SWIM | Monobe Named Saint Mary’s Males’s and Ladies’s Swimming Head Coach

Monobe joins the Gaels after main the Pepperdine Waves’ ladies’s swimming and diving program to a few convention championships previously 4 seasons, which included profitable the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship in 2025. She was named the PCSC Coach of the Championship Meet in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and the MPSF Coach of the Year in 2025.

“We are thrilled to have someone with such high accolades and character in Ellie join our athletic department and lead our swimming program,” Matoso mentioned. “Ellie is a perfect fit for the campus community and her success coaching will be a tremendous asset as we build the swimming program.”

In males’s and ladies’s Swimming, Saint Mary’s College will be part of the MPSF, a convention that features a number of sturdy Division I packages throughout the West.

“I’m honored to join Saint Mary’s College and help launch the men’s and women’s swimming programs. I’d like to thank VP Mike Matoso and senior athletic staff for entrusting me with this incredible opportunity,” Monobe mentioned. “Their vision, commitment and enthusiasm for aquatics makes this an exciting time to be a part of Saint Mary’s. I look forward to building a championship caliber program in the Bay Area, well known for its rich aquatic traditions.”

Prior to Pepperdine, Monobe spent 4 years (2017–20) at UC Santa Barbara below head coach Matt Macedo. She was promoted to affiliate head coach after her third season and was the recruiting coordinator for each the boys’s and ladies’s packages. During her UCSB tenure, the Gauchos received MPSF titles on the boys’s facet in 2017 and 2018, whereas the ladies turned in three second-place finishes. Monobe was additionally an assistant coach at UNLV through the 2015–16 season (serving to the boys tie for thirty fifth place on the NCAA Championships) and at UMass through the 2014–15 season.

 

She spent the 2013–14 college yr as head coach of the Sun Valley Swim Team in Lafayette, Calif., whereas additionally serving as a graduate assistant in compliance in San Jose State, the place she earned her grasp’s diploma in kinesiology and in addition served because the group supervisor for the Spartan ladies’s swimming and diving group.

A local of Northern California, Monobe bought her begin in teaching at her alma mater, University of California, Berkeley, the place she was an undergraduate assistant/volunteer assistant coach in 2011-12 whereas finishing her diploma in American research.

From 2007–11, Monobe was a four-year member of Cal’s ladies’s swimming group, which received NCAA championships in 2009 and 2011 and a Pacific-10 Conference title in 2009. She was a group captain as a senior and received this system’s Coach’s Award in 2009 and 2011.

Investing in a New Era

In September, Saint Mary’s made nationwide information with the announcement that the College was launching a brand new Division I Aquatics Program, including 4 new sports activities: ladies’s and males’s water polo and ladies’s and males’s swimming. Program growth has been underway this fall, with intercollegiate competitors set to start within the 2026–27 tutorial yr. This announcement is the second in a collection of head coaches to be employed for Saint Mary’s Aquatics.

California has lengthy been a middle of excellence in aquatics, with world-class highschool packages and a deep tradition of swimming and water polo. By launching Aquatics in Moraga—within the coronary heart of the Bay Area’s swimming tradition—Saint Mary’s is tapping into one of many nation’s strongest expertise pipelines whereas additionally aligning with a neighborhood that lives and breathes the game. 

The College has already secured a partnership with close by Campolindo High School, whose Olympic-size pool and Soda Aquatics Center will present coaching and competitors house, complemented by the College’s personal Joseph L. Alioto Recreation Center, a every day dwelling base for student-athletes and coaches.

Looking forward, the College will probably be growing a state-of-the-art aquatics facility of its personal within the coming years, with very important help anticipated from donors, alumni, aquatics fanatics, and buddies of Saint Mary’s. 

“Our vision for aquatics at Saint Mary’s will only be realized through the passion and generosity of those who care deeply about this sport,” Saint Mary’s President Thompson mentioned when saying the aquatics program in September. “This is a unique moment to make a meaningful impact—not just for today’s student-athletes, but for the countless Gaels and community members who will benefit from a dedicated aquatics home for decades to come. Together, we can build something enduring, something that reflects the values of our College and the deep tradition of excellence in aquatics across California.”

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