New girls’s swimming coach Joel Rollings able to make a splash – Marquette Wire

For the primary time in its 143-year existence, Marquette University is introducing a Division I girls’s swim crew.

Announced May 2025, it will likely be Marquette’s seventeenth Division I sport and the primary new program on campus since males’s and girls’s lacrosse in 2013. The crew begins competitors within the fall.

At the helm is Joel Rollings, who’s no stranger to collegiate swimming within the state of Wisconsin. Announced as head coach on Sept. 15, Rollings is liable for constructing the crew from nothing and laying this system’s basis.

It’s one thing he has expertise in. Before Marquette, Rollings was the inaugural swimming coach throughout city on the Milwaukee School of Engineering for 2 seasons.

“To begin something new is such a great honor,” he mentioned.

Hired by MSOE in 2023, Rollings was acknowledged as one of the vital improved coaches in NCAA Division III after the 2024-2025 season, additionally being named Men’s Coach of the Year within the Liberal Arts Conference.

Before MSOE, he coached for one season on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee after 12 years at UW-Whitewater. At Whitewater, Rollings labored with NCAA champions and All-American swimmers, breaking 92 faculty data from 2006-18. 

His teaching journey began at Texas Christian University, the place he labored as a graduate assistant coach for swimming. Then he went again to Milwaukee, the place he studied kinesiology and took part as a scholar athlete at UWM. 

Over the previous 20 years, Rollings has labored with athletes throughout a number of ranges, together with some who went on to grow to be Olympic qualifiers. One was Alex Dionne, a Paralympic athlete who swam file occasions within the 500 and 1650-yard freestyle occasions.

The structure

The addition of girls’s swimming has been within the works since 2024.

Originally prompt to the athletics division through the college’s “Securing Our Future” planning course of — a part of Marquette’s purpose to chop $31 million over seven years — the varsity program is meant to assist enhance scholar enrollment.

“Adding women’s swimming will improve gender equity in athletics and provide a revenue generation opportunity for the university, while offering a competitive Division I experience for our student-athletes. It’s a win-win for our department and university,” athletic director Mike Broeker mentioned on the official announcement of the crew final May. 

The crew will likely be competing within the $80 million athletic and recreation facility with a six-lane competitors pool.

Marquette joins seven different Big East colleges that at the moment have a crew, competing alongside Butler, UConn, Georgetown, Providence, Seton Hall, Villanova and Xavier. 

Two hundred establishments sponsor Division I girls’s swimming within the United States, over 20 within the Midwest and 4 in Wisconsin, together with Marquette, making each regional and nationwide competitors doable. In the 2023-2024 athletic season, the NCAA reported a 12% enhance within the participation of girls in Division I sports activities over the earlier 10 years.

Marquette’s choice so as to add girls’s swimming aligns with its gender fairness requirements and higher represents the make-up of the scholar physique, which is 56% girls, Broeker mentioned. 

At the middle of this imaginative and prescient is Rollings, who already is aware of what it takes to construct a crew.

He’s been working in the direction of his imaginative and prescient of Marquette Swimming since he was introduced as the top coach in September, feeling like he’s been standing on the “front end of a fire hose.”

“It’s a great feeling everyday to be on campus,” Rollings mentioned.

The architect

The sport and metropolis isn’t the one factor Rollings has expertise with. He can be acquainted with Marquette, as his father taught within the psychology division from 1973-1980.

It’s why he lives in Wisconsin, and why he’s proud to be part of the Golden Eagles neighborhood.

“The chance to work at Marquette was just a dream,” Rollings mentioned, “to come back to where my father was.”

And since being employed, he’s making the dream come to life. While an intimidating feat, Rollings is determining the place he needs to go along with the crew. Most importantly, although, are athletes who love Marquette. 

“It’s a little bit simpler as far as recruiting goes because people know the name and want to be part of the community,” he mentioned. 

Finding all of the items to make a crew is overwhelming, however Rollings is just centered on what he’s attempting to construct; the remaining will fall into place as the method continues.

“Going through things at MSOE helped also as far as knowing some of the pitfalls that come and how to prepare for them,” Rollings mentioned.

Finding the suitable distributors for swim fits, getting the price range set and creating a contest schedule are all a part of this, he mentioned, however when issues get overwhelming, specializing in what they’re attempting to construct makes the method really feel simpler. 

The particular person nature of swimming locations significance on discovering athletes who wish to contribute to the broader crew, Rollings mentioned. To do that, he faucets into Marquette’s popularity and exhibits them what they are often a part of. 

He highlights the excessive tutorial and athletic requirements, complimenting the scholar physique and referring to campus as “one of the friendliest he’s ever been on.” So a lot in order that the college begins to promote itself.

“We’re looking for those people that love Marquette and pitching them on my vision of what the team is going to be like next year,” Rollings mentioned. “And them being a part of a legacy, something bigger than themselves.”

The construct 

Rollings envisions the primary month of the season being devoted to team-building.

With a younger group, laying out what the crew will seem like in 4 years is crucial. This means establishing leaders and figuring out the crew dynamic. The drawback, nonetheless, is that the majority of his recruits are coming from crew captain positions. 

“We don’t have to have everyone be the strong voice,” he mentioned. “We need people who are going to have belief in the vision that we’re trying to get to.”

He hopes that crew habits developed within the childhood will carry down the road, displaying up in future rosters as a standard observe.   

“It’s not just about the outcome or final performance,” Rollings mentioned. “It’s about creating that culture and environment that everyone wants to be a part of.”

Rollings has already acquired 15 signees, 10 of which will likely be a part of the inaugural class.

“This group will forever be remembered as the first,” Rollings mentioned. “They’re hungry, committed, and ready to set the tone for what Marquette swimming will stand for.”

The future

With a lot of swimming falling on outcomes and particular person occasions, Rollings is emphasizing particular person enchancment and searching past the result of a race.

To Rollings, this implies having athletes who’re proud to be at Marquette and wish to work with each other. Athletes who make observe the most effective a part of their day and all the time wish to get higher.  

“It’s unfair to set the standard as far as ‘You have to win a national championship,’” Rollings mentioned. “The standard has to be that you win that practice that day, and then if you keep building on that, all of the other outcomes will fall into place.”

While an apparent want is to maneuver up within the Big East, particular person work and crew collaboration will likely be foundational to the crew’s general efficiency and tradition.

“On your own, there aren’t a lot of accolades that come with [swimming],” Rollings mentioned. “It’s the drive and determination that I admire.”

This story was written by Lilly Peacock. She may be reached at [email protected].