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Stanford Director of Athletics Bernard Muir announced the hiring of Dan Schemmel as the school’s men’s swimming coach on Tuesday. He replaces Menlo Park resident Ted Knapp, who spent the past 35 years as an assistant and head coach.
“Coach Schemmel is a rising star who has proven himself to be one of the brightest technical minds in the sport,” said Muir. “More importantly, though, he has demonstrated that he is truly invested in the development and well-being of his student-athletes and knows how to promote a healthy championship culture of collaboration, respect and accountability.”
Schemmel, who becomes the sixth coach in program history, spent the previous three years as coach of both the men’s and women’s programs at Hawai’i. The women’s program won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship in each of those three seasons while the men’s team captured its first conference championship since 2006. Under his leadership, Hawai’i produced a combined 57 individual conference champions, 42 school records, 20 conference records and seven All-Americans.
“I am incredibly humbled and honored for the opportunity to lead the Stanford men’s swimming and diving program,” said Schemmel. “Stanford offers the premier experience in scholar-athleticism, combining a world-class education with the best collegiate athletics department in the country. I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to Bernard Muir and sport administrator Tommy Gray for believing in me and providing me with this opportunity. Within this environment of excellence, we will continue to build this program around a culture of integrity and hard work.”
Prior to serving as coach at Hawai’i, Schemmel spent five seasons as an assistant coach at Wisconsin, where he coached 17 Big Ten conference champions to nine Big Ten conference records.
He also spent the 2010-11 season as an assistant coach at his alma mater Michigan State and two seasons as a graduate assistant at Arizona (2008-10), where he earned his masters degree in educational psychology. He’s a native of Rockford, Michigan.
“I want to acknowledge and thank our men’s swimming and diving community for the outpouring of support and constructive input we received throughout the search process,” added Muir. “It is clear that Coach Schemmel and the young men on the team will be well-supported as this exciting new chapter of Stanford men’s swimming and diving commences.”
Schemmel inherits a program which, in 102 seasons, has captured eight national championships and 64 Pac-12 conference championships, including 31 consecutive from 1982-2012. Individual swimmers and divers have combined for 147 national championships and 360 conference championships, while seven former Cardinal were named to the Pac-12 All-Century team in 2016.
Knapp spent a combined 39 seasons at Stanford as a student-athlete, assistant coach, associate head coach and the Director of Men’s Swimming from 2012-19. He oversaw seven team NCAA championships, 70 individual NCAA championships and 33 conference championships.
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The MPSF is not the Pac-12. Surprised by this choice, but AD Muir needed to get his guy in there so this is what the program gets. While it was not reported as such, it’s kind of obvious that it was not Knapp’s decision to leave. He still had plenty to offer the program, but Muir needs to have his own hires in every head coaching position. Good luck when it comes to women’s basketball, because that will be VanDerveer’s call and not Muir’s. This is the way college sports works these days.