Chasson To Head Aquamen

Michael Chasson, currently assistant women's swim coach at Stanford University, is the new Harvard men's swimming head coach, swimmers said yesterday.

Athletic Director William J. Cleary '56 revealed the choice to the team yesterday. A search committee, which included team Co-Captains Al Wolf and Greg Tull, Assistant Athletic Director Pat Henry, Associate Athletic Director Bob Malekoff and Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57, consulted with Cleary before the athletic director made the final decison, according to Wolf.

"There were four of five exceptional candidates," Wolf said. "I would have been happy with any of them. But I can't say that I was surprised [it was Chasson]."

Chasson will replace Joseph Bernal, the winningest swim coach in Harvard history, who announced his resignation in a formal statement on December 3. In that statement, Bernal cited conflicts between his Harvard coaching responsibilities, and responsibilities to outside obligations as factors contributing to his decison to step down after 14 years at Harvard's helm.

"[Chasson] is a great guy, and he's coached a lot of great swimmers," Wolf said.

Chasson has coached several Olympians, according to Wolf, including gold medalist Richard Schroeder, and Jill Johnson. At Stanford, Chasson worked closely with Summer Sanders, who was named NCAA Women's Swimmer of the Year last week.

A 1974 graduate of Stanford, Chasson served as coach at the Los Altos, California Swim Club and the Santa Barbara Swim Club before joining the Cardinals staff in 1988.

"He is extremely well known in the swimming world," Harvard swimmer Tom Peterson said. "I talked to some people who swim at Stanford, and they all had great things to say about him. They were sad to see him go, but thought that he deserved a head coaching position."

Although Chasson has never been a head coach on the collegiate level, he was a head coach at Santa Barbara from 1974-80, where he was in charge of 135 swimmers, according to Wolf.

Chasson has never coached on the East Coast, a factor that the committee took into account when making its decision, according to Wolf.

"Swimming is a little different on the West Coast," Wolf said. "There, it's a little bigger, people tend to make more of a commitment. It will be an adjustment for him, but we're confident he'll be able to make it."

"What would be ideal for the team," Peterson said, "is a coach who will be able to address the individual needs of each swimmer, not only in the water, but out of the water. He should be able to do that well, especially coming from Stanford."