Eric McIlquham
5/10/2002 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Eric McIlquham
Head Coach
* 5th Season at Alabama
Success in all facets of the collegiate athletics experience has been a constant for the Alabama under Eric McIlquham, now in his fifth season as the Crimson Tide’s head coach. Under his direction, Alabama has five top-25 national finishes including back-to-back-to-back top-15 finishes for the men in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Under his watch, Alabama records are falling fast with Vlad Polyakov owning, by a large margin, the 100 and 200 breaststroke records and the Southeastern Conference 200 mark. Junior Mark Randall got his Alabama career started by decimating the Tide’s 20-year-old school marks in the 1000 and 1650 freestyles. And as if that weren’t enough, Apostolis Tsagkarakis broke Olympic Gold Medalist Jon Olsen’s 1991 50 freestyle record at the 2006 NCAA Championships, shaving a quarter of a second off the old mark before lowering the mark again at last year’s NCAA Championships in the fastest 50 freestyle final ever.
One of the most impressive things about the Tide’s record breaking ways is the variety of events. From the stroke events to sprints to distance, McIlquham is building a program that can score from anywhere in the pool.
Record breaking isn’t the only skill the Tide has honed since McIlquham took the helm. Polyakov, a two-time Olympic finalist, won the FINA World 200 Breaststroke Championship in 2006, as well as winning the 2007 and 2005 NCAA 200 breaststroke titles. Polyakov’s NCAA Championships are part of a streak of five Tide national titles in the last six years.
In the classroom, for the third year in a row the swim team placed two athletes on the prestigious CoSIDA Academic All-American at-large team. Alabama also had a program best 33 athletes earn Academic All-SEC honors. The swimming and diving squad also posted the highest team grade point average of any men’s team on campus for the third year in a row.
“I’m excited about the success we have enjoyed to this point,” McIlquham said. “But it’s just the starting point. We continue to grow, move forward and improve. It’s an exciting time to be a part of this program.”
And for McIlquham, moving forward means winning.
“We’re going to be successful in all aspects of the collegiate experience,” McIlquham said. “And we’re going to win - not we want to win - we’re going to win.”
It’s that kind of fire that has brought McIlquham to the Alabama deck as head coach at a young age. Success has been his constant companion not just due to his hard work, but from being innovative in how he trains his athletes and keeping his program on the cutting edge in all areas. His success along the way helped him achieve one of his career goals, returning to Alabama.
“Getting back to Alabama and being able to coach here again has always been one of my main goals,” McIlquham. “This is such a special place. But being here isn’t enough, we are going to move forward from here and make a big splash. We definitely have the tradition and support to become one of the nation’s elite programs, and that’s just what’s going to happen.”
And who better to guide Alabama back to the top-10 and beyond than a coach who was part of the last staff to take the Tide there. In 1994, McIlquham was part of the Jonty Skinner led staff that saw Alabama’s women take ninth at the NCAA Championships and the men finish 10th. While coaching here the first time, Alabama posted three top-10 and six top-20 finishes between the men and women’s programs.
It was also during his first tenure with the Tide that McIlquham coached with Sonya Porter, then a student coach at Alabama. The two kept in close contact over the years and when it came time to return to the Capstone, McIlquham and Porter came back as a team.
McIlquham’s career has been a fast moving train, ever since his days as a graduate assistant coach with the Crimson Tide in the early 90s. After two years as a graduate assistant, he became a full-time assistant coach with the Tide in 1994. After two more seasons he left Tuscaloosa to become head assistant coach at the University of Virginia. He helped turn the Cavalier’s sprint program into one of the nation’s best, and helped lead the program to back-to-back Atlantic Coast Conference titles in 1998 and 1999. The Cavaliers posted five top-20 finishes, including a top-10 finish in ??99. He helped coach Shamek Pietucka to the 1999 NCAA 200 butterfly title. Another McIlquham prot??g??, Rebecca Gronk, was the No. 1 seed in the 50 freestyle going into the 1999 NCAA Championships. In addition to Pietucka, he coached 18 swimmers to 52 All-American honors at Virginia.
