Pitt Names Diving Coach Katie Kasprzak Director of Swimming & Diving Amid Program “Restructuring”

The University of Pittsburgh has introduced Katie Kasprzak as its new Director of Swimming & Diving, as this system goes via a “strategic restructuring” following the resignation of Chase Kreitler earlier this month.

Kasprzak takes over because the chief of the Pitt swimming & diving program after serving because the Panthers’ diving coach since 2017.

Under the workforce’s new mannequin, Kasprzak will function the chief of this system, “with full responsibility for the direction, culture and success of Pitt Swimming & Diving,” and can rent devoted coaches for swimming and diving. Pitt referred to as it “an innovative model that pairs her program-wide vision with specialized coaching expertise at each discipline’s highest level.”

Kasprzak’s hiring comes simply over every week after Kreitler’s resignation, which got here on the heels of among the finest seasons in program historical past, because the Panther ladies had their greatest NCAA Championship exhibiting ever and the boys had their highest end in 73 years.

Kreitler mentioned he was knowledgeable by Pitt Athletics that “the department intends to move in a different strategic direction after the 2026–2027 season,” and regardless of being provided to teach yet another 12 months, felt it was in his greatest curiosity to maneuver on.

In Tuesday’s announcement, Kasprzak mentioned she’ll preserve some teaching obligations on the diving facet, however her first major job can be main nationwide searches for brand new swim and dive head coaches.

“I am incredibly grateful to Allen Greene, Blaire Ford and the University of Pittsburgh for this opportunity,” Kasprzak mentioned. “This program means an important deal to me, and I’m totally dedicated to constructing on the sturdy basis we now have in place. While I’ll proceed some teaching obligations with diving, this function permits us to higher help our student-athletes, coaches, alumni, and donors.

“My number one priority will be leading a national search for head swimming and head diving coaches who align with our vision and the profile our student-athletes helped define. This structure creates the capacity to lead, mentor, and support at a level the program hasn’t had before. I’m excited to build an environment where coaches can focus on coaching and developing meaningful relationships with our athletes, and I trust that under this new structure, the best is still ahead of Pitt.”

This is a transfer we’ve seen earlier than. In February 2025, Georgia Tech named former diving coach John Ames as the brand new chief of its swim & dive program.

Since the conclusion of the Men’s NCAA Championships in late March, some Pitt swimmers have both entered the portal or transferred elsewhere, with an uptick during the last week following Kreitler’s resignation. That contains Julian Koch, who rewrote the boys’s program file books this previous season and opted to maneuver on to Tennessee in late April.

Swim & dive workforce members met with Athletic Director Allan Greene when Kreitler resigned and mentioned they “left with no real answers.”

Pitt Athletics not too long ago despatched a letter to its swimming & diving neighborhood, notably the alumni, reaffirming its dedication to persevering with the swim & dive program.

In Tuesday’s announcement, Greene mentioned: “Katie has established herself as one of many premier coaches within the nation, and what units her aside goes effectively past the technical facet of the game. She is a strategic thinker and a tradition builder. She is deeply invested within the complete growth of our student-athletes academically, athletically and personally. That speaks to the sort of chief and mentor she is, and that’s precisely the profile we wished main this program. She is a real workforce participant and a revered associate all through our athletics division.

“This restructuring is a deliberate and thoughtful response to the evolving realities of college athletics and the responsibilities placed on coaches today that go well beyond the pool. This role gives Katie the opportunity to apply her expertise and impact across our entire swimming & diving program, and the model we are building around her is one we believe will set a new standard for how programs like ours can operate and compete.”

Over her 9 seasons with this system, Kasprzak has turned Pitt into one of the vital profitable diving applications within the ACC. She’s coached 17 divers to a mixed 32 NCAA Championship {qualifications}, and in 2024, turned the primary feminine coach to earn an ACC Coach of the Year accolade in both males’s or ladies’s swimming & diving when she gained ACC Men’s Diving Coach of the Year. That 12 months noticed Pitt’s Cameron Cash sweep the ACC titles within the males’s 3-meter and platform occasions, and he went on to attain in each occasions at NCAAs.

In 2025-26, Pitt despatched a program-best 12 divers to the NCAA Zone Championships, with 5 advancing to the NCAA Championships.

Prior to Pitt, Kasprzak served as head coach of the Duke Diving Club in Durham, N.C., the place she guided this system to greater than 10 nationwide youth titles. USA Diving acknowledged the Duke Diving Club as its most improved membership within the nation in 2014.

A local of Harpenden, England, Kasprzak additionally has some worldwide expertise, having served because the diving technical operations supervisor for the organizing committee on the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Last season, Pitt positioned sixteenth on the Women’s NCAA Championships, their highest end ever, and the boys positioned twentieth, their greatest exhibiting since 1953. At the ACC Championships, the Panther ladies positioned sixth and males had been eleventh.

In addition to Koch transferring on to Tennessee, Sydney Gring, who scored 14 factors at Women’s NCAAs, and Evan Witte, a relay-only swimmer at Men’s NCAAs, have entered the switch portal.