Will Hoogendyk IV, Campus Carrier sports editor
On Feb. 5th, news that Astrid Escobar, former Head Coach of the Berry College Swim and Dive program, resigned from her post hit Berry’s campus. Much speculation swirled about what were the reasons for her resignation and if it had anything to do with her profile being taken down from the Berry athletics website. While neither Berry’s Athletic Department nor the college has released any statements about the reasons for her departure, Ella Quigley, a junior on the women’s Swim and Dive team talked about the team’s reaction after they heard the news.
The team was first informed about Escobar’s resignation before their afternoon practice started on February 4th. They were told Escobar had voluntarily resigned from her position and Quigley described the feeling amongst her and her teammates.
“Probably relief,” Quigley said. “Honestly, we’re not sure what would happen. We hoped there would be change, whatever that change would be.”
Quigley has been on the Swim and Dive team since the 2022-23 season, also Escobar’s first year as head coach. Now a junior, Quigley reflected on her time in the Swim and Dive program under Escobar’s direction.
“It’s been a hard 3 years, but now that she is gone, we’re closer than we ever have been as a team,” Quigley said. “We are mentally doing better.”
Escobar’s resignation came just a week before the Vikings traveled to Danville, Kentucky for the SAA conference championships, hosted by Centre. Despite the rumors floating around about their former head coach, the Vikings performed very well in Kentucky. The men’s and women’s teams combined to earn 11 podium finishes, with five of them being first place victories.
Assistant Coach Will Dubrowski won SAA Coach of the Year for the women’s program. In the wake of Escobar’s resignation, Dubrowski has taken over all responsibilities for both coaching and Aquatics Director for Berry until a replacement can be found.
Escobar conversing with swimmers in between drills at practice.
On Monday of this week, a job listing for Head Men’s and Women’s Swim & Dive Coach and Aquatics Director went up, and Athletic Director Angel Mason hopes to have the position filled in the next couple of months.
“The hope would be to have somebody hired by the end of April,” Mason said.
Until then, the interview process will carefully examine each applicant for who is best qualified to guide the future of Berry’s swim program. The selection process for a swim and dive head coach won’t be any different from any other coach hiring process.
“We always look for individuals that have a good amount of training in the actual skills of the sport,” Mason said. “They have some expertise and the ability to be able to prepare a team to compete at a high level. We look for people that we think will be able to understand and mesh well with the culture of Berry, but also part of what we end up looking for comes from our discussions with the team before we get to the interview process.”
For any new hiring of an assistant or head coach, a student athlete representative from the team is always brought along and involved.
“When we do a head coaching search, there’s a student athlete that’s a representative on the search committee from that actual team,” Mason said. “That person is selected first from nominations of their teammates and then finally by whomever is sharing the search. They sit in, review applications, sign a confidentiality statement, see applications, take part in the Zoom interviews, they take part in the on campus interviews, [and] they help coordinate the team interviews. It’s one representative per team.”
Because the Berry Swim and Dive is split into both a men’s and women’s team, there will be a representative from each program involved in the process of hiring the team’s next head coach. Along with other administrative staff, these two students will have a say in which applicant gets selected to be the next leader of their team.
This will be just the third Head Coach in the history of Berry’s Swim and Dive program following Paul Flinchbaugh and Escobar. Starting next fall will be Berry’s 17th season with a Swim and Dive program.
Until then, Dubrowski will continue to serve any needs of the coaching or Aquatics Director role left vacant by Escobar. Quigley noted how Dubrowski has already been excelling in this role.
“Our assistant coach has stepped up and done the practices for us,” Quigley said. “Athletic administration is doing the administrative stuff behind the scenes, itinerary [and] all that, [but] for our meet but he’s doing the swim coaching portion of it. So that’s been really nice to see him thrive in that.”
With no Vikings making it to the NCAA championships for Berry Swim and Dive, the attention of the team now shifts entirely to this rigorous process of choosing the right person to lead them forward.