April 28, 2014
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – University of Notre Dame men’s swimming coach Tim Welsh will be honored with the College Swimming Coaches Association of America’s (CSCAA) highest honor later this month. Welsh, who is retiring from the coaching ranks following 29 years at Notre Dame and 37 years overall at the collegiate level, will receive the National Collegiate and Scholastic Swimming Trophy. The award will be presented at the CSCAA Annual Banquet on Thursday, May 22, 2014, in conjunction with the CSCAA Convention at Bally’s Las Vegas.
The National Collegiate and Scholastic Swimming Trophy is the highest award of its kind in the United States. It is presented to an individual or organization for having contributed in an outstanding way to swimming as a competitive sport and as a healthful recreational activity in schools and colleges.
It is the second major honor Welsh has received from the Association. He was awarded the Richard E. Steadman Award in 1993.
Welsh coached his Irish teams to a 326-179-1 (.645) dual-meet record since his arrival at Notre Dame in 1985. He won 22 league titles (15 in the Midwestern Collegiate Championships, six BIG EAST Championships, and one North Star Championship) and was runner-up on seven occasions (two in the MCC and five in the BIG EAST). His teams won 45 BIG EAST Championship individual and relay events over their 18-year membership in the BIG EAST Conference. Welsh’s men’s swimming student-athletes have achieved a total of 23 invitations to the NCAA Championships, including 20 bids in the last four seasons alone, gaining All-America honors on 12 occasions.
Prior to coaching at Notre Dame, Welsh spent eight years as the men’s and women’s head coach at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Md. He led the men’s squad to a 65-26 mark, including two NCAA Division III National Championships. He graduated magna cum laude from Providence College in 1966, and went on to earn his master’s degree at the University of Virginia in 1967. Welsh became the men’s assistant coach at Syracuse in 1974, after having left Winthrop College (S.C.) where he had taught English.
In addition to Welsh, other notable honorees at this year’s banquet include: Bill Boomer (University of Tennessee) as the Benjamin Franklin Award winner; Jon Urbanchek (University of Michigan) as the Speedo Lifetime Achievement Award winner; Wally Morton (Cleveland State University) as the Richard E. Steadman Award winner; and John Davis, of the 2Xtreme Foundation (UNC’91) as the Charles McCaffree Award winner.
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