After a 12 months in Morgantown, MacDonald Focuses on ‘Development’ and ‘Dedication’ From the Mountaineers for 2025-26

Sitting in an workplace on the WVU Coliseum surrounded by shoe containers, heavy winter coats, Nike luggage and a 2007 Big East Championship trophy, Brent MacDonald sits at his pc planning his day, his week, his yr.

It’s simply after 11 a.m. and the second-year head swimming and diving coach is sipping on his drink of alternative, Dr. Pepper Zero. For MacDonald, the primary yr in his new position at West Virginia was certainly one of studying and rising. 

Throughout final summer season, MacDonald centered on connecting with the returning student-athletes and developing a training workers. He emphasised the significance of constructing relationships with a roster that was full of a mixture of veterans and younger swimmers.

“At this point in my career, the first season was the largest learning curve I’ve had in a while,” MacDonald stated. “It was good and motivating and really positive in a lot of different ways. [I took time] to learn about how a program that I didn’t build operated and how we could mold it into what we wanted it to be.

“Along with that, we had the chance to educate quite a lot of swimmers who had been ending out their careers, who didn’t begin with us. That introduced its personal challenges, however I believe all of us loved that piece of it, too.”

MacDonald’s arrival on campus did not occur until June, and he entered his office without a staff in place. That became his first priority while also developing a “recruiting board” and connecting with the team already in place for the 2024-25 season.

“Where you are at within the recruiting cycle at that time (June), you ought to be waiting for two years or no matter class goes to open up [for recruitment] on June 15,” MacDonald said. “To begin, basically two weeks earlier than that timeframe, understanding that we did not have a category for 2025 was attention-grabbing. It was positively a problem.

“To do that without all the staff here yet, or weeks away from the staff being here, was a major challenge. You’re trying to set certain standards in place. You’re trying to figure out all these different processes that you haven’t done before. Nothing comes easy.”

Like any season, MacDonald’s first in Morgantown had its highs and lows. The males’s and girls’s swimming and diving groups confronted stiff competitors in a highway twin meet towards Kentucky whereas additionally internet hosting a litany of sturdy groups on the WVU Invitational. Following winter break, the Mountaineers returned to the pool in January, going through Penn State and Pitt on the highway.

A visit to Federal Way, Washington, positioned the Mountaineers in a pool competing towards powerhouse swim packages reminiscent of Arizona State and Arizona on the Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships. A ninth-place end by the ladies’s staff and a seventh-place end by the boys’s staff put an finish to MacDonald’s first season on the pool deck.

Two weeks later, sophomore Owen Recker grew to become the primary male Mountaineer diver to qualify for the NCAA Championships since 2022. He was the one student-athlete on both staff to qualify for the NCAA Championships.

Fast ahead to September 2025, and MacDonald and the workers are poised with a rebuilt roster to make important jumps from 2024.

“I don’t think until we got to the spring we realized how crazy it really was,” MacDonald stated about final season. “We felt good about where our 2026 class was; we felt really good about planning for the 2027 class. I think it was almost comical to think back about where we were last year and how far behind we were.”

 

Despite all of the changes he made all through his first season, MacDonald personally feels good about how he dealt with issues with the returning student-athletes and establishing this system for the longer term.

“I think I was doing a better job than I realized at cultivating leadership and taking certain individuals from their freshman year to their senior year to really be great leaders and keep our team going in the right direction,” MacDonald stated. “You realize how much work you really have to put in during a four-year career to get them to that place of being the right human being you want them to be.”

MacDonald made the transfer to Morgantown after 16 years as head coach at Xavier in Cincinnati. His spouse, Krista, a Cincinnati native, and his three children, Carys, Teague and Everly, have embraced their new house within the hills.

“Whenever you’re moving kids, it’s always hard,” MacDonald stated. “My wife left the place she grew up in and lived most of her life. We were probably two or three miles from her childhood home. It was a change everyone was ready for, whether they knew it or not.”

Despite turning into Mountaineers, MacDonald stated his oldest daughter does often put on Xavier gear.

“It’s so funny because I’ve always been that ‘all in’ person,” MacDonald stated. “Xavier will always keep a special place in our hearts because we were there for so long. I rolled in a big suitcase on my last day and gave it to our assistants to dive into all the gear I had collected because I was ready to turn over a new leaf.

“I wish to at all times give 100% to wherever I’m going; that should change into my id. I’d say my son was actually good at that. He converted in a short time. He has all of the West Virginia gear he can discover, and that is all he’ll put on proper now.”

Heading into his second season, MacDonald expects growth and commitment from his team, so they can represent the program and university at the highest level.

“My normal expectation is progress and simply the general dedication to being the kind of athlete that West Virginia University deserves,” MacDonald said. “We have been invested at a excessive degree, and that comes with a degree of duty. That’s our expectation. We have an enormous group of newcomers who’ve heard this messaging again and again. Our returners have heard it for the final yr.

“It takes a lot to get better in this sport. Unfortunately, it’s just like most things; it’s not glorious. It’s just hard work.”