Tim Welsh Position: Head Men's Swimming Coach Alma Mater: Providence '66

Already one of the most respected coaches in the nation, Tim Welsh has taken the Notre Dame men's swimming and diving program to unprecedented levels and on the verge of becoming a national force. Under his guidance, the Fighting Irish captured the program's first BIG EAST title in 2005 and repeated the feat in 2006 before finishing runner-up last season. Notre Dame has sent competitors to the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in two of the past three seasons and more appear to be on their way in the near future.

Welsh is not unaccustomed to success, as student-athletes and teams under his care have exceeded expectations and broken barriers throughout his 30-year career as a head coach.

Welsh's squads have experienced great team success over the years. In 1978 and `79, he helped Johns Hopkins to back-to-back Division III national championships, being named National Coach of the Year on the latter occasion. In all, Welsh has coached 26 teams that have claimed conference championships and 20 that have won nine or more dual meets in a season.

Since arriving at Notre Dame in 1985, Welsh has seen his teams post a 283-148 (.662) dual-meet record, while winning 18 league titles (Midwestern Collegiate - 15, BIG EAST - 2, North Star - 1) and taking second place on five occasions (2 MCC, 3 BIG EAST). His student-athletes also have been accomplished, earning 13 invitations to the NCAA Championships, gaining All-America honors on three occasions, and capturing 13 BIG EAST individual titles. With a victory over St. Bonaventure on Jan. 29, 2005, Welsh surpassed Dennis Stark's mark of 167 career dual-meet victories at Notre Dame. Stark, the only other head coach in Fighting Irish swimming and diving history, was at the helm of the program from 1958 until Welsh took over in 1985.

The most apparent reality of the Welsh era at Notre Dame is the almost every-day occurrence that breaking University records has become. In his tenure, Welsh has seen his student-athletes break the Notre Dame record in every event -- on both the men's and women's sides -- on multiple occasions. In all, more than 200 University records have been set under Welsh's tutelage, with the bar continuing to be raised all the time. The Irish established 12 marks during the 2004-05 season alone and seven more in 2005-06. In the lists of the top 10 performers in each swimming event in Notre Dame men's history, no names remain from the pre-Welsh era.

The Irish swimming and diving program entered a new era under Welsh, as well. In his first 17 years at Notre Dame, the men's swimming and diving team had little access to scholarship aide. The Notre Dame Athletic Deparment decided in December 2002 to fully fund all of its varsity sports, giving the Irish a tool with which to compete with the best schools in the nation. Working now with a fully-funded program, Welsh has welcomed the top five freshman classes in the program's history over the last five years.

There is no doubt that the Irish program is on the rise. Notre Dame has finished in the top four at the BIG EAST Championships for eight consecutive seasons, including three runner-up results (1999, 2000, `04). The Fighting Irish finally broke through and captured the program's first BIG EAST title in 2005 by defeating Pittsburgh, the eight-time defending conference champion, by 275 points. Increased expectations were placed on the Irish in 2005-06 and the squad delivered with another BIG EAST title in dominating fashion.

Rewriting of the record books has been a common theme for Notre Dame under Welsh. All but two current University records has been set since 1999, and the Irish have combined to knock out 19 records over the past two seasons. The past two campaigns have been the most successful in the history of Notre Dame swimming and diving. The Irish have sent competitors to the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in each of the past two seasons, along with posting identical 10-2 dual meet records. Coming off a BIG EAST title in 2005, a lot of expectations were placed upon the 2005-06 team and they delivered with a second straight league championship. The Fighting Irish claimed three event titles at the conference meet and produced 13 all-BIG EAST performers en route to the 224.5-point victory over Pittsburgh and the rest of the 11-team field. A total of seven school records were set during the season. Freshman diver Michael Bulfin became just the third student-athlete in program history to qualify for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships and the second in as many seasons, following swimmer Tim Kegelman, who did so in 2005. In the fall of 2004, Notre Dame appeared in the CSCAA dual meet rankings for the first time ever as the Irish debuted at No. 21. In 2005-06, the Irish climbed to No. 18 in the rankings, which was a program-best mark. The 2004-05 season also witnessed Notre Dame's first NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships participant in the Welsh era, and just the second in the history of the program. Kegelman swam in the 100-yard butterfly, 200-yard butterfly and the 200-yard IM at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in Minneapolis, Minn. The sophomore was also one of six Notre Dame swimmers to take home BIG EAST titles in '04-'05. For his team's accomplishments, Welsh was named a BIG EAST Coach of the Year for the third time in six years.

