Arizona has ended its relationship with Augie Busch, who served as the head coach for swimming and diving for seven seasons, the university announced on Friday.
Busch’s departure marks the first significant change in personnel under the new athletic director, Desireé Reed-Francois.
“We appreciate Coach Busch’s contributions to Arizona and wish him the best in his future endeavors,” Reed-Francois stated. “Our Swimming and Diving program has a strong history of success, with excellent facilities at the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center and tremendous support. We are confident in our ability to attract top-tier candidates. We will promptly begin the search for a new head coach who can continue to foster our culture of excellence.”
Arizona will begin a nationwide search for its next head coach immediately.
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Under Busch’s leadership, both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs at Arizona have struggled in recent years, performing poorly in the Pac-12 conference.
The men’s team had its worst performance at the NCAA Championships in 2023, finishing 32nd, the lowest since the 1970s. There was a slight improvement in 2024, with the team finishing 27th. However, the women’s team failed to score any points at the 2024 NCAA Championships.
Busch took over the Arizona program in 2017, six years after his father, Frank Busch, retired as head coach. During Frank Busch’s tenure, Arizona was known as one of the top swimming programs in the nation. Both the men’s and women’s teams won national championships in 2008.
Several former swimmers and assistants under Frank Busch have gone on to become coaches at other Division I programs and could be potential candidates for the Arizona coaching position.
SwimSwam.com has compiled a list of potential candidates, with top names from the Frank Busch coaching tree including Dave Rollins, head coach at Florida Gulf Coast, Whitney Hite, associate head coach at Florida, and Greg Rhodenbaugh, head coach at SMU.
