Mark Gole

Sport: Swimming
Year: 4th Season
Position: Head Coach

Mark Gole, a native of Grand Rapids, Mich., is in his fourth season as head swimming coach at Truman State University. In his first year on the job, Gole's women's swim team captured the 2006 Division II national championship, the sixth straight title won by the women's swimming team. The Bulldog men's team finished 11th at the national meet. In his second year, Gole's women's team finished second in the nation. Gole takes over a Truman squad which has produced five consecutive national championships from its women’s team, and a top-10 finish at nationals from its men’s team. Gole began his coaching career in 1995 with the Rockford (Mich.) Riptide summer program as an assistant coach. From 1998-2005 he served as the senior assistant coach with the Oakland (Mich.) Live Y’ers. He was also the head coach at the Plum Hollow (Mich.) Country Club from 2001-05. Gole was an assistant coach at Wayne State University (Mich.) from 2000-2005. He helped produce seven national qualifiers for the Pioneers in 2005, one of their most successful campaigns in school history. The men’s program at the Division II school, had its highest national finish ever in 2005 with an eighth place showing and claimed the 2003 and 2004 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) titles. The women’s program finished 22nd at the national meet and achieved their highest showing in the GLIAC with a third place finish. Also during his tenure at Wayne State, the swimming teams broke 35 of the 38 school records Gole is a 1999 graduate of Oakland University (Mich.), where he received his degree in communications. He was instrumental in the Pioneers winning three consecutive NCAA Division II men’s national championships (1995-97). Gole was a member of three national champion relay teams during his time at Oakland. He was also a 16-time all-American, and was named GLIAC Swimmer of the Year in 1996 as a sophomore. Graduating from a squad which was in its first year of a transition to Division I, Gole is accustomed to the pressures that come with being a member of a high-profile, national champion swim team.