Florida Southern College Women's Swimming

Blum guided the Florida Southern mens team to a third-place finish at the NCAA Division II National Finals, the womens team to a 15th-place finish, and both teams to Sunshine State Conference championships. Along the way, eight men and eight women were All-Americans, one of each made Academic All-American, and two relay teams won gold medals at the National Finals. All of that helped Blum earn the SSC Coach-of-the-Year awards for both the men and women, and the CSCAA National Coach-of-the-Year award for the men. Although the 2015-16 season was Blums first as the Moccasins head coach, he had already been a big part of their success prior to that. Blum previously spent seven years over two different time periods as assistant coach under Duncan Sherrard, who left Florida Southern after being named an assistant coach at the University of North Carolina in June of 2015. He was also a student-athlete at Florida Southern as a member of the swimming team in 2004-05 during the programs second year of existence. In his first year in charge of the Moccasins, Blum had 16 of his swimmers (eight men and eight women) qualify for the Division II National Finals, including five freshmen, and all 16 came home with at least one All-American or honorable mention All-American certificate. Nine other Moccasins (five men and four women) had NCAA provisional qualifying times throughout the season. At the National Finals, the mens 200-medley and 400-medley relay teams won national titles (becoming the first school in nine years to win both medley relays), and Marco Palacios was a national runner-up in the 100-backstroke. The mens team would set seven school records during their time in Indianapolis en route to a third-place finish overall, which marked the fifth year in a row the Moccasins were in the top-five. On the womens side, the eight selections for the National Finals was a new school record, which resulted in another record when all eight of them earned All-American or honorable mention All-American honors. Even more impressive for Blum and the Moccasins, four of those eight were freshmen competing in their first collegiate season. In addition to his national mens award, Blum became the first swimming coach to sweep the Sunshine State Conference Coach-of-the-Year awards since the league adopted the sport during the 2010-11 school year. Under his direction, the womens team won its first ever SSC championship, and the mens team won for the fourth year in a row. The women won seven gold medals at the SSC Championships, two silvers, and six bronzes. Meanwhile, the Moccasin men claimed four gold medals, five silvers, and nine bronzes. A total of 12 Florida Southern swimmers (six men and six women) were on their respective all-conference teams, and Sean Kim was selected as the SSC Mens Freshman-of-the-Year. Before he was elevated to the head coaching position, Blum spent a total of seven seasons as assistant coach, running from 2007-10, and 2012-16. In between those two stints, Blum was a head age group coach, assistant senior coach, and aquatics coordinator for the Sarasota YMCA Sharks in Venice, Florida in 2010-11. He then spent the 2011-12 season as an assistant coach at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, before moving back to Lakeland and Florida Southern College in time for the 2012-13 season.  After his return to Florida Southern, Blum helped lead the Moccasin program to new heights as they recorded back-to-back national runner-up finishes in mens swimming in 2013 and 2014, and won three Sunshine State Conference championships. During that same time, the women's program had two top-10 national finishes and was the SSC runner-up in 2014 and 15.    During his first tour with the Mocs from 2007-10, Blum helped the Mocs send eight swimmers to the NCAA Division II National Championships in 2010, the first ones to ever make it to the championships since FSC adopted the sport in 2003. All four men and all four women that season ended up earning All-American honors in at least one event. The following year, the Mocs had their first first-ever top-10 finish as a team, with the women placing seventh and men eighth. In his seven seasons as assistant coach, Blum, who primarily coached the distance swimmers, helped coach 56 Division II All-Americans, seven Division II national champions, 17 CSCAAA First-Team Scholastic All-Americans, four SSC Athletes-of-the-Year, four FSC Athletes-of-the-Year, one Polk County Female Collegiate Athlete-of-the-Year, two 2013 World Championship qualifiers, and one Olympic qualifier (Allan Gutierrez in the 2012 London Olympics). While at Gardner-Webb, Blum helped the program sign the most decorated recruiting class in men's team history and was responsible for coaching the distance swimmers and the 400 individual medley. In his one season at Gardner Webb, he assisted in the coaching of six school records, a third place men's team finish and a fourth place women's team finish at the 2012 Coastal Collegiate Conference Championships. During Blums time with the Sarasota YMCA Sharks program, his 2011 team won the Florida Swimming Junior Olympic team championship and the 2011 Short Course YMCA National Championship. He also coached several YMCA national champions and had a number of others qualify for nationals at both the junior and senior levels. In addition to his work with the Sharks, Blum has also coached a USA Swimming age group with the New Port Richey/Tampa Bay team. Along with assisting the Moccasin swimming program, Blum also serves as the head coach of the Lakeland Area Swimming program. He is the head coach of all senior level swimmers and is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the program. In his time with Lakeland Area Swimming, Blum has coached several Polk County High School Swimmers of the Year, numerous Florida High School State Swimming qualifiers, Florida Age Group qualifiers and champions, NCSA Junior National qualifiers and Florida Senior Championship qualifiers and champions. He was an area representative to the Board of Directors of Florida Swimming in 2014. A central Florida native, Blum graduated from Ridgewood High School in New Port Richey in 2004, before earning his bachelors degree in physical education from Florida Southern College in 2008. Blum is a member of both the College Swim Coaches Association and the American Swim Coaches Association.

Garland helped the Moccasins finish third nationally at the NCAA Division II Men's National Finals, and 15th at the Women's Finals. She was also a key component in the Moccasins' double Sunshine State Conference Championship in 2016, with the men winning their fourth straight SSC title, and the women winning their first. Garland was already very familiar with the SSC and the Florida Southern swimming program prior to joining the Moccasins. She was a 4-year letter winner at the University of Tampa from the fall of 2005 through the spring of 2009, and earned All-American honors during two of those seasons. She was later a member of the coaching staff at Nova Southeastern University from January of 2010 through August of 2011, and helped the Sharks win the inaugural SSC Mens Championship in her second season there. Prior to her hiring at Florida Southern, Garland spent five years with the South Florida Aquatic Club in Pembroke Pines where she was an assistant swim coach for various age groups, senior athletes, and adults. During that same time she also served as the head swimming and diving coach at Archbishop Edward McCarthy High School from September of 2011 through April of 2014, was a member of the Florida Gold Coast Southern Zone coaching staff in 2012, and a Florida Gold Coast All-Star Open Water coach from 2012-14. During that time, Garland produced 12 FHSAA State qualifiers at the high school level, and one Junior National qualifier. Garlands coaching career began in August of 2009 following her graduation from the University of Tampa. Returning home to her native Aurora, Illinois, Garland was the assistant varsity coach and head JV coach of the girls team at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. As a collegiate swimmer, Garland helped Tampa to four top-15 finishes at the NCAA Division II National Finals. She earned honorable mention All-American status as a member of the Spartans 200-yard freestyle relay team, and was an All-American in the 800-freestyle relay where she helped them set the school record for that event in 2009. As a senior captain that year, Garland qualified for the National Finals in six events and helped lead the Spartans to the Bluegrass Mountain Conference championship. In addition to her work in the pool, Garland was also a Deans List student at Tampa, and a member of the Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society, and the Alpha Chi National College Honor Scholarship Society. She graduated with a Bachelors of Science degree in Marine Science and Biology, and is pursuing her Masters Degree in Marine Biology and Coastal Zone Management.