Former Washington State swimming and diving head coach Matt Leach will take the reins as the new head coach for Iowa State for the 2024-25 season.
Leach takes over for former Iowa State head coach Duane Sorenson, who retired after 27 years as head coach, to become the fifth head coach of the Iowa State swimming and diving program.
“I am honored to be the next Head Swimming and Diving Coach at Iowa State University,” Leach said in a statement. “Coach Sorenson has been an absolute pillar of this program and I am thrilled to be named his successor. I want to sincerely wish him well in his retirement and hope to see him on the pool deck.”
In his six seasons as the head coach of the Cougars, Leach coached an NCAA Championship qualifier every year excluding 2020, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to his time at Washington State, Leach started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Louisiana State in 2004 and later became a volunteer assistant head coach. In 2009, Leach went to Wyoming and was the associate head coach from 2011-2015.
While at Wyoming, Leach was part of the coaching staff that broke every record in every spring event for the school.
In 2015, Leach was brought on at Indiana State, where he started the swimming and diving program from the ground up. He would spend three seasons with the Sycamores and was named the 2017-18 Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year after a 13-win season, 10 of which were consecutive wins.
The 2017-18 season for Indiana State was highlighted by an individual championship at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships.
Throughout his coaching career, Leach has taken multiple teams and athletes to the NCAA Championships. Leach will start as Iowa State’s head coach May 13.
