Truman State University Men's Swimming

Pretre (pronounced PREE-tree) begins his sixth season as the head men's and womens swimming coach at Truman for 2016-17. In his five years as a Bulldog, Pretre has rebuilt the program from the ground up and has had consistent success. He has been named Coach of the Year twice, once in the New South Conference and this past season in the GLVC when the women's team upset 10-time National Champion, Drury, for the first GLVC title in school history. In the 2014-15 season, the mens team finished in 20th place while the women placed sixth in CollegeSwimming.com's final rankings. At the NCAA Championships, the women jumped from 35th to 12th while the men placed 27th. Over the last five years, Pretre has coached 25 All-Americans at the Division II Championships and his swimmers have broken 17 school records. Pretre was an assistant coach at three NCAA Division I institutions prior to his arrival at Truman. In 2005, he was the assistant mens coach for Princeton (N.J.) University where he worked with breaststrokers and butterflyers and coached several Ivy League finalists, Olympic Trial qualifiers and an NCAA finalist.   In 2006, he shifted to the womens side and joined the Rutgers (N.J.) University staff while taking on the additional role as recruiting coordinator. Pretre specialized with training sprinters, IMers and all stroke groups while helping numerous swimmers score at the Big East Championships. He coached two Big East Champions in Kasey Kesses (100 fly) and Shana Longacre (100 breast). Pretre also coached Shayna Longacre to the NCAA Women's Championships, where she earned honorable mention All-America honors with a 15th-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke, and helped her make the US National team in 2007.   Most recently, Pretre was at East Carolina University where he was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for both the men's and women's programs. During his watch, 12 swims made the all-time top 10 lists at ECU, while five earned NCAA B-cut times and five broke school records. He helped the womens team to their highest finish ever, a second-place showing, at the Conference USA Championships. I will act on every opportunity to help my swimmers improve and achieve success in the pool, the classroom, and the community by creating an atmosphere where they are highly motivated, disciplined and dedicated, said Pretre. I have a passion for the sport and am honored to work with such a gifted group. I look forward to contributing to the character building that Truman inspires in its student-athletes.   Pretre began his coaching journey in 2000 with a six-year stint as the Fanwood-Scotch Plains YMCA head coach. He produced YMCA and New Jersey high school state champions during that period while also increasing the national team squad size from just four to over 20 athletes in four years.   Pretre is a 1997 graduate and letterwinner in swimming from West Virginia University in Morgantown and holds a Master's degree in Special Education from New Jersey City University. Pretre and his wife Collette have a son, Brayden, and a daughter, Ella Grace.   Upon his Hiring... We are excited to have Ed Pretre be the next coach for the mens and womens swimming team at Truman, said Associate Athletics Director and chair of the search committee Linda Anderson. His experience training swimmers at Princeton and Rutgers has prepared him to coach in an academic environment such as Truman and his coaching and recruiting experience with Division I and national level swimmers provide a background that will continue to attract national caliber swimmers to Truman and keep our program a strong contender for NCAA Championships.

Simek enters his second year as an assistant on Ed Pretre's coaching staff for the 2016-17 season. During Simeks first year as the assistant swimming coach, he helped lead the women to a 12th-place finish at the NCAA Championships as well as a GLVC title, the first in school history. He helped the mens program finish 27th at the NCAA Championships and fifth place at the GLVC Championships. Throughout the year, Simek primarily worked with the distance swimmers and the team's aerobic needs. He was also in charge of all the weightlifting and conditioning programs throughout the season.   Prior to Truman, Simek spent two seasons at Minnesota State, where he earned his Master's degree in Sport and Exercise Psychology. He was a graduate assistant with the NCAA Division II Mavericks and was in charge of handling workouts, distance training and recruitment for the NSIC program. During his tenure as a student-athlete at Truman, he was a nine-time honorable mention All-American and was heavily involved outside the pool as well. He was part of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) serving as the president for two years, was president of the Purple Friday Committee and attended Student Senate meetings. Simek has one twin brother, Andrew, and two loving parents, Jim and Ellen. Upon his Hiring... "It is an honor to be asked back to the program that helped me gain so much knowledge on both an athletic and a person level," Simek said. "I am excited to get to work with the current Truman team to start paying it forward, working to bring more student-athletes to nationals and to help each of them grow into responsible individuals who will make Truman proud."