Rich DeSelm Last College: North Carolina '78 Position: Head Swimming Coach

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. 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 coached 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 year.

A former team captain and longtime assistant at the 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, 51 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 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, 11 years old, and Claire, eight year olds. 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.