JMU hires Richard Long as head coach of swimming, diving program

James Madison University has announced the hiring of Richard Long to serve as the head coach of the Dukes’ swimming and diving program. Long, a native of Hampton, Va., comes to JMU from Auburn University where he served as an assistant coach for seven years.

“I am very excited to welcome Richard Long to the JMU Athletic Department as the next leader of our women’s swimming and diving program,” JMU Associate Athletic Director and Senior Women’s Administrator, Jenn Phillips said. “Richard is committed to growing our student-athletes in the pool and in the classroom as well as being engaged within our community. He brings experience coaching Olympians and NCAA champions and we expect that he will continue to have similar success at JMU. I am pleased to have Richard joining the JMU family.”

Long added, “It’s an honor to be back in the state of Virginia and to be part of the future at James Madison University. The prestige the program has built up over the last several years has left the program in a great place and I’m looking forward to coming in and building on that success. I want to continue to put athletes in the NCAAs and push them to compete on the highest level.”

At Auburn, Long worked with both the men’s and women’s programs, serving as the Assistant Swim Coach and the Director of Men’s Recruiting from 2008-13. He also worked as the team’s videographer in 2007-08 and as a volunteer assistant coach from 2006-07. In his time at Auburn, both the men’s and women’s programs have won NCAA championships, with the men adding a second NCAA title in 2009. The programs combined to win eight Southeastern Conference titles during his time at Auburn, including six straight by the men (2007-12).

In the summer of 2009, Long served as an assistant coach for Paraguay at the World Championships in Rome. He coached two swimmers to two national records.

As a recruiter he produced five consecutive Top 10 recruiting classes. He directly coached three Olympians and a 2010 Rhodes Scholar.

Long served as the team’s videographer in 2008 and focused on gathering underwater and above water video of meets and taking footage of the swimmers in practice. The video provided the coaching staff the opportunity for stroke analysis. Using Dartfish for stroke analysis, he launched a Webcast over the Internet to allow swimmers to access footage at their convenience.

As a volunteer assistant in 2007, he helped coach the men’s and women’s teams to both SEC and NCAA championships.

Long and his wife, Erin, have two children Tyson and Tessa.