A key factor behind the success of the Fighting Irish program during the 2004-05 season was senior Frank Krakowski. He left Notre Dame holding five University records, along with being a six-time all-BIG EAST performer. Krakowski was also tabbed as a CSCAA All-Academic swimmer. The 2003-04 campaign provided a glimpse of the bright future of Notre Dame men's swimming and diving. The Irish faced their toughest schedule in school history and responded by setting eight school records. Notre Dame posted 584 points at the BIG EAST Championship to finish as conference runner-up. Among the highlights of that meet were the first-ever Irish 1-2 finish in the meet, as Jamie Lutkus and David Moisan topped the field in the 400-yard individual medley.

Notre Dame also posted runner-up finishes in the 1999 and 2000 BIG EAST Championships. The Irish delivered a school-record time in '99 to win the final event of the meet, the 400 freestyle relay, to edge Syracuse by one point for second place. Notre Dame won its first three conference titles that year en route to its best-ever finish. Welsh was named the BIG EAST Coach of the Year, capping a season in which the Irish broke 16 of 19 University records.

Notre Dame reset eight varsity records in 1999-2000 in finishing second in the BIG EAST Championships once again. Other highlights of Welsh's tenure as men's coach at Notre Dame are 10 seasons with 10 or more dual-meet victories, including a 12-1 mark in 1989-90, the best record in school history. The Irish also were 11-1 in 1997-98 and set the school record for wins in a season in both 1987-88 and 1990-91 with identical 13-3 marks. Prior to joining the BIG EAST in 1995-96, Welsh's Irish won six Midwestern Collegiate Conference championships in seven years (1986-92) and took six consecutive titles in the National Catholic Invitational (1989-94).

The Irish women's coach from 1985-86 through 1994-95, Welsh's teams won MCC titles every year the Irish were in the conference, from 1987-95. His teams also claimed the Eastern Intercollegiate championship twice. The first title came in 1990 and the second in 1995, when the last women's program Welsh coached finished with the best record in school history, 14-1. During his 10 years at the helm of the women's program, Welsh sent 11 swimmers to the NCAA championships, including three-time All-American Tanya Williams. In that span, every Irish women's University record was broken.

Prior to coming to Notre Dame in 1985, Welsh spent eight years as the head men's and women's coach at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Md. The New York native led the men's squad to a mark of 65-36, including two NCAA Division III national championships and eight Middle Atlantic Conference titles. The women's team also was successful under Welsh, earning a Middle Atlantic Conference championship while achieving six seasons at .500 or better.

Welsh graduated magna cum laude from Providence College in 1966. He 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 leaving Winthrop College (S.C.), where he had taught English. During his four years at Syracuse, Welsh continued to teach English, as well as designed and ran the training program before joining the Hopkins swimming program.

Welsh was awarded the Richard E. Steadman Award by the College Swim Coaches Association in 1993. The award, given annually to a swimming or diving coach in the high school, club or university ranks who, in the opinion of the International Swimming Hall of Fame, Inc., and the College Swim Coaches Association, has done the most to spread joy and happiness in swimming.

Welsh continued a career of world travel, as he took his team to Ireland during the winter of the 2004-05 season. Previously, he traveled to Bogota, Colombia in the spring of 1985 as a clinician and instructor for Sports America Program of the U.S. State Department and took his Irish squad to Portugal in the summer of 1991. Welsh and the 1996-97 Irish ventured to Brazil over Christmas break for a nationally-televised meet featuring international Olympic swimmers.

Welsh's student-athletes have been traditionally strong in the classroom, as well as in the Rolfs Aquatic Center. Perennially on Collegiate Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) All-Academic list (which ranks teams according to grade-point average), the Irish claimed the top spot in the 1999 season and have been in the top 10 eight times since 1990.

In his 23rd season as head coach at Notre Dame, Welsh ranks behind only track and field's Joe Piane (32 seasons) as the longest-serving program leader at the University. He also was awarded an honorary monogram from Notre Dame's National Monogram Club and has seen five of his swimmers garner the Byron V. Kanaley Award, the most prestigious honor an Irish student-athlete can achieve.

In 2002, Welsh was featured in the ASCA newsletter in appreciation for his dedication as a member of the ASCA's Board of Directors (this was the Bob Ousley Award for Service to ASCA, and was presented at the ASCA world Clinic in 2002). One of Welsh's key developments is the ASCA Fellows Program - which is designed to professionally and throughly prepare the next generation of coaching leaders.

A published writer and master motivator, Welsh and his wife, Jacqueline (who works on campus as a curator of education in the Snite Museum of Art), are the parents of two sons. Tim, a 2002 Notre Dame graduate, participated in the University's Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) program before enrolling in an English Ph.D. program at the University of Washington. John is a 2005 Notre Dame graduate, who is currently enrolled in a Master's Degree Program in Italian at the University of Virginia.