Foley comes to the Big Green from Bucknell University, where he served as the head men's and women's swimming coach for eight years and is credited with transforming the Bison swimming programs. In 2003, his fifth year at Bucknell, he led both the men's and women's swimming and diving teams to Patriot League Championship titles.
Foley made history in several ways that year. No school in the Patriot League had ever been able to win both the men's and women's titles in the same year. No Bison men's swimming team had ever captured a championship title. The women's team won the meet by scoring 237 more points than the second-place finisher. And under his tenure, the university constructed a new facility for aquatic sports.
For his efforts, Foley received the Patriot League Coach of the Year award for both men's and women's swimming and diving, not his first coaching award at Bucknell. A year earlier, he was named the Patriot League's women's swimming coach of the year.When he leaves Bucknell, Foley will have compiled a 67-39 (women 38-16; men 29-23) overall record. He will be remembered for assembling a women's swimming team that enjoyed two undefeated seasons, 16 consecutive dual meet wins and three consecutive championship titles.
Foley graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 1984 and received a master's degree from Adelphi University in 1990, where he served as the head coach of the swimming team, instructor in the physical education department and aquatics director from 1989 to 1994. He also became a lieutenant after serving in the U.S. Naval Reserve for nine years after his college graduation.
In 1994, Foley left Adelphi to pursue a coaching and teaching position at the United States Military Academy, where he served on the men's and women's swimming team coaching staff. The men's program went on to capture four consecutive Patriot League titles between 1995 and 1998.
With a coach as experienced and successful as Foley at the helm of the team, it is difficult to imagine a glum future for Dartmouth's women's swimming program. Moreover, a renovated Karl Michael Pool, fully equipped with a dehumidification system and new roof, and the employment of a new coach can mean but one thing: the athletic department is finally paying more attention to the swimming program.
At Bucknell, Foley was known for his ability to transform struggling swimming programs. When he joined the swimming staff at Bucknell in 1998, the program was understaffed and had a substandard facility. But after only eight years, it became one of the top programs in the Patriot League.
However, spectators should not expect a sudden change in the team's record. A good team, one with strong recruiting classes, a strong relationship between swimmers and coaches, takes at least four or more years to build.
"Right now, we are just going to focus on getting this program to achieve its best. Whatever it is," Foley said. "I don't have any particular timetable. I just want to keep it simple but I also want to achieve competitive greatness."
Foley should be able to put together a competitive team soon. But it will be hard work. After the swim teams were nearly scrapped in 2002, the team gained only five early decision recruits, which led to a significantly weaker 2007 recruitment class. Compounding this problem was the halting of recruitment efforts once the coaches found out that the programs could be cut.
Cutting athletic teams can be seen as a quick budget fix. The swimming, diving and water polo teams were nearly eliminated in the 2002-2003 school year when Dartmouth's endowment suffered as the results of poor investments and a slow economy, and the College enforced campus-wide budget cuts.
Instead of cutting partial funding for all athletic teams, the College decided to eliminate the aquatic sports program, citing poor facilities as one of the reasons. After news of the cut leaked, hundreds of Dartmouth students responded to the decision by staging an all-day march and protest through campus. Some students thought about auctioning off the teams on eBay.com.
The crisis resolved in January 2003 after students, alumni and parents reached an agreement with the administration. The teams will be kept afloat for 10 years with the $2 million in funding from the John C. Glover Fund for the Support of Swimming and Diving.
Ever since the teams were nearly eliminated, however, athletes have complained about the renovation of the pool and responded hostilely to a short construction delay in April 2005.
Maybe Foley will be the remedy to Dartmouth's problems.
But the question remains the same: Will the Dartmouth women's swimming and diving program be revived? Only time will tell.
