Boston College has continued to revamp its swimming & diving coaching staff for the 2024-2025 season with the addition of a pair of volunteer assistants.
Former University of Florida swimmer Taylor McKnight and former Harvard and Stanford assistant Chris Morgan will both join the team as volunteer assistants. Morgan will work as a full-time volunteer, while McKnight will work in a part time role.
They will coach under new head coach Dara Torres, who was a surprise hire this offseason after the last head coach, Joe Brinkman, was let go amid a hazing inquiry. Torres is a 12-time Olympic medalist, five-time U.S. Olympian, and in 2008 at 41 became the oldest US Olympic swimmer in history and the oldest Olympic swimming medalist in history.
McKnight swam at the University of Florida for two-and-a-half seasons, graduating in 2014. As a prep swimmer in Florida, she was a two-time Florida high school state champion and was a qualifier for the USA Swimming Junior National and National Championships.
After graduation, she moved to Boston where she has worked several jobs in finance, currently serving as a data analyst at U.S. Bank. While her collegiate coaching experience is limited, she has spent time giving private stroke technique lessons.
McKnight and her younger sister Lindsey, currently a coach at University of North Florida, trained alongside Torres at the Coral Springs Swim Club in Florida toward the end of her career.
Morgan, meanwhile, comes with a rich background of coaching both collegiately and internationally. He spent a few years in the 1990s as a volunteer assistant for the Stanford men’s team, returning as an assistant with the women’s team in the 2011-2012 season. He then spent a season as an assistant coach with the Harvard women’s team before leaving to become the head coach at the North Shore YMCA in Massachusetts.
He is currently coaching with the Gator Swim Club where he works as the club’s Director of High Performance
Internationally, he coached in Switzerland from 1997 through 2011, being named the country’s head coach at the 2008 Summer Olympics, among many other international appointments. He is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the World Swimming Coaches’ Association (WSCA).
“When Coach Dara offered me an opportunity to work alongside her and Coach Bruno (Darzi), it was a no-brainer!” Morgan said of his new role. “Also, to be part of a storied university like BC and to work with the Athletic Department and the student athletes is a new motivation in my career.”
Darzi is the only announced member of the school’s new coaching staff so far who didn’t already live in the Boston area.
Boston College, one of the least-funded Power 5 (now Power 4) swimming programs in the country, historically has carried a head coach, a diving coach, and two paid swimming assistants. That is half of the 8 maximum allowed paid coaches for co-ed swimming & diving programs. Torres’ presence, though, could bring in new resources for the Eagles in the long term.
