2017-18 NSISC Coach of the Year
2015-16 NSISC Coach of the Year
2014-15 NSISC Coach of the Year
Andrew Hancock was hired as the UWF women’s swimming and diving team’s inaugural head coach in 2012. Hancock, a former 10-time champion as a student-athlete in the Horizon League, took the position as his first collegiate head coaching role. In April 2015, Hancock was the lead author on a study that was published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning titled "
Postactivation Potentiation Enhances Swim Performances in Collegiate Swimmers." He has also been interviewed by
SwimmingScience.net about the study.
In the Argonauts' first season in 2013-14, Hancock led the team to a runner-up finish at the New South Intercollegiate Swimming and Diving Conference Championships. Four Argonauts qualified for the NCAA Division II Championships, and they led UWF to a 23rd place finish at the national meet.
The Argonauts reached new heights in their second season in 2014-15, winning the NSISC championship and placing 11th at the NCAA national meet. Hancock was named NSISC Coach of the Year, and nine student-athletes earned All-America finishes at the national meet.
Hancock added another NSISC Championship and three national champions to his resume in the 2015-16 season in Monica Amaral (1-meter diving, 3-meter diving) and Theresa Michalak (100 Breaststroke). On top of the individual honors, the team took another step forward and brought home a program-best sixth place finish at the NCAA national meet. The Argonauts saw 10 student-athletes move into the NCAA meet, and all 10 scored points to earn All-American status. For a second consecutive year, Hancock was named the NSISC Coach of the Year.
The Argonauts had another outstanding season in 2016-17, again finishing sixth at the NCAA Championships and adding six national champions to the prorgam's total. Theresa Michalak won four national titles (50 Free, 100 Free, 100 Breast, 100 Fly) and set three DII records, Monica Amaral swept both diving events (1-meter, 3-meter) at the NCAA Championships, and West Florida ended the NCAA Championships with 22 All-Americans. All nine student-athletes who advanced into the meet scored points for UWF, and West Florida's six national titles were the most for any team at the meet. For their efforts, Amaral and Michalak were named the CSCAA Diver of the Year and Swimmer of the Year, respectively.
UWF sent a program-record 12 student-athletes to the national meet in 2017-18, finishing 23rd overall. Madeline Pitt earned three more All-America nods at the meet, including one in the 1,650 Free, making her the first student-athlete in UWF history to earn All-America status in a single event four times. Pitt also moved into third in the West Florida record books with 11 career All-America honors, and she has the most individual All-America honors in program history.
Before coming to UWF Hancock spent the previous five years as the assistant coach for the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams at his alma mater, Cleveland State University. In 2011 Hancock was tabbed by CollegeSwimming.com as one of the top swimming and diving assistant coaches in the country as an honorable mention selection for the Assistant Coach of the Year award.
During the 2011-12 season at CSU, Hancock helped lead both the men’s and women’s teams to runner-up finishes in the Horizon League Swimming and Diving Championships. In his five-year term he helped the men’s team earn at least 10 wins each year and the women’s team to 15 wins in the 2010-11 season. In his time at Cleveland State, the women’s swimmers he recruited broke every school record in the program’s history.
Before coaching at CSU Hancock competed as a student-athlete for the Vikings for four seasons on the men’s swimming and diving team. In that time he was named Horizon League Swimmer of the Year in 2002 and won six individual titles, including the 1,650 yard freestyle in each of his final three seasons. Hancock also was the first Viking to break the four minute mark in the 400 yard individual medley. He helped the team to four consecutive conference titles as a member of the 800 yard freestyle relay team.
Hancock graduated from Cleveland State in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in finance, and he completed his master's in exercise science from CSU in 2012. He is married to Rebecca, a former Viking swimmer, and they have three children, Oliver, Caroline and Nora.
