Ed Swanson was announced as the new coach of the William & Mary Tribe women’s basketball team.
He was introduced as the program’s fifth head coach in its Division I history.
He says he’s ready to get started.
“I don’t believe at this level that it’s a talent-level, I really believe it’s an effort level. And when you can mix those two things – talent and effort, then I think you have something real special. And I think that’s what I can bring here,” Swanson says.
Swanson was previously at Sacred Heart University for the past 23 years where he won more than 400 games.
Swanson takes over for Debbie Taylor, whose contract was not renewed by the Tribe. Taylor is the school's all-time winning-est coach.
Several of the players were on hand for the announcement, including Kyla Kerstetter.
"He tells us he's ready to work hard and we've said we're ready to work hard. I think his plan and everything just seems to work so well with us and we trust him as much as we can at this point to really put us on a path to success," she says.
Swanson was one of over 100 candidates to apply for the position. What was the deciding factor?
"Everyone we talked to, and these were people who were not his references, these were people who know him that we know, just gave him the highest marks as a person. His relationship with his players has been wonderful. He has worked, as he said, with not all the resources in the world and he really loves to coach. He's very competitive. And he really sees this as an opportunity for him to do what he does best in a more competitive environment. And we're just very excited that he's accepted the position," says athletic director Terry Driscoll.
