NC State swimming and diving head coach Brooks Teal has announced the hiring of Christopher ‘Woody’ Woodard to the Wolfpack program. Woodard comes to NC State with over a decade of competitive swimming and coaching experience. Woodard will help with the Pack mens and womens recruiting right away.

“I am very excited to have Woody joining our staff, bringing to Wolfpack Swimming and Diving the passion and love for coaching that we need in our program,” said NC State head coach Brooks Teal. “He has great rapport with his swimmers and is a tremendous recruiter. I am confident that he will fit in well with the our team family and his expertise will be a driving force to help NC State continue it's climb up the ACC and NCAA ladder.”

Woodard comes to NC State from Colorado State University where he served as an assistant coach since July 2000. While there, Woodard worked with all the swimmers, concentrating primarily on the breaststroke and IMers. At Colorado State, Woodard developed NCAA qualifiers, as well as several Senior National and Olympic Trial Qualifiers. Woodard was also an assistant coach on the water polo team, which started in January of 2004, and prior to being named an assistant swimming coach he was a volunteer assistant at CSU from August 1998-May 2000. Prior to coaching at Colorado State, Woodard was the head coach of Shawmut Aquatic Club in Boston, Mass. He received the prestigious Wayne Trombini Award for excellence and dedication in swimming. His first job out of college was as an assistant coach at his alma mater Hartwick.

Woodard swam at Hartwick College during his college career. There he was a four year conference team member and member of back-to-back state championships teams. He was team captain as a senior and Co-MVP for the 1991-92 seasons. He held top-five times in the 50, 100, and 200 breaststroke and was a conference finalist six times. He was also named to the all-state academic team three years in a row.

The Buffalo, N .Y., native graduated magna cum laude from Hartwick in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in history. He was named to the Dean’s List seven times during his undergraduate years. He received his master’s degree in history from Colorado State in 2001.