Former Virginia assistant Sam Busch won’t be joining his brother Augie in Arizona afterall. Sam, the younger of the two, has been announced as the new head swimming and diving coach at TCU. He takes over for Richard Sybesma, who retired after 38 years at the helm of the program.

Sam Busch has worked at many of the country’s top programs in his decade-long coaching career. He started his career coaching at Arizona from 2007-2009, straddling his 2008 graduation from there, working under his father Frank Busch – the outgoing USA Swimming National Team Director. He then spent 2 seasons as an assistant at West Virginia (who at the time were in the Big East (they’re now in the Big 12 with TCU). His next stop was at Auburn from 2011-2013 before he joined his brother as an assistant at Virginia.

CollegeResume:

Arizona 2007-2009

West Virginia 2009-2011

Auburn 2011-2013

Virginia 2013-2017

TCU 2017-

He also spent 5 seasons as an assistant at Tucson Ford Aquatics, who won a USA Swimming team title in 2010, and 3 years as the head coach of the Salpointe Catholic High School in Tucson.

“When the opportunity to usher in a new era of TCU swimming and diving was offered to me, I accepted the honor with great enthusiasm and heartfelt gratitude,” Busch said. “To work with one of the country’s great athletic directors in Chris Del Conte is beyond fortunate.

“Thank you to Chris and senior associate athletics directors Jack Hesselbrock, Gretchen Bouton and Mike Sinquefield for their attention and consideration during this process. I am so humbled to become a part of the tremendous athletics success at TCU and am already at work trying to make sure I am worthy of the confidence that has been placed in me. Go Frogs!”

TCU competes in the Big 12 – a conference dominated by the two-time defending NCAA men’s team champions Texas. Both their men’s and women’s teams finished last at last year’s Big 12 Championship meet – the men 3rd out of 3 teams and the women 5th out of 5 teams.

The TCU men haven’t had an All-American since the 1997 NCAA Championship meet (they’ve scored at two: 1994 and 1997), and the TCU women scored once – in 1993.

TCU’s current Director of Athletics, Chris Del Conte, was the senior associate athletics director for external operations and sports programs at Arizona from 2000-2006, overlapping with Frank Busch’s tenure there.

“We are very excited to welcome Sam to the TCU family and Fort Worth,” Del Conte said. “TCU is a destination in collegiate athletics. We had a lot of interest in this position. The search process confirmed to us how special and desired it is to be at TCU and how we’re viewed across the country.

“Sam is a perfect fit for us. He comes from a tradition-rich Virginia program in which he played a major role in their recruiting and team success. He is also part of a great family coaching tree. We have no doubt Sam will have the Horned Frogs Factor in leading our swimming and diving programs.”