CALDWELL, Idaho – The College of Idaho is excited to announce Brian Pearson as the next head coach for the swimming & diving team. Pearson has had a decorated career in coaching. He earned the American Swimming Coaches Association/College Swimming Coaches Association of America Coaching Excellence Aware five times. He has coached athletes to break over 1,000 school records, coached nine All-Americans, 68 NCAA qualifiers, and 104 conference championships. "We are excited to welcome Brian into the College of Idaho community," said Vice President of Athletics Reagan Rossi. "His experience and history of success in developing student-athletes in and out of the pool will be a very welcome addition".
Pearson began his coaching career at Colorado College where he spent 1998 through the 2006 seasons. He then took on the monumental task of starting a new program from scratch at Colorado Mesa in 2006. He quickly recruited the largest NCAA Division II swimming team with his team of 28 women and 43 men student athletes. In 2009, he was named the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference "Coach of the Year" He coached the team to peak at a 12
th ranking nationally in his final season in 2012 and he was honored by the institution as Colorado Mesa's "Athletic Team of the Year". Following his tenure in Colorado Mesa, he coached the Maverick Aquatics in 2012 which is a college club swim program in Grand Junction. Most recently, Pearson was the coach at Colorado State University-Pueblo beginning in 2014. His tenure produced seven RMAC Swimmers of the Week, two RMAC Divers of the Week, and 14 student athletes on the RMAC's All-Academic Honor Roll.
Beginning swimming at 4, Pearson was a high school All-American at Pueblo Central High School. He won two state titles in Colorado, was a two-time junior national champion, and record holder with three long-course times that remained in the Nation's Top 100 for over a decade. At the age of 18, he was ranked top ten in the world. Pearson took his talents to the University of Missouri and then the University of Wyoming. His successful college career included being a Big Eight champion, two-time Western Athletic Conference Champion, NCAA qualifier, USS National's finalist and Olympic hopeful in two events. He earned his Bachelor's of Science in Physiology and Cardiac Rehabilitation from the University of Wyoming in 1992.
