Rick West

ASSISTANT COACH 7TH SEASON AT WEST VIRGINIA

Rick West enters his seventh year as an assistant coach for the WVU swimming and diving teams. West assists head coach Vic Riggs in all aspects of the program, including day-to-day operations, recruiting and academics. The 2020-21 season was shortened down to three regular season meets, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but that didn’t stop the West Virginia from seeing success. The season was highlighted by senior, David Dixon, becoming the first Mountaineer from the men’s team to earn a bid to four consecutive appearances at the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships. Dixon finished 12th in the 200 butterfly at NCAA’s to earn Honorable Mention All-America Honors. Additionally, he represented WVU at the 2021 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in the 200-meter butterfly and 200-meter IM.

At the 2021 Big 12 Championships, the men finished second and the women

WEST AT A GLANCE

BORN: August 25 HOMETOWN: Moundsville, West Virginia ALMA MATER: West Liberty State College

COACHING EXPERIENCE:

2015-Present West Virginia 2012-2015 West Virginia 2007-12 Wheeling Jesuit 2003-04 Pitt 2002-03 Duquesne 2002 Ohio State 2001-02 Wheeling Jesuit 2000-01 Wheeling Jesuit 1996-2000 Steubenville High finished fourth. They tallied a pair of program records (200 women’s freestyle relay) and collected 11 medals (four silver and seven bronze). Nine Mountaineers earned a spot on the All-Big 12 First Team, while 12 were recognized on All-Big 12 second team. During the 2020-21 campaign, both squads were named CSCAA Scholar AllAmerican teams and forty Mountaineers were named to the 2021 Academic All-Big 12 Swimming & Diving Team. Seniors, Kayla Gagnon and Ryan Van Wyk, were named recipients of the Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award. West continues to help lead WVU to academic success. In West Virginia’s first season in its new facility at the Aquatic Center at Mylan Park in 2019-20, West helped the program through several milestones. The Mountaineers hosted a mid-season invitational and the Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championship for the first time in program history, while a pair of men’s program records were broken at the hands of David Dixon (200 butterfly) and Hunter Armstrong (200 freestyle). The men’s team also finished the regular season with just one dual-meet loss, before placing second at the Big 12 Championship. The women’s team placed second at the conference meet. The Mountaineers collected 11 total medals at the conference meet, including five silver and six bronze. Dixon and Armstrong also qualified for the 2020 NCAA Championships. Despite the cancellation of the championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the duo earned CSCAA All-America distinction after the CSCAA Board of Directors altered the selection criteria.

In addition to their success in the pool, West helped guide the team to success in the classroom as well. Thirty-one Mountaineers were named to the 2020 Academic All-Big 12 Team, with seven

Assistant Coach Volunteer Coach Head Coach Assistant Coach Head Coach Assistant Coach Head Coach Assistant Coach Head Coach student-athletes earning the distinction with perfect 4.0 grade-point averages. Additionally, seniors Ryan Kelly and Jack Portmann were named recipients of the Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award. West was a part of another successful campaign in 2018-19, guiding the Mountaineers to impressive conference and national performances. Sophomore David Dixon earned two Big 12 individual championships in the 100 and 200 butterfly in 2019, becoming the first Mountaineer to earn multiple victories at the event since 2014. The Mountaineer men finished in second place at the conference meet, while the women finished in third. Additionally, WVU qualified three swimmers to the 2019 NCAA Championships, including senior Jake Armstrong, junior Morgan Bullock and Dixon. West Virginia broke eight swimming school records in 2018-19, all of which came at the 2019 Big 12 Championship.

The Mountaineers also accomplished milestones in the classroom in addition to the pool, as the two squads were again named CSCAA Scholar All-America teams in the fall and spring semesters. Seven student-athletes were named CSCAA Scholar All-America Individuals, while 29 made the Academic All-Big 12 Team. Junior Ryan Kelly became WVU’s fifth Big 12 Men’s Swimming and Diving Scholar Athlete of the Year.

