elected to Board of Directors
Mandy DiSalle of the University of Cincinnati, Jeanne Fleck of Fresno State University, Patrick Snively of Fairmont State University, Teresa Fish of Illinois Wesleyan University and Purdue University’s Brad Boswell have been elected to the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Board of Directors. Additionally, University of Utah Head Coach Joe Dykstra officially began his two-year term as the association’s president.
DiSalle joins the Association’s Executive Board as President-Elect before rising to President in 2022. Fleck, Snively and Fish were elected as women’s team representatives in their respective Divisions while Boswell was elected to a newly-created administrative position. The five join existing board members including men’s Divisional representatives McGee Moody, Heidi Voigt, and Brad Shively. Additional members include Cal’s Teri McKeever (at large), and Rochester’s Greg Brandes (diving). Kansas’ Clark Campbell, having completed his term as president will remain on the executive board as past-president. Matt Barany of Richmond and Brian Schrader of Iowa remain at treasurer and secretary respectively.
The new selections will tackle a range of efforts on behalf of the CSCAA. DiSalle spoke about the need to broaden the sport’s reach and equip coaches to adapt in a rapidly changing environment. “We must continue to be a national presence and find ways to engage with the community in different ways to display our value. As the landscape of the sport changes, we must evolve as coaches to adapt to changing athlete needs, university needs, and community needs.
Fleck, aims to build on the CSCAA’s widely successful mentoring program, an initiative the Fresno State coach spearheaded. Part of that effort is to prepare coaches to protect and preserve their programs.. Another goal is address the lack and loss of women in coaching. “We seem to have many assistants that are women but lose them very quickly. I do not have an answer to this problem at all but would like to help bring this gap and keep women in the profession longer.
In addition to being a swim coach, Snively serves as Fairmont State’s Senior Associate Director of Athletics. With that experience, Snively aims to help the association showcase the benefits of swimming and diving. “I don’t think it is difficult to show administrators the value of our sport on their campuses. I look forward to helping the CSCAA expand this message to support our coaches and student-athletes.”
Fish joins the board with an eye towards building the base of college swimming and diving. “One of our challenges is decreasing roster sizes, especially for men. We can do this by connecting with the club community. One of the reasons that I started a USA swimming club team was to get the message out there that if you want to swim in college, there is a place for you. “
Boswell joins the Board of Directors through a newly-created administrative position. Currently the Assistant Athletics Director for Compliance at Purdue, Boswell brings a swimming background having earned nine CSCAA All-America certificates while swimming at Tennessee. He likewise aims to highlight the sport’s identity. “On many campuses, swimming and diving can be found at the top of the list for grade point average, graduation rate, and most other academic benchmarks. Student-athletes finish their career and go out to the workforce as confident, disciplined, and hardworking members of society and I hope to promote this narrative in my role.”
The CSCAA Board of Directors provides strategic oversight of the association in its efforts to serving and providing leadership for the advancement of the sport of swimming & diving at the collegiate level.