Marquette did not have to look far to find its first women’s swimming head coach.
Joel Rollings, who’s spent the last two years down the road as the head swimming and diving coach at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, was hired Monday morning, which will debut in the 2026-27 season.
“I am incredibly grateful to Athletic Director Mike Broeker and Senior Woman Administrator Danielle Josetti or the opportunity to establish Marquette’s inaugural women’s swimming program,” Rollings said a release from Marquette athletics. “It’s an honor to be a part of Marquette’s rich athletic legacy and contribute to its continued growth and success.”
Rollings has experience building programs from the ground up; he helped establish the Raiders program and was named the 2024-25 Liberal Arts Conference’s coach of the year.
“He rose quickly to the top of a very competitive candidate pool, and for good reason — his track record of building and growing programs speaks for itself,” Broeker said in the release. “Just as importantly, he has shown a deep care for his student-athletes, investing in their growth as people through the sport they love.”
Prior to MSOE, Rollings served as an assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for the 2018-19 season and spent 12 years as head coach at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater from 2006-2018.
While with the Warhawks, he was named the WIAC’s Coach of the Year five times — three with the men’s team and twice with the women’s team — and guided the program to its first national titles in program history in 2012-13. He coached two NCAA champions, 56 WIAC champions, 13 individual All-Americans, three All-American relay teams and saw his teams break 92 school records.
Marquette announced the women’s swimming program in May, originally saying the program was scheduled to begin competition as early as the 2025-2026 season, which runs from mid-September through early March.
This article was written by Mikey Severson. He can be reached at michael.severson@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MikeySeversonMU.