After his three-years with Virginia, McIlquham, still shy of his 30th birthday, became head coach of West Virginia University and immediately went to work improving the Mountaineers fortunes. One of his first moves was to bring Porter over from Northwestern, where she was an assistant coach, to help with the building process.
McIlquham’s Mountaineer teams broke a combined 28 school records, produced the men’s first ever Big East champions, and gained the first individual NCAA appearance in 14 seasons, all in his first four years. In 2002, his men’s squad produced a winning record for the first time since becoming a member of the Big East conference, while 11 of his swimmers garnered All-Big East honors, including five in 2002.
While at West Virginia, McIlquham and Porter coached former Northwestern ace Amy Balcerzak-Field to an American record in the 50 breaststroke.
Internationally, McIlquham has been a part of the Egyptian National Team coaching staff since 1995, coaching former Alabama standout Rania Elwani among others. He was part of the Egyptian coaching staff at the 1995 Pan Pacific Games, the 1995 African Games and the 1996 Olympics. He was head coach of the Egyptian contingent at the 2000 Olympics, where Elwani made the semi-finals in two events, set three national records and one All-African record. This past summer he helped former Tide standout Arlene Semeco to double gold at the Pan American Games and the Pan Am record in the 50 freestyle.
McIlquham himself was a standout athlete, winning 15 NCAA Division II individual and relay titles while competing for Oakland University. The two-time NCAA D2 100 butterfly champion also held the national record in that event. He and his Oakland teammates still hold the NCAA 200 and 400 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay records.
A standout in the classroom as well as the pool, McIlquham earned his bachelor’s degree from Oakland with a psychology major and a history minor. He was a CSCA Academic All-American as a senior and he earned a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. He put that scholarship to good use at Alabama, earning a Master’s degree in exercise physiology in 1996.
Because of his success in the pool and in the classroom, McIlquham knows the importance of balancing both areas of the collegiate experience.
“At Alabama, we’re going to bring in student-athletes who are going to work hard to be successful in all areas of their lives,” McIlquham said. “First and foremost, they are here to earn their degree, because that is what is going to carry them through for the rest of their lives. We’re going to be successful in all aspects of this program, there’s just no doubt.”
McIlquham married the former Sharon Dinkel of Pittsburgh, Pa. in the summer of 2004. The couple has a son, Brenner Brooks.
McIlquham Career Capsule
HIRED: August 2003
BIRTHDATE: March 5
HOMETOWN: Dalton, Mass.
EDUCATION:
- Bachelor of Arts, Psychology
Oakland University, April 1992 - Master of Arts, Exercise Physiology
University of Alabama, May 1996
COLLEGIATE COACHING EXPERIENCE:
- Head Coach, University of Alabama, 2003 - present
- Head Coach, West Virginia, 1999-2003
- Head Assistant Coach, University of Virginia, 1996-99
- Assistant Coach, University of Alabama, 1994-96
- Graduate Assistant Coach, University of Alabama, 1992-94
CLUB COACHING EXPERIENCE:
- Head Coach, Mountaineer Aquatic Clubs, 2000-03
- Head Coach, Tuscaloosa Swim Club, 1992-96
INTERNATIONAL COACHING EXPERIENCE:
- Head Coach, Egyptian Olympic Team, 2000 - Sydney
- Assistant Coach, Egyptian Olympic Team, 1996 - Atlanta
- Assistant Head Coach, Egyptian National Team, 1995-96
HONORS:
- Oakland University Hall of Honor (Inducted, April 1999)
- NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship (1992)
- All-American - 1989, 90, 91, 92
- NCAA Champion - 1989, 90, 91, 92
- Oakland Team Captain - 1991, 92
- NCAA Record Holder
