2013-14 UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI SWIMMING & DIVING
2013-14 COACHING STAFF
ASSISTANT COACH MATT ENSE
University of Cincinnati head swimming and diving coach Monty Hopkins has announced the addition of Matt Ense to his staff as an assistant coach. Ense comes to UC following a year as head women’s swimming and diving coach at DePauw University (Ind.). “Matt is an energetic, intelligent and dedicated coach who is committed to our team and university goals,” Hopkins said. “He’s a Cincinnati guy who’s had the experience of living and coaching in several places, giving him a sincere appreciation for what a special place this city is and this university has become.” Ense added his excitement to join UC program. “I would like to thank Coach Hopkins for the opportunity to come back to Cincinnati and join the Bearcat family,” Ense said. “It is an honor to work with such a great staff and athletic department. I’m looking CINCINNATI SWIMMING & DIVING 22
forward to working with Coach Hopkins and the student-athletes to continue building on their successes in and out of the pool.” Ense spent the 2012-13 year as just the second women’s head coach at DePauw, where he led the Tigers to a third-place showing at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships. His squad sent five studentathletes to the NCAA Division III Championships, earning DePauw a 27th place finish nationally. Prior to his time at DePauw, Ense was an assistant coach at Division III powerhouse Denison. Both men’s and women’s squads finished in the topthree nationally each season he was with the Big Red, while the men took home the NCAA Division III title in 2011 and ‘12. During his four years there, the women’s team broke 32 school records, 25 conference marks and six national records, while swimmers achieved All-America status on 178 occasions. The men’s team posted 35 school records, 15 conference marks and 10 at the NCAA level, while totaling 180 All-America performances. In 2012, he was named the CollegeSwimming.com Rising Assistant Coach of the Year, with long-time Denison Head Coach Greg Parini calling Ense his “best assistant coach in 25 years.” Before arriving at Denison, Ense worked alongside current Michigan head coach Mike
Bottom for three months in Key Largo, Fla., helping prepare 13 Olympians for the 2008 Summer Olympiad in Beijing. Trainee Nathan Adrian was part of the 400 free relay which won gold and set a world record. A graduate of Cincinnati’s Oak Hill High School, Ense went on to swim at Eastern Michigan, where he was a fivetime Mid-American Conference champion and MAC ScholarAthlete. He also competed at the 2000 US Olympic Trials, where he finished ninth in the 5,000. Hopkins is excited for Ense to get started with the Bearcats. “Matt is as eager to come back to Cincinnati and be a Bearcat as we are to have him on the team,” the head coach added. “He’s worked hard to learn as much about the sport from coaches as possible and now he gets the chance to contribute that knowledge to our ‘One Team’ philosophy.”