Steve Collins enters his 28th year (2013-14) as the head coach of the SMU women's swimming and diving team. A two-time NCAA Coach of the Year and 11-time conference Coach of the Year, Collins has led the Mustangs to 15 conference championships in the past 17 years and continually finishes among the top teams in the NCAA. During his tenure, SMU has 15 top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships, nine of those in the top five. Under Collins, the Mustangs have earned 575 All-America honors and 24 student-athletes have competed in six different Olympics.
A successful coach on the international level, Collins was the head coach of the Slovakian Olympic Team at the 2004 and 2008 summer games. Collins' swimmers at SMU have earned medals at the Olympic Games, World Championships, World University Games, European, Pan American Games, Mediterranean and African Championships. Since his arrival on the Hilltop in 1986, Collins has coached 24 Olympic stars, including 1997 NCAA Swimmer of the Year while at SMU and former SMU volunteer assistant coach Martina Moravcova, who won two silver medals at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia and also competed in the 1996, 2004 and 2008 summer games in Atlanta, Georgia, Athens, Greece and Beijing, China, respectively. Five former or current Mustangs, Sara Nordenstam, Denisa Smolenova, Nina Rangelova, Therese Svendsen, and Danielle Villars, competed in the 2012 summer games in London, England.
Collins has led the Mustangs to nine WAC championships and six C-USA championships for a total of 15 championships in the past 17 years. He led the Mustangs to their highest finish ever at the NCAA Championships in 1996, when SMU finished second in the nation and earned Collins his second NCAA National Coach of the Year award. He was also tabbed with NCAA Coach of the Year in 1991. Collins was named SWC Coach of the Year in 1990, 1991, 1993 and 1996, WAC Coach of the Year in 1997 and 1998, and C-USA Coach of the Year in 2007, 2008, and 2012.
A 1977 graduate of Florida State, Collins swam free and back events for the Seminoles and captained the Florida State team his senior year.
Before arriving on the Hilltop, Collins served six years as head coach of the South Carolina swimming program, leading the Gamecocks to two MCAC conference championships and six top-20 NCAA finishes in seven years. Born Dec. 12, 1954, in Youngstown, Ohio, Collins attended Eastmoor High School in Columbus, Ohio. Collins and his wife Toni, an SMU graduate and CPA, are proud parents of twin daughters, Kate and Hanna.
