Anne Marie Stricklin Staff

When head coach Bailey Weathers was looking for an assistant coach, he wanted someone who had a lot of experience. Little did he know that when the search finally narrowed, the one left standing was someone he had helped get her feet wet almost 10 years earlier.

Nearly a decade later, on June 3, 2002, to be exact, Weathers hired Anne Marie Stricklin, a former All-America swimmer for him when he coached at the University of South Carolina and most recently head men?s and women?s swimming coach at Northern Illinois University.

?Anne Marie was a great athlete and has done a great job as both an assistant and head coach,? Weathers says.

?She adds a lot to our program and really completes our staff with myself, (diving coach) Caiming (Xie) and Josh (Skube).?

Stricklin is in her second season with the Irish in 2003-04 after helping Notre Dame to a 9-1-1 record, a No. 14 ranking and its seventh consecutive BIG EAST Conference title. She also was instrumental in the development of Lisa Garcia, Marie Labosky and Danielle Hulick as they advanced to the 2003 NCAA Championships in Auburn, Ala.

She was also instrumental in bringing in what could be Notre Dame?s best freshman class in 2003. The Irish welcome 12 newcomers this season, all which will be major contributors before their careers are done.

Stricklin had an outstanding swimming career at South Carolina, as she earned honorable mention All-America honors in the 400 medley relay in 1990 and the 100 butterfly in 1993. During the 1992 season, she qualified for the Olympic Trials in the 50-meter freestyle and was ranked among the top 25 in the nation for that event. Stricklin also was world ranked in the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly during in 1992 and set nine South Carolina top performance times during her career.

During her prep career, in which she was a five-time high school All-American, she was featured in Sports Illustrated ?Faces in the Crowd? on Dec. 7, 1987.

Stricklin graduated from South Carolina in 1993 with a business administration degree and began her coaching career as a graduate assistant swimming coach for the varsity team at Auburn University in 1994.

She went on to work as the Sports Information Supervisor at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 before moving to Georgia Southern University to become the director of swimming and head women?s swimming coach in August of 1996.

During her stay at Georgia Southern, Stricklin earned a master?s degree in sport management (1999).

Before coming to Notre Dame, Stricklin was the head men?s and women?s swimming coach at Northern Illinois University from 1999-2002, where she earned the Mid-American Conference men?s swimming coach of the year award in 2001. She helped turn the men?s team around from a 1-11 dual-meet record in 2000, to an impressive 12-3 in 2001 and a second-place regular-season finish.

During her three years, the men?s and women?s teams improved dramatically at Northern Illinois ? setting 25 school records, winning five individual MAC conference titles, posting five NCAA ?B? cuts and three zone diving qualifying scores and five student-athletes were named to the all-conference team.

Stricklin?s teams have excelled both in and out of the pool during her career as well. The Northern Illinois women?s team earned College Swimming Coaches Association all-academic team honors from 1999-2001, the NIU men?s team earned that recognition in 2000 and her Georgia Southern women?s team was named an all-academic team from 1996-99.

Stricklin is a native Grand Island, N.Y. She and her husband Brad live in Granger, Ind. They welcomed their first child, Sara, in October.