Tyrrell Enjoying Success as Head Coach

When head coach Tim Murphy announced his departure for Penn State, the men’s swimming and diving team was left with a big void. After 15 years at Harvard, Murphy had left a lasting mark on the program, registering a 122-11 dual meet record and seven undefeated dual meet seasons during his tenure.

But even with the absence of Murphy, the Crimson is off to a perfect 3-0 start to its 2013-14 campaign, all with a familiar face at the helm of the program. A former assistant coach, Kevin Tyrrell now serves as The Ulen-Brooks Endowed Coach for Harvard Men’s Swimming and Diving.

Tyrell is no stranger to Cambridge, having first stepped on the scene in 2000 as a volunteer coach. At the time, Tyrell was coaching at a local high school as well as at YMCA swimming in Boston.

“They overlapped quite a bit,” Tyrrell said. “I did both the high school coaching job, the YMCA coaching job, and the volunteer coaching job here all at the same period of time. All three of them taught me different things about swimming.”

In 1995, Bishop Fenwick High School in Peabody, Mass. gave Tyrrell his first coaching opportunity. Tyrrell coached the team for five years, gaining knowledge that would carry him through the rest of his career.

“The high school team was great because I learned to figure out how you can put together a meet lineup to beat another team,” Tyrrell said. “Its not always about the person whose best at certain events, but how you matchup with other programs, so I’ve used that skill quite a bit here.”

The position at Bishop Fenwick then gave way to another pivotal opportunity in Tyrrell's career, as he became the head coach of the North Shore Sharks at the YMCA. Tyrrell’s team was the largest YMCA swim team in the country. He coached 32 All-Americans and posted a 62-6 dual meet record during his tenure there.

“The YMCA job was great because it was a team of 500 swimmers and 42 coaches,” Tyrrell said. “From a managerial and budgetary standpoint, learning how to work with large groups of athletes was very valuable to me.”

Midway through his time at the YMCA, Tyrrell found himself in Cambridge, volunteering as a coach for the Crimson. Tyrrell played a role in helping Harvard capture two Ivy League titles in his first four seasons with the squad.

“Volunteering here, I got to know Coach Murphy,” Tyrrell said. “I got to know how things work from both an administrative and a coaching standpoint.”

But in 2005, Tyrrell was asked to coach his most competitive program to date, the U.S. Virgin Islands National Team. Born in Kingshil, Tyrrell returned to the Virgin Islands and coached the team for four years, taking them to the FINA World Championships in Rome, the World University Games in Bangkok, and the Pan American Games in Brazil.

“The greatest thing about that Virgin Islands program is that because they are a territory of the U.S. and not officially a state, they have their own Olympic committee,” Tyrrell said. “That means that we have the ability, if swimmers are fast enough, to go events like the Olympics, Pan-American Games, and World Championships. That, from a coaching standpoint, is great because you can really focus kids in on that, giving them a great opportunity to grow as a person.”

In 2008, Tyrell did exactly that, traveling to Beijing for the Olympic Games. As a coach, Tyrrell walked in the Opening Ceremonies and stood alongside greats such as Michael Phelps on the pool deck.

“I really learned how to become a better coach through all those meets down there at the Olympics,” Tyrrell said. “Its one thing to think about [coaching there], but if you actually get the shot to do it and practice and coach athletes at that level both mentally and physically, that’s an experience you really can’t replace with anything.”

After spending four years in the Virgin Islands, Tyrrell returned back to Boston where it all started. In 2009, Murphy hired Tyrrell, who took the reigns as head of recruiting for the Harvard men’s swimming and diving team.

Tyrrell’s last 14 years coaching gave him plenty of recruiting knowledge, but he also drew from his own experience as a recruited collegiate swimmer. In 1988, Tyrrell joined the Lafayette College swim team, where he led his team to a second place finish in the ECAC and was a two-time captain.

“I went in freshman year as one of their top swimmers, and the coach there did a really good job recruiting,” Tyrrell said. “By the time I left, I was one of the guys who was not counted on to score points all the time.”

At Harvard, Tyrrell approached each recruit with the same thought process he had when deciding on where to attend school himself: finding the right fit between athletics and academics.

“I make sure there is a really good fit between what they are looking for academically and athletically,” Tyrrell said. “On the academic side, guys have to want to come here and be challenged in the classroom. That was my process, and I thought I could be really challenged at Lafayette, as I was.”

One of Tyrrell’s recruits was Oliver Lee, who is now a co-captain of the team and holds the Harvard record in the 50 meter free. The senior is also a member of four school record-holding relay teams.

“I spoke with him the summer before senior year of high school,” Lee said. “He was definitely a big factor in my coming to Harvard. He is a great recruiter; it’s one of his strengths, and he has gotten us faster and faster guys every year.”

Tyrrell’s efforts helped the program bring in three Top-20 classes over the past three years. Since 2009, Tyrrell’s recruits have helped Harvard set 12 school records, win eight Ivy League championships, and go 31-4 in dual meets.

When Tyrrell was promoted to head coach this summer, he finally got the opportunity to coach those very swimmers he had brought to Cambridge.

“We were happy that he was going to be our head coach because he knew the program and all the guys on the team, so it wasn’t a drastic shift in coaching staff,” Lee said. “There was a seamless transition."

Though Tyrrell was more than a familiar face around the locker room, he has changed up the coaching style. Tyrrell has altered the way practice is run, having his team swim fewer miles at a faster pace and picking up the overall tempo of the racers.

“He has a different take on the sport,” Lee said. “He focuses on the motional part and the fundamental technicalities that make swimmers fast. He has a very planned out program that has been working very well so far.  There is a lot more quality work than quantity work. “

Despite his success, Tyrrell’s future with the program still remains somewhat uncertain with just a one-year contract. But that hasn’t deterred Tyrell at all. With the Crimson undefeated in dual meets this season, Tyrrell isn’t even thing about his future. Instead, the coach is only thinking about future of his swimmers, making sure it’s a bright one both in the pool and the classroom. Tyrrell says he has the same mindset for coaching whether he is here for another month, year, or decade.

“I have to push these guys and try to develop them and make them better human beings, so they can go on and do awesome things in there lives,” Tyrrell said. “I don’t feel any added pressure. I come in, and I work hard and try to do the best job that I can.”

—Staff writer Andrew Farber can be reached at andrewfarber@college.harvard.edu.