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ATHENS, Ohio – Head Ohio swimming and diving coach Mason Norman announced today (April 3) the return of Ethan Curl as the associate head swimming and diving coach.

"We are excited to welcome Ethan back to Athens," Norman said. "He has high level enthusiasm and experience that will help push the entire staff and team forward."

Curl returns to Athens after spending the past two seasons with Penn State, where he served as assistant coach for the men's and women's swimming and diving team, as well as the recruiting coordinator. During his time at Penn State, Curl designed workouts and season plans for the distance swimmers, while also assisting in training for all groups to help develop them as student-athletes.  Curl directed all recruiting operations at Penn State, including outreach, relationship building, coordination of visits, and site contact and evaluation competitions. Over the past two seasons, Curl was a part of bringing over 50 recruits to campus, resulting in 22 commitments.

"I am truly excited and thankful for the opportunity to return to Ohio University," Curl said. "I want to sincerely thank Mason, Randee and Slade for their trust and belief in me. Ohio and the Athens community hold a special place, and I am eager to get to work with our student-athletes. I am looking forward to building on the strong foundation already in place and continuing to push the program to new heights." 

Before Penn State, Curl was the assistant swimming and diving coach at Ohio, where he also served as the recruiting coordinator. Curl assisted in team management and administrative duties while also designing workouts and training plans for all athletes. He was a part of the staff that coached then-freshman Zita Szoke to the 2024 NCAA Championships, making her the first qualifier in over a decade. Curl led all the recruiting contacts and facilitated all on-campus recruiting events, bringing in 35 prospects, which led to 10 commitments, ranking number one in the MAC. 

Before his first stint at Ohio, Curl spent two seasons at IUPUI as an assistant coach. While at IUPUI, Curl was tasked with leading the middle-distance and distance freestyle groups as well as the 400 IM'ers. In the 2022-2023 season, both the men's and women's teams were Horizon League runners-up and had six NIC qualifiers and one champion and meet record holder. Curl also helped coach 15 conference champions and saw six Horizon League conference records and 42 team records broken.

Prior to his time at IUPUI, Curl spent a season at Kentucky as a volunteer assistant, where he helped the UK women's team win the program's first SEC Championship in the 2020-2021 season. 
 
Curl was a four-year varsity swim team member at Indiana from 2014-2018, specializing in distance freestyle. He was a member of two Big Ten Conference Championship Teams and the 2018 NCAA Third-Place team. Curl was also a 2016 Olympic Trials qualifier and a 2017 World Championship Trials qualifier. 
 
Curl earned his B.S. in Kinesiology with a focus in Sport Marketing & Management from Indiana in 2018 and earned his master's in business administration with concentrations in Finance & Global Supply Chain Management from Northern Kentucky in 2022.

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