Chris Peters resigned his post as the University of Toledo's head women's swimming & diving coach, UT vice-president and athletic director Mike O'Brien announced today. Peters had been the Rockets' head coach for the past four seasons. Under Peters, the Rockets have been impressive in the class room, posting a team grade point average of at least 3.4 or higher in every semester during his tenure. The 2013-14 team earned Scholar All-America status and the ninth-highest GPA among women's swimming programs in the country at 3.51. They didn't, however, replicate the conference championship success they enjoyed under now-Kentucky Head Coach Lars Jorgensen. Much of that is a credit to the rest of the Mid-American Conference, which has seen an influx of successful new coaches.
"This wasn't an easy decision, but my wife and I have been talking about this for quite a while now," said Peters. "Both of us have highly demanding careers and we have two young children at home. Now was the time for us to make that more of a priority. We made the decision that one of us needed to pull back, and we decided that it makes more sense for it to be me.
"I've been involved in college swimming as either a student-athlete or coach for over 20 years so it's going to be a big change for me. I'm going to miss coaching and working with student-athletes. I'd also like to thank Mike O'Brien and (UT senior associate athletic director) Kelly Andrews for the opportunity to be a head coach at UT."
"We want to thank Chris for his hard work and dedication to the UT women's swimming & diving program these past four years," said O'Brien. "We respect his decision to change career directions, and wish the very best for him and his family." O'Brien added that the process for finding a new head coach will begin immediately. Until that process is complete, assistant coach Alice McCall will handle the day-to-day operations of the women's swimming program.
In Peters' four seasons as head coach, the Rockets had nine swimmers earn All-MAC honors, including seniors Lauren Comer and Samantha Richart this past season.
A native of Eureka, MO, Peters and his wife Marianne have a daughter, Sydney (9), and a son, Cole (7).
