June 10, 2005

Dan Colella, the head women's swimming coach at Tennessee the past 12 seasons, has been named the swimming coach at Duke University, Director of Athletics Joe Alleva announced Friday.

"We are thrilled to get a coach with Dan's experience and expertise to lead our swimming program," said Alleva. "His background, from both an athletic and academic standpoint, speaks for itself. It is a great fit for our University and our program."

Colella has 10 top 25 finishes in his 12 seasons at Tennessee and coached 34 student-athletes to a total of 143 All-America honors, the school's first NCAA individual champion (Nicole deMan in 1996), 18 Southeastern Conference individual champions. His student-athletes also excelled in the classroom. Under Colella, his team received the CSCAA Academic All-American Team Award, earning an "Excellent" designation for GPAs between 3.00 and 3.24. He also coached 15 individual Academic All-Americas.

"After the interview at Duke, I knew it was perfect for me from a coaching standpoint and for my family as well," said Colella. "I could tell that we will have a very supportive staff at Duke. I see all kinds of potential for Duke swimming to a make a mark."

Colella arrived at Tennessee in 1990 as the assistant women's swimming coach and served in that capacity until being promoted to head coach in 1993. From 1986-90, he was the assistant swimming coach at Indian River Community College in Fort Pierce, Fla. He taught science at Fort Pierce Central High School in 1985-86 while also serving as the school's assistant swimming coach.

Colella earned a B.S. degree in Natural Resources/Geology from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., in 1984. A member of the university's academic honor society, he captained the school's swimming team and was the team MVP from 1981-83. He and his wife, Victoria, have two children, Henry (4) and George (2).