Jack Bauerle - Swimming & Diving Coach - University of Georgia Athletics

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Jack Bauerle

Title:
Tom Cousins Swimming and Diving Head Coach
Email:
jbauerle@sports.uga.edu
Phone:
706-542-7946

Tom Cousins Swimming and Diving Head Coach Jack Bauerle has experienced unparalleled success in all facets of coaching life at the University of Georgia. National champions, All-Americans, record-setters, Olympians, Scholar All-Americans, and NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipients have become the norm under Bauerle, who has spent 43 seasons as the helm of the program.

Bauerle is now the co-dean of SEC coaches, matching former LSU gymnastics coach D-D Breaux this season for the league record in coaching longevity. He already became the longest-tenured in Georgia athletics history with his 35^th season in 2013-14, passing legendary men’s tennis coach Dan Magill for the honor.

In his time overseeing Georgia’s program, Bauerle has produced seven NCAA and 12 SEC crowns with the Lady Bulldogs, with 62 different men and women team members winning 175 national championships. At NCAAs, his teams have posted 48 Top 10 finishes, including 21 Top 5 finishes in 22 seasons for the women’s squad from 1995 through 2017. In his tenure, 304 Georgia student-athletes have accumulated 2,116 All-America citations, while Bauerle himself has been chosen as the SEC Coach of the Year 18 times (16 with the women, two with the men) and the National Women’s Coach of the Year on seven occasions.

Bauerle has led the Lady Bulldogs to 342 dual-meet victories (joining Tom Groden of Boston College as the only members of the 300-wins club). Counting his 253 wins as the Bulldogs’ men’s coach, Bauerle has an overall record of 595-139-4. That figure ranks first among active NCAA coaches, first all-time in the SEC, and second on the all-time list. He also made history by leading the Lady Bulldogs to an NCAA-record 103 straight dual wins at Gabrielsen Natatorium from Nov. 8, 1995, through Jan. 5, 2017.

In 2008, Bauerle reached the pinnacle of his coaching success when he was chosen as the United States' women's team coach for the Olympics, leading the American women to 14 medals, the most of any nation. Including Beijing, he has coached for Team USA at each of the last six Olympic Games, serving as a women’s assistant in 2000, men’s assistant in 2016 and 2020, and personal coach in 2004 and 2012.

Under Bauerle’s leadership, Georgia has produced 87 Olympians representing 20 different nations, earning 38 medals in the process. Georgia swimmers have earned 15 Gold Medals, beginning with Sheila Taormina in the 4x200m freestyle relay at the 1996 Atlanta Games. At the 2000 Sydney Games, Kristy Kowal became the first individual medalist as she took Silver in the 200m breaststroke, while in 2012, Allison Schmitt became the program’s first individual Gold Medalist when she won the 200m freestyle in London.

At the Rio games, Bulldog swimmers totaled seven medals, including the program’s first male medalists in Chase Kalisz (silver – 400m IM) and Gunnar Bentz (gold – 4x200m freestyle relay). Bauerle was joined in Rio by 12 Georgia swimming alums representing the USA, Canada, and Finland, along with former diving coach Dan Laak and volunteer diving assistant Cesar Castro representing Brazil.

In Tokyo, a contingent of 10 Bulldogs, as well as Coach Laak, joined Bauerle at the Olympic Aquatics Centre. Starting a run of seven medals won at the meet, Kalisz and teammate Jay Litherland led a 1-2 sweep of the 400m IM, giving Georgia its first male gold medalist in an individual event. Schmitt, competing in her fourth games, earned two medals and brought her career total to 10, while Hali Flickinger earned a pair of bronze medals in the 400m IM and 200m butterfly. Additionally, two members of Bauerle’s pro group medaled as Andrew Wilson won gold in the 4x100m medley relay and Natalie Hinds took silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay.

Outside of the water, Bauerle’s teams have excelled in the classroom and community as well. Three Lady Bulldog swimmers, Kowal, Lisa Coole, and Kim Black, have been named the NCAA Woman of the Year, tying for the most winners from a single athletic program. With 39 NCAA postgraduate scholarship winners, only six schools have more recipients than just the Georgia swimming and diving program. Additionally, the program has produced 41 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans and 416 CSCAA Scholar All-Americans.

