Florida Gulf Coast University Director of Athletics Carl McAloose announced Friday that Neal Studd has been selected as the first-ever head coach of the women’s swimming and diving program. Studd will begin his duties at FGCU in July. The Eagles were added along with men's and women's soccer to give FGSU the minimum number of teams to elevate their program to Division I. Studd signed a three-year deal with the university

“We are very excited to welcome Coach Studd to the FGCU athletics program and have him lead our new women’s swimming and diving program,” said McAloose. “He has earned a great deal of respect in the state of Florida and in the college swimming community in general as an outstanding coach and a top-notch recruiter. We think his outstanding record as an assistant and his strong ties to swimming programs throughout the state made him the ideal person to start our program.”

“I am extremely excited to be given this opportunity by Carl McAloose and his staff at FGCU,” said Studd. “When I met the department and looked at the campus and its facilities I knew I had the chance to be a part of something special. FAU has been great to me and I am leaving some great coaches and athletes that I will sorely miss. It was always going to take something special to get me to leave FAU and at FGCU I found it. I look forward to working with club coaches and the local community to build a Division I swimming team that Southwest Florida can be proud of.”

Studd joins FGCU after an eight-year stint at Florida Atlantic University as the associate head coach and head recruiter under Steve Eckelkamp for both the men’s and women’s programs. The Owls captured the 2006 Sun Belt Conference Women’s Team Championship, the first conference title for FAU in any sport. Both teams have established new FAU records during the past eight years.

He has coached one Olympic qualifier, and two NCAA Championship qualifiers, as well as numerous NCAA consideration finalists and national team members with the Owls’ women. He has also coached two male athletes who qualified for the past two USA Olympic Trials and placed numerous other men on US national teams.

In addition to his collegiate coaching duties, he has operated the Aquatics Center on the Florida Atlantic campus and served as the head coach of the renowned Elite Technique Swim Camps in South Florida. He has also served as a Financial Advisor with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in Boca Raton.

"(Studd) brings just a wealth of knowledge about the state of Florida more than anything," McAloose told the Naples Daily News. "About one-third of his student-athletes are from the Southwest Florida area, which gives him a great tie to this area. I think he's well-connected through the state and, really, throughout the world.

"He believes in quality academics. He's just a fantastic fit for the program and will get along real well with the coaching staff and others on campus and in the community.

"We really feel he'll build a first-rate program here." As an athlete and assistant coach, Studd -- who was a team captain and champion for England's national junior team -- spent 11 years at FAU, where he also was team captain and he still holds records in several events. "FAU's been great to me, I've had a great situation over here," Studd said. "We're coming off winning the Sun Belt title for the first time. "I just felt like it was time to go out on my own and become a head coach. I've been kind of waiting on some of these programs in the state of Florida that have been talking about starting swim teams. I think it's something special to hit the ground and sink or swim all by myself and make something special with my hard work.

"Neal's going to be a great head coach," FAU Head Coach Eckelkamp told the Daily News. "When somebody asked me, 'Does he have any weaknesses?' I said, 'The only one I can think of is he wants to leave my program!'

"He's going to do a great job. I don't think you could get a better start-up coach, somebody who can build something quickly from the ground up."

Said McAloose: "One thing that really impressed us, FAU's got an outstanding program, they won the Sun Belt Conference, but they aren't one of the huge ones like Auburn or Florida. So they have to develop people. Looks like what they've done is they're recruited very good student-athletes and developed them to become outstanding swimmers."

This is Studd's first head coach position, but he has been preparing for this for years.

"I think he's really developed over the last few years," Eckelkamp said. "He went from strictly focusing on the aquatics and practice ends to adding the administrative end and becoming the recruiting coordinator for the program. So he's done it all now and he's definitely got his bases covered, skillwise, to do a great job."

The program will begin competing in 2007, and the new coach will not be physically in place until sometime next month.

But Studd said Friday morning he already is working ahead in his mind.

"There are kids I've had lined up in my head that are juniors right now that have been to my swim camps or I've seen around that maybe FAU was too close to home, and a two-hour drive is a great situation for these kids," Studd said. "Hey, you can still go home, drop your laundry off on the weekends, Mom and Dad can come to the meets and make it a great atmosphere."