Washington State University

Washington State University Director of Athletics Patrick Chun announced July 19 the hiring of Matt Leach as the head coach of the Cougars’ Women’s Swimming program. Leach joins WSU after spending the previous three years at Indiana State where he started the swimming and diving programs in 2015 and began competing in the 2016-17 season. In the program’s second season, Leach was named the 2017-18 Missouri Valley Coach of the Year after guiding the Sycamores to a 13-win campaign that featured a 10-dual match win streak and a record-setting team performance at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships where ISU set school records in every event, highlighted by the program’s first individual conference champion. Nine Sycamores earned All-MVC honors including a trio of first-team selections. Out of the pool, Leach saw his team earn CSCAA Scholar All-American honors for the third straight semester, including the highest team GPA in the Missouri Valley Conference. Six student-athletes earned MVC All-Academic honors this past season after five earned the same honor in 2016-17. Prior to Indiana State, Leach spent six seasons at the University of Wyoming (2009-15), including the final four seasons as associate head coach and worked extensively with sprint swimmers. Leach helped rewrite the Cowgirl record books, as every sprint event school record was broke during his time on staff. He has also coached sprint swimmers to NCAA and Olympic trials competitions including two-time All-America selection Kelsey Conci who earned trips to the NCAA Championships in the 100 backstroke and the 50 and 100 freestyle, placing 10th in the 100 backstroke at the 2011 NCAA Championships and ninth at the 2012 championships. Leach arrived at Wyoming from Louisiana State University where he began as a graduate assistant in 2004, and then as a volunteer assistant coach for two seasons (2007-09). At LSU, Leach helped guide several athletes to the NCAA Championships, and a top-25 ranking for both the men's and women's teams. Leach also served as the head age group coach at Tiger Aquatics from 2006-09 where he was named the 2007 Louisiana State Age Group Coach of the Year for his efforts in his first season. A native of Portland, Ore., Leach swam collegiately at Indiana University (2000-04), where he was a was a four-time All-American, helped the Hoosiers to a Big Ten Conference Championship in the 200 medley relay as a senior and still holds school records as a member of the 200 freestyle relay and 400 medley relay. Leach also performed on the national stage, as he took part in the 2000 and 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials. Leach graduated from Indiana in December 2004 with a bachelor's degree in environmental management. He received his master's degree, also in environmental planning and management, from LSU in May 2007.

Russell Whitaker begins his first season as an assistant coach after working as the Cougars Director of Operations the past six seasons. He graduated from the University of Wyoming in 2017 with a Bachelor’s in Physical Education and Graduated with his Master’s in Athletic Administration from Ohio University in 2020. In just his first few years as a head club coach for Cougar Aquatics, Russell has seen immediate success. To date – Cougar Aquatics has produced athletes that have qualified for local championships, Senior & Age Group Zones, Sectionals, Futures, Winter & Summer Junior Nationals, TYR Pro Swim Series, and Winter National Qualifiers. Cougar Aquatics has also produced 4 Scholar All-Americans. Cougar Aquatics also had one swimmer selected to attend the prestigious 2022 National Select Camp. For his extensive work at the local and national level, Russell was recognized as the Inland Empire Swimming coach of the year in 2022. He also served on the USA Swimming National Select Camp staff for the 2022 women’s team as the Assistant Manager where he worked alongside some of the top swimmers and coaches across the country. Russell is a member of the American Swim Coaches Association where he is currently a Performance Level 4 certified coach – placing him within the top 10% of coaches in the country. Prior to coming to Cougar Aquatics, Russell served in a variety of coaching roles. To date he has worked with 3 different club teams, 5 high schools, and 2 university teams. He has worked with two different national high school coach of the year recipients from these past roles. Whitaker graduated from Wyoming in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and was a two-time All-State swimmer at Evanston High School in Wyoming. Russell did not swim collegiately and began coaching immediately after graduating from high school. He swam for Evanston High School and Red Devil Aquatics in Wyoming under Jason Crompton & Pam Christensen. He was a four-year letterman, two time all state recipient, and two time WHSCA all state recipient. He is still a school record holder in the 4x100 freestyle relay.