Ian Walsh, a former swimmer at Duquesne who spent the past three seasons as an assistant at Marshall, is in his first season on the Cal staff as an assistant women’s swimming coach after joining the program in April 2016.
During his tenure at Marshall, the Thundering Herd broke women’s swimming school records 28 times, finished a program-best third at the Conference USA Championships in February 2016 and produced four individual conference champions. Walsh primarily worked with the sprinters and middle-distance swimmers and served as the recruiting coordinator at Marshall. In 2015, the program was named one of the top 16 most improved teams at the NCAA Division I level and, in the fall of 2014, sported a fall team GPA of 3.53, which ranked as the fifth-highest in the country among women’s swimming teams.
In addition, Walsh served as head coach of the YMCA Charleston Aquatic Team while in Huntington, West Virginia, from 2013-16.
Walsh spent one year as the head assistant coach at Albright College in Pennsylvania prior to his term at Marshall. Over the course of the season, the men’s and women’s swimmers combined for 13 school records and 19 individual or relay conference championships. Both teams captured the 2013 Middle Atlantic Conference title, and Walsh was part of a staff that received the league’s Coach of the Year award.
Walsh began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Bloomsburg University, where he implemented dryland and weight training programs for the sprint and middle-distance groups, as well as managed on-deck coaching responsibilities.
As an undergraduate student, Walsh had a stellar career at Duquesne University, setting school records in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke and being a member of two medley relays that set school marks. He won the Atlantic 10 title in the 100 breaststroke in 2009.
Originally from Northeast Pennsylvania, Walsh was a high school All-American at Pocono Mountain West High School and set numerous club records as a youth swimmer at the Pocono Family YMCA.
Wash received his degree in business administration in 2010 from Duquesne and later earned his master’s degree in business education from Bloomsburg University in 2011.
