Hite Hired to Lead Wisconsin Program to Termination

 The Screaming Viking!-- May 10, 2011

MADISON, Wisconsin.   University of Wisconsin  Director of Athletics Barry Alvarez announced Monday that Whitney L. Hite will be the coach to lead Badgers Swimming into it’s final years.

Hite joins the Badgers after spending the last two seasons as an Assistant Coach under Arizona’s Frank Busch.  Before that he was in Seattle where he served as the University of Washington men's and women's head coach from 2006-09 and the team was cut at the peak of their success. During that time, Hite led the Husky women to a best-ever 12th place finish in 2008, and their men cracked into the top 16, which was their highest finish since the Earl Ellis era of the 1970‘s.  



“It is my great honor and pleasure to be announcing Whitney Hite to be the next and final head swimming coach of the University of Wisconsin.” said Alvarez.  “We  were especially impressed with the way he helped to build the program at Washington in spite of their limitations.  They really proved that without a 50 meter facility and even without divers a program can have national level success.  We hope that when we follow the current trend of cutting swimming programs, Coach Hite will have built something that Alumni can be proud of.  All we hope for is to go out in a blaze of glory when the team is finally cut due to Title IX, the financial crisis, or whatever other excuse we can come up with to trim off the sports that don’t bring in any money.  In this day and age, finding a coach who can help you to terminate a program on a positive note is a quality we look for in candidates for all of the sports nobody cares about."

Alvarez continued, "The benefits for the University of Washington were immeasurable and cutting both the men's and women's programs there certainly contributed to Mark Emmert's rise to the position of CEO of the NCAA.  If those teams hadn't been doing so well at the time, UW might have had to reconsider the timing of their cuts to make a bigger impact and send the right message to the lowly non-revenue sports.  Remember guys, the reality is that we are gonna cut all of you some day.  You might only have a short time represent your school to the best of your ability before we take away the sports to which you have committed your young lives.”

“I am thrilled and honored to take the helm of the Wisconsin program,” Hite said.  “This is one of the best athletic departments in the country and I look forward to building a program everyone can really get behind.  When the program is cut a few years from now, I hope that we get a heartfelt look back in the media as we did with the Washington Huskies.  It always feels good to have angry former Olympians out there applauding your efforts and trying to drum up futile support to save the sport from extinction.  That‘s when you know you did a really great job.  The passion of the swimming community was really displayed and it made the cuts that much more of a wonderful experience for the athletes on the team to cap off that final season.  I can't imagine going out in any better way and I wish only for Wisconsin swimming to have an experience as fulfilling as that.”

A Denver, Colo., native, Hite graduated with a B.S. in sports management from the University of Texas in the spring of 1997. He earned his master's degree in education from Georgia in 2001. Whitney and his wife, Helen, were married this past September.