EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Longtime successful collegiate head coach Toby Wilcox has been selected to lead the University of Evansville men's and women's swimming and diving programs, Director of Athletics Dr. Ziggy Siegfried announced today.
Wilcox won the conference's “Coach of the Year” award eight times during a collegiate coaching career that began at UE in the mid-1980s. Wilcox served as UE's assistant swimming coach from 1986-1988 and then led the program from 1988-1997, winning the Midwestern Collegiate Conference's “Coach of the Year” award three times.
“Toby Wilcox is an exceptional coach and I am thrilled to welcome him back to the University of Evansville,” Siegfried said. “Coach Wilcox has had great success throughout his career by promoting academic excellence, providing great experiences for our student-athletes, achieving athletic success and engaging with the community and alumni. I look forward to seeing how his energetic and transformational leadership will impact our student-athletes and so much more.”
“I am extremely grateful to Chancellor Pietrskiewicz and Director of Athletics Ziggy Siegfried for the opportunity to coach the swimming and diving program,” said Wilcox. “UE is home to me and I am excited to work with these talented young men and women, and even more excited to see the program reach new heights. Good luck Ace!”
Wilcox returns to the University of Evansville after spending the past 13 years at Birmingham-Southern College (BSC) where he built the swimming and diving program. Wilcox has built the Birmingham-Southern program into a perennial powerhouse in the Southern Athletic Association (SAA), winning 16 SAA team titles for both men and women. He has coached 121 SAA individual champions, 57 SAA relay champions and led 35 student-athletes to NCAA Division III national championships. During his tenure, Wilcox has helped develop 13 SAA “Swimmers of the Year,” seven SAA “Diving Players of the Year,” and 11 SAA “Newcomers of the Year.” Wilcox has won five SAA “Coach of the Year” awards during his tenure at Birmingham-Southern.
Prior to his appointment at BSC, Wilcox was heavily involved in the Evansville swimming and diving community. Wilcox served as head coach at the University of Evansville for nine seasons from 1988-1997 and was named Midwestern Collegiate Conference (MCC) Coach of the Year three times. Wilcox coached 24 swimmers to individual titles and had three named MCC Swimmers of the Year. Prior to his head coaching position, Wilcox served as an assistant swim coach at Evansville from 1986-1988 and as head swim coach for the University of Evansville Swim Club from 1984-1993.
Wilcox knows what it's like to compete at UE, having won both the MCC and Heartland College Conference MVP awards with the Purple Aces in 1984. Wilcox was a two-time team MVP and also served as team captain at UE in 1983 and 1984. He graduated from UE in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in history.
A native of Rensselaer, Indiana, Wilcox and his wife, Cathy, have two children, Cole and Regan.
