AUBURN, Ala. – First-year head coach Ryan Wochomurka completed his staff Thursday with the addition of Mike Simpson as an assistant swimming coach with the Auburn swimming and diving program.
Simpson comes to Auburn from South Carolina where he was an assistant coach for the past three seasons. Prior to that, he spent the first 19 years of his collegiate coaching career building up the Gardner-Webb swimming and diving program.
"The entirety of our staff is excited to welcome Mike and Kathi officially into the Auburn Swimming & Diving Family," Wochomurka said. "Mike's experience at all levels of the sport from the club level to SEC to head coaching experience will be of immense value not only to our student-athletes but to our staff and support staff as well.
"Mike has incredible swimming knowledge, but his ability to guide and shape young people into champions for life and provide a transformational Auburn experience is precisely what we needed in completing our coaching staff. I am personally very grateful for the opportunity and excited to work with Mike in building great Auburn Men and Women."
In Simpson's three seasons at South Carolina, the Gamecocks had four individual conference champions and 17 individuals earn All-America honors. His return to Auburn marks a homecoming of sorts for both he and his wife, Kathi.
"After spending 12 summers doing Auburn swim camps years ago and falling in love with Auburn, I cannot believe I get a chance to be a part of the Auburn program," Simpson said. Also, my wife swam for the Tigers her freshman year and loved it. We are incredibly excited to be a part of the Auburn Family, and that's what is so appealing about living on the Plains. It's family.
"I cannot wait to get to Auburn and help Ryan and the incredible staff he has put together to impact the swim team and community."
As the head coach at Gardner-Webb, Simpson built both the men's and women's programs from the ground up. In 19 years, he coached 96 all-conference performers with the women climbing as high as 14th nationally and the men as high as 30th during his tenure.
In his final year at Gardner-Webb, Simpson saw 26 swimmers qualify for the CSCAA National Invitational meet and had 16 of his student-athletes named all-conference in the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CSCAA) which included three conference champions. The year before (2016-17), both the men's and women's teams finished in the top three at the conference meet while Connor Bos was later named CCSA Schloar-Athlete of the Year.
In 2015-16, Nathan Lile became the first GWU male swimmer to qualify for the NCAA Championships under the direction of Simpson. Lile would also earn the NCAA Elite 90 Award at the 2016 NCAA Championships for attaining the highest cumulative grade point average among student-athletes competing at NCAAs.
Competing in the newly formed Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA), Simpson led Gardner-Webb to a third-place conference finish on both the men's and women's sides with three individual titles in 2007-08, the inaugural season of GWU's men's program.
Prior to the CCSA-era, Simpson guided the women's program to four consecutive Northeast Conference Championships from 2003-07 and was also a four-time recipient of NEC Coach of the Year honors.
Simpson, who began his coaching career on the club circuit and at the high school level, was named head coach of Gardner-Webb's women's swimming and diving team ahead of their inaugural season in 1999. In the program's first year of existence, he led the Lady Bulldogs to a 14th-place finish at the NCAA Division II Championships, which was highlighted by a national championship from freshman Melissa Smith in the 1650 freestyle.
During his club coaching experience, Simpson led two different teams to second-place finishes at the YMCA National Championships as he coached nationally ranked programs in Ohio, Illinois and Florida. Simpson coached a Jolliet, Illinois, club team that produced five senior national finalists and three Olympic trial qualifiers in addition to setting seven national records.
A 1980 graduate of Florida State University, Simpson transferred there from the University of Houston prior to his senior year. A swimmer at Houston, Simpson qualified for the NCAA Division I nationals his sophomore year. Simpson and his wife, Kathi, have four children – Taylor, Saxon, Logan, and Garrett and one grandson, Mason Liam Jackson.