Including his tenures as head coach, assistant coach, and student-athlete, Bauerle has been associated with Georgia for over 50 years. During his athletic career, he was a four-year letterwinner and two-time team captain, graduating in 1975 with program records in the 200-yard butterfly and 1,650-yard freestyle. Following graduation, he was an assistant for the men’s team for three seasons and the women for one before being named women’s head coach in 1979, eventually adding the men’s title in 1983.

In the 2021-22 season, Georgia remained one of the nation’s top programs, with the men finishing eighth at the NCAA Championships and the women placing 15^th, both surpassing their projected placements. Freshman Matthew Sates and sophomore Jake Magahey posted a 1-2 finish in the 500 freestyle, with both swimmers joining teammates Luca Urlando and Zach Hils for a second-place finish in the 800 freestyle relay, setting an SEC record and the top NCAA relay finish in program history. Urlando finished top-three in all three individual events and set the American Record in the 100 backstroke as he led off the 400 medley relay. Earlier at the SEC Championships, Urlando was named the SEC Commissioner’s Trophy and Swimmer of the Meet with three gold medals in Knoxville. In the women’s NCAA meet, Zoie Hartman and Dakota Luther both finished top-four in their top events, while freshman Abby McCulloh placed fifth in the mile.

Despite facing unprecedented conditions for the 2020-21 season, Bauerle helped guide the program to once of its best seasons in recent memory. The Georgia men finished fourth at the NCAA Championships, only their second top-four finish in history, highlighted by a national title from Magahey in the 500 freestyle. Prior to NCAAs, the Bulldogs finished second at the SEC Championships with a program-record 1,324.5 points, earning four SEC titles in the process. In dual competition, the men posted an unbeaten 5-0 record, the second in school history and first since 1997-98. Meanwhile, the Georgia women placed eighth at NCAAs, securing the Bulldogs as the only SEC program to finish top-10 in both genders. The women also returned to the top-three at SECs, with Hartman winning three gold medals and Luther setting a new league record in the 200 butterfly.

In the 2019-20 season, Bauerle's teams bounced back to post winning seasons, placing themselves in contention for top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships, with 21 athletes qualifying before the cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the premature end of the season, the Bulldogs earned 26 combined All-America citations and 15 SEC postseasons accolades. At the SEC Championships in Auburn, the Georgia men finished third as Camden Murphy repeated in the men's 200 butterfly. The Lady Bulldogs finished fourth overall, led by SEC Freshman of the Year Hartman's sweep of the breaststroke events. Veronica Burchill earned her first individual title in the 200 freestyle, while Courtney Harnish repeated in the 500 freestyle and Luther topped the 200 butterfly.

During the decade of the 2010s, the Lady Bulldogs continued to define themselves as one of the nation’s best programs, winning three national championships (2013, 2014, 2016) and six consecutive SEC championships (2010-15). On the men’s side, the Bulldogs posted fifth-place finishes in 2014 and 2016, their best placements since finishing third in 1997.

The three titles won in the previous decade added to a strong championship tradition started in 1999, when the Lady Bulldogs earned their first victory at home in Athens and went on to win the next two tiles. In 2005, Georgia became the first program to sweep all five relays, eventually scoring 609.5 points, the most of any championship program in the past 25 seasons.

The Lady Bulldogs have also made history on two specific occasions: first, in 2001, they took the title by just 2.5 points over Stanford, prevailing with only one team victory in the 800-yard freestyle relay. One year earlier in 2000, the 400m medley relay team of Courtney Shealy, Kristy Kowal, Keegan Walkley, and Maritza Correia set a new world record time as the NCAA used meters in an Olympic year.

The breakthrough 1999 championship was the culmination of a two-decade process started by Bauerle in 1979. After quickly establishing themselves as an SEC contender in the early 1980s, the Lady Bulldogs began accumulating more NCAA qualifiers and All-Americans each season, leading to a sixth-place finish at the 1987 NCAA championships and Erika Hansen’s national title in the 1,650 freestyle in 1989. Now entrenched as a national contender, Georgia won the 1997 SEC championship at Gabrielsen, two years before the first NCAA victory at the same venue.

