For 35 years coach Mark Bernardino confidently walked the Virginia poolside, orchestrating the Cavalier swimming and diving teams’ unprecedented march to 27 ACC Championships. But this past July, to the shock of many in the swimming community, Bernardino suddenly retired, creating a coaching vacancy at one of the most storied programs in the conference.
Just more than a week later, athletics director Craig Littlepage ended the search by naming Houston women’s coach Augie Busch as the new coach for the Virginia men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs. Cognizant of the daunting challenge of replacing Bernardino, who was the ACC Coach of the Year 31 times during his tenure at Virginia, Busch nevertheless believes he can guide the Virginia program to even loftier heights than his predecessor.
“A legend is absolutely a fair word [to describe Bernardino],” Busch said. “From day one, I thought that a) he’s a legend, and b) I think I can take [the program] to even higher territory. Certainly on the national stage, I feel like we can be better than we have ever been.”
To achieve such ambitious objectives, Busch will rely on his wealth of coaching experience. Busch led Houston to a program-best second place finish in the Conference USA last season in just his second year as head coach. Prior to his stay at Houston, Busch was an assistant coach at Arizona for eight seasons, during which time the Wildcats were consistently ranked among the nation’s elite programs.
“I’ve been able to use my experience at Arizona, because we were actually a better team at Arizona, a top-three team, year-in and year-out,” Busch said. “That experience from Arizona is what really helps me now, and my experience in Houston, all the stuff that comes with being a head coach, is very unique.”
Busch brought in a strong, familiar coaching staff to ease his transition into the program. Among the new assistants are Cory Chitwood, who was coached by Busch as a student-athlete at Arizona; Sam Busch, Augie Busch’s brother; and Cliff Robbins, who was an assistant coach for Busch at Houston.
“It’s nice to have familiar faces that you know what their personalities are, so there’s really no discomfort in the way we share our ideas,” Busch said. “So the fact that that we know each other so well, and we’re so comfortable around each other, makes it an easier environment for us to share thoughts, ideas, trainings, and all that.”
With a new man at the helm, it would have been fair to expect changes in Virginia’s workout and practice routines. Busch’s changes have been relatively minor, however, and after victories for the men against Navy and the women against Navy and Yale two weekends ago, the swimmers have collectively bought into Busch’s coaching style.
“As far as swimming goes, I think the approach is just a tad different in the aspect of dry-land [training],” senior Parker Camp said. “Augie definitely stresses weights and what we do out of the water a lot more than Mark did. That’s really the only huge difference. They’re both huge technique oriented guys. It’s a different formula for success, but it seems to be working just as well, and we’re all happy with it.”
Busch was very pleased with the results of Virginia’s first meet in Annapolis, with the No. 11 women winning all 16 of their events and the No. 9 men winning 14 of theirs. He said his favorite part of the meet was feeling the camaraderie and mutual support among the team, as well as witnessing the rituals carried over from Bernardino’s tenure.
“The first thing that stood out is how awesome their traditions are,” Busch said. “That was really fun to watch not just at Navy, but at the intra-squad meet. Every team has its own little unique cheers and traditions — pre-meet, post-meet, all that — so I thought it was really fun to watch.”
The swimmers credit their cohesiveness with much of their recent success, which includes six consecutive ACC championships for both the men’s and the women’s teams. It would take far more than a coaching change, they said, to erode those bonds.
“Honestly, [at] U.Va., we’ve always honored hard work and integrity,” Camp said. “We keep each other honest, in and out of the pool, and I think that is what continues the tradition of excellence here at U.Va.”
In a season of many firsts for Busch, he will complete another one this weekend in coaching his first home meet in Charlottesville Friday and Saturday. The Cavaliers will face the men and women of perennially ranked Texas and Penn State and a much-improved West Virginia team in a rare quad meet, an opportunity that excites Busch.
“This is a special meet just because of the competition, the fact that there are four teams,” Busch said. “… I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of crowd we can get. So this is one we’ve been looking forward to.”
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