Chuck Knoles Hometown: Pittsburgh, Pa. Position: Head Coach Alma Mater: Northern Arizona

email: cknoles@pitt.edu

Chuck Knoles' is on the brink of his 18th season at Pitt and his sixth season at the helm of both the men's and women's swimming and diving teams.

Knoles has a coaching style that is committed to success in and out of the pool. His name alone sparks conversation in the Big East because of his dominance at the top of the Big East race. His teams have also been competitors on the national scene, as the 2007-08 men's team entered the year recieve votes in the CSCAA poll. However, there is also a level of excellence in the classroom that he expects from his athletes that proves his philosophy is far more than just breaking pool records, but making student-athletes the best they can be.

In 2006, Knoles became the all-time winningest coach in men's swimming and diving history and now boasts a 142-49 record, which surpassed Pitt legendary coach Ben Grady (125-88-4) on the all-time coaches list.

Under Knoles direction, the men have finished in the top three at the conference championships 15 of the 16 years, including 11 titles, while the women have soared back to the top of the league in the past five years, including a second-place finish in 2005.

The commitment to the swimming and diving program has been evident. After taking over the reigns of the women's team in 2002-03, the Panthers promptly broke 13 school records in his first season at the helm. The following season, more records fell and the women's team received votes in the CSCAA national rankings for the first time in nearly a decade.

Last season, Knoles coached the first automatic qualifier in his tenure with the arrival of Adam Plutecki, who broke three school records in his frist season as a Panther.

At the Big East Championships he led recent graduate Jeff Leath into the Big East and Pitt record books, as he won the 200 back, garnering his third Big East crown in four years. Leath became the first swimmer in the conference's history to accomplish such a feat in the 200 back.

Likewise on the women's side, then-senior Andrea Shoust swept the backstroke events and became the first Panther to win conference crowns in the 100 and 200 back since 1987. Along those lines, graduate Kristin Brown was guided to her second consective NCAA berth last year, which was the first back-to-back bid for a woman in nearly 20 years. Following record-setting performances in the NCAA Championships, Brown posted Olympic Trial qualifying times and is now training for the Olympics with the help of Knoles.

During the 2006-07 season, the women's team was led by a strong freestyle core and broke several school records, setting the Panthers up for a chance in the postseason. The crowning moment was when freestyler Kristin Brown earned an outright bid to the NCAAs. She was also among the four swimmers to garner Pitt's first relay berth in 19 years.

His unparalleled enthusiasm and desire to place Pitt among the top 15 schools in the nation remains an attainable goal as the Panthers enter the 2006-07 season.

In the past five seasons, Knoles has had two Honorable Mention All-Americans earn three plaudits and a combined 14 Big East individual and relay titles.

"We are on track to being one of the best combined programs in the east," Knoles said. "I have surrounded myself with the finest coaching staff in Division I swimming and diving."

During his tenure, Knoles has consistently maintained the Panthers' reputation as one of the top collegiate programs in the East and continues to lead his teams to success year after year.

But it hasn't been easy. Knoles is aware of how competitive collegiate swimming has become, and demands that his student-athletes strive to maintain the right edge to compete.

"You must go into every competition as tough as nails," Knoles said. "You learn from winning, just as you learn from losing. Hard work is part of the formula for success, and we keep on our kids to stay in shape and to train hard. There is no real `off' period. You must do it year-round to compete and to win at the big-time NCAA Division I level."

By following Knoles' formula for success and his goal for a national top-15 finish, the men have inched closer and closer to a ranking in the last three seasons. At the end of the 2005-06 season the men finished with votes in the top-25 dual-meet rankings.

Knoles has demonstrated his ability to win as a coach. In addition to the Panthers' 11 men's Big East championships, his teams have also recorded three second-place finishes and one third-place finish. His teams have a combined 168-63 dual meet record, while 16 of Knoles's Pittsburgh swimmers have been either Olympic Trial qualifiers or finalists. He has garnered six Big East Men's Swimming Coach of the Year awards (1991,1992, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2002).

True to the student-athlete ideal, Knoles's swimmers have also performed exceptionally well in the classroom. The College Swimming Coaches Association of America recognized Pitt as an All-American team on both the women's and men's side a combined 11 times. In addition, two student-athletes, Kristin Brown and Amy Miteff, earned ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America honors in the last three years.

Knoles has had extensive experience and success coaching at the collegiate level, even prior to Pitt. As the interim head coach at the University of Arizona in 1988-89, he led both the men's and women's squads to a 15th-place finish at the NCAA Championships, and coached 13 All-Americans, including the school's first NCAA champion in any sport.

Knoles was also head coach at Shadow Mountain High School in Phoenix, Arizona, from 1977-1988, where he coached both the men's and women's teams, and was named High School Skyline Coach of the Year seven times while leading his teams to an amazing 132-23 combined record.

In 1989, Knoles was the recipient of the College Swim Coaches Association Outstanding Achievement Award. He also won the American Swimming Coaches Association Award of Excellence four times from 1990-1994 and was awarded the CSAA's Master Coach Award in 1996.

Knoles currently resides in Oakland.