Matt Macedo, former head men’s swimming and diving head coach at UC San Diego, has been hired as Associate Head Coach for the men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs at UC Santa Barbara, head coach Gregg Wilson announced today.
A former U.S. National team member and 20-time NCAA All-American swimmer at Cal, Macedo had served as the head coach at UCSD since 2011. After the 2014 season, he received Coach of the Year honors from the Pacific Collegiate Swim and Dive Conference for the second time in the past three years. Prior to being named head coach, he served as an assistant with the program from October of 2008 until his promotion in August of 2011.
Macedo also served as head coach for the Trinidad and Tobago national team in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
“We’re very excited to bring Matt on board with the Gauchos,” said Wilson. “His experience at the collegiate and international levels both as an athlete and as a coach will be invaluable to our program. Our student-athletes will benefit greatly from this hiring.”
“He parlayed a strong individual career at Cal into a coaching career at UCSD that was very successful across the board while maintaining exceptionally high academic standards. We’re very lucky to have him, he is one of the bright young coaches in America.”
With the Gauchos, he will work in-depth with student-athletes in distance events, individual medley training, and stroke events. Macedo will also coordinate with Wilson on recruiting as well as scheduling and practice planning while providing input on decisions at all levels of the program.
During his time with the Tritons, Macedo oversaw a program that broke 66 schools records, earned 18 national titles and 12 conference team titles, and produced 188 All-American performances, including a trio of Division II records. He coached a pair of national champions in Dane Stassi (200 yard butterfly – 2012) and Nick Korth (200 yard breaststroke – 2014), with the latter setting a Division II NCAA record in his event.
UC San Diego was the NCAA Division II Championship runner-up in both 2010 and 2011.
In the classroom, his program earned a Collegiate Swim Coaches Association of American Scholar All-American team recognition in 2013.
Prior to his time in La Jolla, Macedo served on the staff of two prestigious swimming training facilities.
From 2007-08, Macedo worked for The Race Club, where he trained a pair of 2008 Olympic medalists in Nathan Adrian (gold in the 400 meter freestyle) and Milorad Cavic (silver in the 100 meter butterfly) and a 2008 world champion in Duje Draganja (50 meter freestyle).
From 2004-07, he was the head coach at North Coast Aquatics in Carlsbad. There, he coached groups of up to 50 top-level high school and age-group athletes.
As a student-athlete at Cal, he was a two-time national champion in the 400 yard freestyle relay (2001, 2002) and recorded 20 All-American performances between 1999-2002. He was named Swimmer of the Year by Pacific Swimming in 2000.
Internationally, he was a member of the USA National Team from 2001-03. He was a finalist for the Olympic Trials in 2000 and participated in the World University Games in 2001. In 1999, he was ranked in the top-20 worldwide in the 50 meter freestyle and top-50 worldwide in the 100 meter freestyle.
Macedo graduated from Cal in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in American studies and a concentration in public health/public policy.
