By Noah Nunez
General Reporter
After serving as assistant swim coach for over 10 years, Christopher Moran has taken over as Head Swim Coach this season following the passing of Tim Quill earlier this year.
Despite the tragedy that looms over his promotion, Coach Moran believes he is ready to start the work and help lead the team.
“It feels bittersweet. I often thought that I would maybe have the opportunity when Tim retired, and with his sudden passing, it came sooner than I thought,” Moran said.
Head Coach Moran has been engaging with swimming for a long time, both as a player and as a coach. And throughout it all, the university has been a consistent part of both sides.
“I began swimming in 1991 when I was a freshman in high school, and I swam all through high school. I came to Southern and swam four years here from 1995 to 1999; 99-2000 began my coaching career as a volunteer,” Moran said.
Moran’s time as a volunteer coach would eventually lead to a part-time position as an assistant coach for the university, as there was not a full-time slot for an assistant.
Eventually, Moran had to move on and took a job as a behavioral therapist to make a better living, but he still had coaching on his mind, guiding high school teams in his time away.
“I said to myself, if I could make a living coaching, I’d love to do it,” Moran said. “In the time I was away, the assistant coaching job here became a full-time position, and so I was able to take that opportunity in 2015 and come back, and now I have made it into a career.”
Now that he is head coach, Moran has had to reconcile with the feelings of being in a new role and what that brings after being an assistant for so long.
“I think it’s more of like a nervous excitement, just kind of being in a new role. But I just feel like through the experiences that I’ve had as an athlete, as a coach, and some of the great coaches I’ve gotten a chance to work with kind of put my best foot forward here,” Moran said.
Following the legacy left in the job is not easy, and Moran knows that he has a lot to live up to, but he is willing to help the athletes through the transition.
He has made sure to keep an eye on each student and help them find where they fit into the team as players.
“It’s gonna be really cool to see how the returning athletes develop from year to year and how the new athletes on the team find their niche and begin to work in to help make their impact on the team as well. Always try to think of team first,” Moran said.
It is impossible to view Moran’s new position removed from the tragedy of Tim Quill earlier this year. But despite that, Moran shows true passion for the sport and dedicated care for his athletes.
Moran wishes to take the lessons of Tim Quill not only as a coach but as an athlete and continue them for his team.
“Keeping with the same coaching philosophy that was instilled in me as an athlete and that we worked on together to instill on the student-athletes here at Southern,” Moran said.