West assisted the Mountaineers to a highly successful 2017-18 campaign, where WVU shined on multiple levels and created plenty of momentum to carry into the future. For the first time since 2014, the Mountaineers featured multiple Big 12 individual champions, as juniors Jake Armstrong (100 breaststroke) and Tristen Di Sibio (200 breaststroke) took home gold medals at the 2018 Big 12 Championship. The Mountaineers went on to earn a pair of second-place team finishes at the conference meet. In all, WVU earned two gold, 16 silver and 12 bronze medals. WVU featured five swimmers who qualified for the NCAA Championships in 2017-18 – Armstrong, Morgan Bullock, Di Sibio, David Dixon and Emma Harris. For the men, it was the most swimmers to qualify for the national meet since 2014, while the two women’s qualifiers became WVU’s first since 2013. Armstrong and Bullock went on to grab honorable mention All-America honors at the national meets. Armstrong placed 14th overall in the 100 breaststroke (52.69), while Bullock finished 15th in the 200 butterfly (1:54.77).

WVU, which took down 15 school records in 2017-18 and featured the men’s first undefeated dual-meet season since 2006-07, also got the job done in the classroom. Thirty members of the two teams were named to the Academic AllBig 12 First or Second Team. Additionally, Currat repeated as the Big 12 Women’s Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year and was named to the Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-District AtLarge team. Senior James Koval took home the Men’s Swimming and Diving ScholarAthlete of the Year award, marking the Mountaineers’ seventh distinction in six seasons in the league.

In the 2016-17 season, West aided in another men’s second-place finish at the Big 12 Championship, while directing Armstrong to a 100 breaststroke conference title.

In the classroom, WVU once again rose the bar. The Mountaineers saw 21 members of the swimming and diving teams named to the Academic All-Big 12 Team. Currat also earned CoSIDA Academic All-America Third Team status and was awarded the 2017 Big 12 Women’s Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year award. In West’s first year as an assistant coach with the Mountaineers, he was an integral part in helping WVU succeed in and out of the pool. Four members of the 2015-16 men’s team qualified to compete at the 2016 Olympic Swimming Trials in Omaha, Nebraska. WVU graduate Bryce Bohman, seniors Andrew Marsh, Max Spencer and junior Nate Carr raced in a total of nine events at the U.S. Olympic Trials. For the first time in program history, a Mountaineer set a Big 12 Championship record when Marsh set a mark of 45.41 in the 100 backstroke, taking home the gold medal at the championship meet. Marsh also set a WVU school record in the 100 butterfly, with a prelims time of 46.59 to advance him to the ‘A’ final. Eighteen Mountaineers earned medals at the fourday championship with eight All-Big 12 First Team performances and 12 All-Big 12 Second Team honors.

West helped coach the Mountaineer men to a second-place finish at the 2016 Big 12 Championship, posting their best finish at the conference championship since joining the Big 12, while the women’s squad finished fourth. Academically, junior Nathan Howells was named the 2015-16 Big 12 Men’s Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the third Scholar-Athlete of the Year award for the men and the fourth overall for the WVU swimming and diving program. Howells also was named to the 2016 Academic All-District At-Large Team. Additionally, 24 members of the team were named to the 2016 Academic All-Big 12 Team. West is familiar with the Mountaineer culture as he was a volunteer coach with the team from 2012-15. Prior to his time in Morgantown, West served as head coach, as well as Aquatics Director, at Wheeling Jesuit from 2001-02 and 2007-12. He was responsible for the organization, compliance, budgeting and recruiting for the NCAA Division II program in the Appalachian Swimming Conference and West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. In 2002, 2010 and 2011, West was awarded Appalachian Swimming Conference Men’s Coach of the Year.

As an assistant coach at Pitt in 200304, he assisted in coaching the Panthers to their eighth consecutive men’s Big East Conference championship, their 19th title in 22 years. He helped coach the men’s team to the most dual-meet wins (14) in the university’s history in 2003, and he helped the women’s team reach its first winning dual-meet record in four seasons (8-6).

At Duquesne in 2002-03, West led the Dukes to their first ever Atlantic 10 champion swimmer in the school’s 26-year history as head coach. Prior to working with the Dukes, he was an assistant men’s swimming coach at Ohio State in 2002. West was responsible for the recruiting process including scouting, contacting prospects and implementing a thorough follow-up plan for the incoming opportunities. West attended West Liberty, earning a Bachelor of Arts in education in 1997. In 2010, he received a master’s degree in athletic coaching education from West Virginia University. Currently, he’s a doctoral student pursuing a degree in coaching and teaching studies. He and his wife, Sarah, have four children, Carleigh, Sydney, Quinton and Alec.