UA swim coach DeMont has tough task ahead

When he returns to Tucson, DeMont won’t have much free time. In addition to filling the gaps in 2013-14’s lost recruiting year, damaged by the in-season resignation of Eric Hansen, DeMont must help rebuild the four-time USA champion Ford Aquatics program, which is in disarray.

Head coach Johno Fergusson was not retained after Ford Aquatics finished a distant eighth in this month’s national championships in California. The post-graduate program that used to be rich in Olympians and NCAA champions at Hillenbrand Aquatic Center has been greatly diminished since the departure of UA coach Frank Busch three years ago.

Example: Darian Townsend, a former Wildcat national champion and 2004 Olympic gold medalist, recently left Ford Aquatics to train in Phoenix.

DeMont is accompanied in Australia by UA senior national champion Kevin Cordes and UA volunteer coach Matt Grevers, a four-time Olympic gold medalist who has probably become the top men’s swimmer in America, replacing Michael Phelps.

In the “good old days,” under Busch, the UA swimming program would have seven or eight swimmers, men’s and women’s, in an event like the Pan-Pacs.

If you think Sean Miller had a difficult assignment replacing Lute Olson, DeMont is in a spot of even greater difficulty.