Aug. 10, 2009
ATLANTA – Mark Toburen has been named Georgia Tech Swimming and Diving Assistant Coach it was announced today by head coach Courtney Hart. A 1996 graduate of NC State, Toburen has been with the YMCA of the Triangle Area Swim Team (YOTA) since 1996 where he served as Head Coach and Director of Competitive Swimming since 2006.
“I have known Mark since high school and am excited that his first job in college athletics will be at Georgia Tech,” Hart said. “He comes from a very successful YMCA program and will bring a lot of his experience and expertise to our program. Mark is going to focus on the distance group as well as academics and we’re fortunate to have him here.”
As head coach at YOTA, Toburen oversaw a program consisting of 350 athletes at six separate training sites and was directly responsible for the training of their High Performance group. While at YOTA, Toburen managed a staff of five full-time and eight part-time coaches, was responsible for long-term athlete development planning, annual training plan development for all levels of the program, extensive dry land program development, new swimmer recruitment and budget management. Prior to being named head coach, Toburen served as the Assistant Director of Competitive Swimming (2005-06), Head Age Group Coach (2003-05), Assistant Senior Coach (1998-2003) and Assistant Age Group Coach (1996-1998).
During his time at YOTA, Toburen helped coach and develop five 2008 Olympic Trials qualifiers, over a dozen US Open and US Junior National qualifiers, one National Junior Team member, over 75 YMCA National qualifiers and over 50 YMCA All-Americans. In 2006, YOTA won its first-ever combined YMCA National Team Championship and its first men’s team title since 1988.
Toburen graduated from NC State University in 1996 cum laude with a degree in Computer Engineering. He also received a Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering from NC State in 1999 and worked on his PhD until starting his full-time coaching career in 2003. Toburen was a three-year letter winner in swimming for the Wolfpack under ASCA Hall of Fame coach Don Easterling.
