Swimming & Diving
- Title:
- Swimming & Diving Associate Head Coach/Recruiting Coordinator
- Email:
- bsmith@sports.uga.edu
- Phone:
- 706-542-7946
Brian Smith is entering his 16th season at Georgia, and 10th as Associate Head Coach, while working primarily with the sprinters.
Since joining the Georgia staff in 2007, he oversaw Olivia Smoliga and Michael Trice setting the 50 and 100 freestyle school marks, as well as Smoliga’s three NCAA titles and 16 overall SEC crowns.
Additionally, he has coached multiple All-Americans, including Taylor Dale and Dillon Downing, and guided Olympians in Smoliga (United States) and Chantal Van Landeghem (Canada).
As the program's recruiting coordinator, Smith has continued to being top-flight talent to Athens. In 2019, both the men's and women's freshman classes were ranked in the top five nationally, with six freshmen being named to the CSCAA All-America Team. Zoie Hartman was named the SEC Women's Freshman of the Year after sweeping the SEC breaststroke championships. In 2020, Georgia secured two of the nation's top male recruits in Jake Magahey and Luca Urlando, who each went on to win SEC individual championships.
Smith has been listed as a USA Swimming National Team coach since 2014, serving as the United States women's head coach at the 2018 Short Course World Championships in China, as well as a U.S. assistant coach at the 2016 Short Course World Championships in Canada and 2017 World University Games in Taiwan.
Smith’s collegiate experience began in 1991 when he started a two-year stint at Arizona State, first as a graduate assistant and then as assistant coach for the women’s team. He assisted with travel, recruiting, and dryland training.
After Arizona State, Smith spent five years on the staff at Rice, serving as an assistant for the men’s and women’s teams. He was part of a staff that produced the program’s first NCAA Championships qualifiers in 1994 and continued to qualify athletes for five straight years. Smith served as the recruiting coordinator, travel coordinator, alumni liaison, strength and conditioning liaison, and sprinting coach.
Smith spent four years as the head club coach for FAST in Montana, four years as an assistant coach at Northern Arizona University, and one year as a graduate assistant coach at Ohio University in 1990-91.
He is a 1990 graduate of Clark University in Massachusetts, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics. He then earned a master’s in Athletic Administration from Ohio in 1991.
Smith and his wife, Alyssa, have three daughters, Olivia, Ella, and Gwyneth.
