Karl van Gelder
Staff Writer
FSC men’s and women’s swim teams are under new leadership for the first time in over seven years. Head coach Steven Bostick became the sixth head coach of both teams in program history this June, filling the role Andy Robbins left in the wake of his retirement.
Robbins led the Mocs for seven years and helped bring home serious hardware by coaching three individual national champions, winning a Sunshine State Conference championship and over 140 All-American selections … and that’s just on the men’s side. He also coached multiple conference champions and All-Americans on the women’s side.
“I’m coming into a program that was very well coached and very well taken care of so I’m really grateful for that. There are a lot of things about Florida Southern that I want to keep, traditions I want to keep and things that we are doing in the program and then add my flavor to it,” Bostick said.
Bostick isn’t a stranger to success at the collegiate level. In his previous stop he led Division II school Ouichata Baptist, his alma mater, back to becoming a competitive program. In his nine years there he coached over a dozen All-Americans and was named the New South Intercollegiate Conference Coach of the Year three times, including the last two seasons.
Despite the change in scenery, Bostick looks to hit the ground running in Lakeland. The Mocs return with a number of All-Americans and national qualifiers on both sides from last year including Elizabeth Sikes — who set the SSC record in the 200 freestyle last season — and Nino Viallon who received All-American honors in four events last season.
“We’re loaded up … it was a big crowd [of athletes that went] to NCAAs and we got a couple good transfers so you know there’s high expectations on trying to move even higher up the ranks when it comes to nationals and what we can do at the conference level,” said Bostick.
During the 2024-25 campaign both men’s and women’s teams found success on the national and conference stage. The men finished second in the conference behind the University of Tampa who won their second straight SSC championship before finishing second at the National Championships where the Mocs’ men tied for 10th with Lynn University.
The men earned 19 All-American honors and broke four school records, including the SSC record in the 400 medley relay. The ladies finished fourth in the conference and T-33rd at the national championships while also earning a number of All-American honors.
“We’re going to keep focusing on events these athletes are best at that help get them to NCAAs, but we’re also gonna see cane we make that third event, that fourth event better so at the conference level we can start chasing down some of these teams in front of us … expect us to have just as much fire power in our best events, but I also want to see a step up in our third and fourth events … just better team scores at the end of the day,” said Bostick.
Preseason rankings will come out Oct. 17, but the Mocs will look to dive into their season Oct. 10 in a home dual meet against Florida Tech. This will be one of two home competitions at the Nina B. Hollis Wellness Center Pool this season.
