In his first nine seasons as head coach, Scott McGihon has brought great success to the UC San Diego swimming and diving teams. McGihon, a 1990 graduate of UC Irvine, was a four-year varsity swimmer for the Anteaters. In 1993, he graduated from the University of Utah College of Law, and in 1994, took over the Beach Swim Club in Long Beach.
In 1996, he accepted a position as men’s assistant coach at the University of Utah, before moving on to the women’s program at the University of Iowa in 1997 as an assistant. After a one-year tenure with the seventh-place Lady Hawkeyes of the Big Ten, McGihon accepted the head men’s and women’s position at UC San Diego.
McGihon is a Level 5 ASCA coach, which is the highest level of certification for coaches in the United States. In 1999, he was named both the men’s and women’s swimming Coach of the Year at the Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference Championships. Since then, he has been named either the Men’s or Women’s Coach of the Year an additional four times.
On the men’s side, three Olympic Trials standards, six individual NCAA national championships, two NCAA records, 12 school records, 57 individual All-Americans and ten relays named All-American, three UCSD Athletes of the Year, the 1999and 2004 PCSC Swimmer of the Year, the 2000 GTE Academic All-American of the Year and the 2004-05 NCAA Division II National Swimmer of the Year.
On the women’s side, the Tritons enjoyed had the 2000 NCAA Swimmer of the Year, 2003-04 and 2004-05 NCAA Woman of the Year, six U.S. Nationals standards, 14 individual NCAA national champions, four relay NCAA champions, six NCAA records, one Olympic Trials standard, 36 school records, 59 individual All-Americans, 21 relay All-Americans and six UCSD Athletes of the Year.
The 2005-06 season included many highs for the Tritons. The men’s team defeated Division II powerhouse Cal State Bakersfield for the second year in a row and put up another great performance at the Pacific Collegiate Swimming Conference Championships, finishing second overall, as nine swimmers earned NCAA Championships berths. On the women's side in 2005-06, UCSD won its third straight PCSC title, sending 11 student-athletes to the NCAA Championships. Despite fielding the smallest roster of qualifiers among the title contenders, UCSD finished third at the NCAA championships for the fourth year in a row.
In his first year, McGihon led the Tritons to a pair of team championships in the Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference, the first-ever league titles for UCSD. The following year, UCSD turned in an outstanding farewell performance at the NCAA Division III Championships, and in 2000-01, the teams made a successful debut in the NCAA Division II, with the women finishing third nationally and the men’s squad finishing eighth. At the 2004-05 NCAA Championships, McGihon directed the women’s team to a third-place finish and a Division II best fourth-place finish for the men’s squad.
McGihon resides in San Diego, Calif. with his wife Kristi and sons Chase and Blake. Kristi was an alternate for the 2002 USA Bobsled Olympic Team, as well as a member of the USA Track and Field National Team from 1994-1998.