In 1983, Bauerle added the duties of men’s head coach, helping to guide the Bulldogs to an NCAA Championships appearance five years later, the team’s first since 1967. By 1990, he had already become the program’s winningest coach, and by 1996, Matt Buck became his first national champion, winning the 200 breaststroke title. Since placing third in 1997, the Bulldog men have finished in the top-10 19 times, asserting themselves as one of the nation’s most consistent squads.

Bauerle has been inducted into the State of Georgia, the Georgia Aquatics and the Montgomery County (Pa.) Coaches halls of fame. He also received the Bill Hartman Award, which is one of the highest honors given to a former UGA student-athlete based on 20 years of excellence in his profession.

Besides coaching, Bauerle has dedicated his time and efforts to several community service endeavors. In 1983, he and three partners played 125 hours of tennis at the Jennings Mill Country Club to raise more than $50,000 for the American Cancer Society. He received the Billy Hudson Distinguished Citizen Award from the Northeast Georgia Council of the Boy Scouts of America for his community service efforts. He has been selected to Sphinx Club, Blue Key Society, the Gridiron Society and Phi Kappa Phi. He is also an avid outdoorsman.

Bauerle, a native of Glenside, Pa., and his wife, Leigh Ann, have three sons: John, Magill (who is named after legendary Georgia tennis coach and swimming letterman Dan Magill) and Duke.

Georgia Women (1979-Present)
• 7 NCAA Championships (1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2013, 2014, 2016)
• 8 NCAA runner-up finishes (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015)
• 29 top-10 national finishes, including 21 in the top 5
• 12 SEC Championships (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
• 7-Time NCAA Coach of the Year (1998, 1999, 2000, 2005, 2006, 2013, 2016)
• 16-Time SEC Coach of the Year (1981, 1986, 1991, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016)
• 78 NCAA Championship winners (53 individuals, 25 relays)
• 181 All-Americans, earning 886 First Team and 494 Second Team citations
• 179 SEC champions (129 individuals and 50 relays)
• Career record of 342-42-2 (winningest active women’s and combined coach)
• 3 NCAA Woman of the Year honorees
• 29 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipients
• 103 straight dual/tri-meet wins at Gabrielsen Natatorium (NCAA S&D record)

Georgia Men (1983-Present)
• 2-Time SEC Coach of the Year (1992, 1997)
• 22 NCAA Championship individual winners
• 19 top-10 national finishes
• 123 All-Americans, earning 262 First Team and 474 Second Team citations
• 88 SEC individual champions
• Career record of 253-97-2 (winningest active combined coach)
• 10 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipients

National / International
• U.S. Women’s Head Coach for the 2008 Olympics
• U.S. Assistant Coach for the 2000 (women), 2016 (men), and 2020 (men) Olympics
• Personal Coach for the 2004 and 2012 Olympics
• U.S. Head Coach for the 2003, 2005 and 2011 World Championships
• U.S. Assistant Coach for the 2001, 2007, 2017, and 2019 World Championships
• U.S. Head Coach for the 2002, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2015 Duel In The Pool
• Pan Pacific Games, World University Games, U.S. National Team Camp, Elite Distance Camp and U.S. Olympic Festival coaching appointments

MISCELLANEOUS
• Inducted into the State of Georgia, City of Athens, State of Georgia Aquatics, and Montgomery County (Pa.) Coaches halls of fame
• 2012 recipient of the Bill Hartman Award (given annually to a former UGA student-athlete based on 20 years of professional excellence)
• 3 NCAA Woman of the Year Award winners -- the first school with multiple winners
• 1998 recipient of the CSCAA National Collegiate and Scholastic Swimming Trophy
• 2008 recipient of the Billy Hudson Distinguished Citizen Award for community service
• Selected for Sphinx Club, Blue Key Society, the Gridiron Society and Phi Kappa Phi