UMBC Director of Athletics Brian Barrio named Matt Donovan to lead the men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs as the Retrievers’ head coach in March of 2021.
In his first full season with the Retrievers, Donovan led the men's squad to titles at the ECAC Winter Championships and the America East Championships. The women's squad placed second in both meets. Under his direction, the men's staff earned 2021-22 America East Coaching Staff of the Year.
Two Retrievers- senior Caroline Sargent and junior Niklas Weigelt earned America East Swimmer of the Meet honors and freshman Oliver Gassmann was named the meet's Most Outstanding Rookie.
Both teams earned CSCAA 2021 Fall Scholar All-America team honors. "We are all so proud of these tremendously talented young people," said Donovan. "Their level of achievement in the pool is only heightened by how successful they are in the classroom. This award is proof of their hard work and we know that we have a lot of others to thank as well. None of this would be possible without all of the amazing professors, advisors and support staff we have here at UMBC. The team may have been presented with this award but everyone here at UMBC deserves a portion of it as well".
The men's program successfully defender their America East title in 2022-23 and, once again, Donovan and his staff earned Men's Coaching Staff of the Year. Gassmann earned Swimmer of the Meet honors, while Weigelt took home the David Alexander Award as the highest point-producer in four years of league competition.
Prior to coming to UMBC, Donovan had served as the head women’s swimming coach at Long Island University since the fall of 2016. He took over the men’s program as well when the university added the sport in the spring of 2020.
“The UMBC program has a great national and international reputation and I am humbled to be a part of it,” said Donovan.”I am grateful to UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski, Athletics Director Brian Barrio, and the entire search committee for all of the time and energy put into this process.”
The Retriever swimming and diving teams have dominated America East Conference competition since joining the league in 2003. The women's squad has captured four of the past seven titles, including a resounding victory in 2019. The men’s team has earned 13 of the 15 America East Championships overall since the conference reinstituted men’s swimming and diving as a championship sport in the winter of 2018.
“Matt brings the experience, work ethic, and integrity that this program will need to continue its growth into national prominence,” Barrio said. “He is a great fit for our UMBC community and I'm excited to connect a leader like Matt with the superb student-athletes we have at UMBC.”
At LIU, Donovan started with seven women’s competitors in the fall of 2016 and opened the 2020-21 campaign with 29. The Sharks just concluded the 2020-21 season and the inaugural men's team took second place overall, while the women finished third (highest in program history). Coach Donovan and his staff were named the 2020-21 NEC Coaching Staff of the Meet for both the men's and women's championships.
The LIU women also produced eight individual Northeast Conference champions from 2016-20, including the league’s Most Outstanding Swimmer in 2019-20, and broke two long-standing conference records. A year ago, the Sharks also won the overall Team Sportsmanship Award as voted upon by their peers in the NEC.
Earlier that season, Donovan was named Coach of the Meet at the ECAC Championships, as he led the Sharks to a second-place finish.
Under Donovan’s lead, LIU women’s swimming produced dozens of school records, and NEC and ECAC individual and relay championships in five seasons, but the most impressive has been the team’s performance in the classroom. In every single semester under Donovan, the Sharks have earned CSCAA Academic Honors. In the fall of 2019, LIU had the fourth highest GPA in Division I women’s swimming.
From 2015-19, Donovan served as the head counselor of the Salo Swim Camp and as a volunteer with the Trojan Athletic Club at the University of Southern California. He worked under United States Olympic coaches Dr. David Salo and Catherine Vogt and helped prepare the Chinese National Team for the 2018 Asian Championships.
“Matt is an excellent choice to lead UMBC as they continue their recent successes,” said Salo. “Coach Donovan was an integral part of my camp program at (USC) for many years. “He is bright and inquisitive and thoroughly understands the dynamics of a competitively successful team. I am proud that he will take the reins at UMBC.”
Donovan, who has extensive coaching experience at both the collegiate and club level, spent two seasons as an assistant on both the men's and women's side at the University of Connecticut. In his two seasons with the Huskies, he coached 37 All-Conference honorees, saw the team finish second at the American Athletic Conference Championships in 2015, and win both the 2015 and 2016 Copa Coqui Invitational in Puerto Rico.
The head swim coach of the Somerset Valley (N.J.) YMCA Swim Team, Donovan spent 15 years with the team, overseeing the growth of the program from 46 swimmers to well over 500 participants when he left in 2014. Donovan saw great success while with Somerset Valley, leading the team to the New Jersey State Championship in 2006, and every year from 2010 to 2014. He was tabbed as the New Jersey All-Star team coach in 2003 and 2004.
On the national level, Donovan was awarded the 2013 YMCA National Coach of the Meet honor for the Long Course Championships held in Atlanta, Georgia. He has coached two National Camps (2010, 2011) at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and assisted at the USA Zone Select Camp in Baltimore in 2012.
A decorated swimmer in his own right, Donovan was a two-time captain of the Keene State (N.H.) College squad, qualified for the conference championship each season, made ECAC's twice, and helped break multiple team relay records. He received his bachelor's degree in social sciences from KSC and went on to earn a master's in education from the University of Phoenix in 2004. USA Swimming had had him as a guest presenter twice for their webinar series that can be found on usaswimming.org. He is also a guest author for the United States Masters Swimming on-line magazine.
