Canisius Tabs Vanderzell as Head Coach

Canisius College Director of Athletics Bill Maher announced today that Scott Vanderzell has been named the school’s head coach for men and women’s swimming and diving. Vanderzell replaces former head coach Laura Trzybinski, who left last month to take an assistant coaching position at Ohio State.

“I am very excited for the opportunity to return to coaching at the collegiate level,” Vanderzell said. “This program has a lot of young swimmers and I feel there is a lot of potential with this group.”

Vanderzell brings eight years of college coaching and 20 years of age-group coaching experience to Canisius. The Buffalo State graduate was the interim head women’s swimming coach at the University at Buffalo for the 2005-06 season and served as UB’s assistant men’s coach during the 2006-07 campaign. During his time at Buffalo, which also included a stint as the women’s assistant coach from 2000-05, Vanderzell recruited a number of high-level student-athletes and coached the 2003 and 2005 MAC Swimmer of the Year. He helped lead a number of swimmers that went onto United States, Canadian and other International and Olympic trial qualifiers. Vanderzell also served as the aquatic director at Buffalo, where he oversaw all pool operations.

Since 1995, Vanderzell has been the head coach for the Tonawanda Titans in Kenmore, N.Y. During his tenure with the Titans, he has helped form the group into one of the premier swim clubs in New York State, illustrated by the fact that 20 of the club’s members qualified for the Zone Championships during the summer of 2008. Those 20 swimmers accounted for half of the Eastern zone team.

“We are thrilled to welcome Scott Vanderzell to the Canisius College athletic department,” Maher said. “Scott is an outstanding coach who has a track record of success at both the college and club level. His recruiting experience, both regionally and in the western New York area, will help propel our swimming and diving programs to the next level in the MAAC.”

The Canisius swimming and diving teams return 19 letterwinners from last year’s squad which set school records 10 different times.