Pieces are in place for Fighting Irish to make significant postseason run.
Matt Tallman is entering his 11th season at Notre Dame and his fifth as associate head coach. Tallman spent his first five campaigns serving as assistant coach for the Fighting Irish before assuming his associate position in July 2006. His recruiting efforts have produced some of the top classes in the history of the program - including the 14th-best incoming class in 2009-10 and 12th best in 2010-11 which in turn has made Notre Dame a factor on the national scene.
Tallman joined the Irish staff in 2001, shortly after the Notre Dame Athletic Department announced that each of the University's 26 varsity sports would receive full funding. With increased scholarship aide, he has made the Irish competitive with the top programs in the nation on the recruiting front by attracting some of the country's top prep prospects.
The efforts of Tallman have paid dividends in the pool, as the Irish have broken over 40 University records over the last seven years.
Tallman helped guide the Irish to their first BIG EAST championship in 2005 and the Irish repeated as champions in 2006, 2008 and 2009. Those campaigns were the most successful in the history of Notre Dame swimming and diving, as the 2008 edition of the Irish program set eight school records and peaked at No. 17 in the Collegiate Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) rankings.
In the fall of 2004, Notre Dame appeared in the CSCAA dual meet rankings for the first time ever by debuting at No. 21. In 2005-06, the Irish climbed to No. 18 in the rankings, which was then a program-best mark.
Tallman has been a key in the growth of the Irish program, and his first nine seasons have seen a number of superlatives. In his inaugural campaign, Notre Dame matched the third-highest win total in the history of the program, ending up 11-3 in dual meets. After failing to win their own Notre Dame Invitational for the first time in four years the season prior to Tallman's arrival, that meet has seen five Irish victories, including an impressive 2003 performance that featured Notre Dame setting a (then) meet record for points scored and claiming a 710-point triumph over a talented second-place Harvard team. The Irish have similarly been dominant in the Dennis Stark Relays, once holding all 11 meet records since Tallman's arrival.
The 2003-04 campaign also featured the Irish posting their highest-ever point total in the BIG EAST Championships to that point, en route to their first runner-up result in four years. Among the high points of that meet was Notre Dame's first-ever 1-2 finish in the meet, which took place in the 400 IM.
Tallman has had a hand in mentoring 22 BIG EAST champions and 14 individual Irish record holders, including 2005 NCAA Championships participant Tim Kegelman. In fact, Kegelman was the first Notre Dame swimmer ever to make an appearance at the national meet, swimming the 100 fly, 200 fly and 200 IM. He was also a part of the 2004-05 team that eclipsed 12 school records, claimed four individual BIG EAST titles and entered the national rankings for the first time.
In addition to recruiting, Tallman assists head coach Tim Welsh in all facets of the Irish swimming and diving program, including on-deck coaching and teaching, training, supervising dryland workouts, and day-to-day operations.
Prior to his stint at Notre Dame, Tallman served as an assistant at the University of Maryland in 2000-01. He helped the Terrapins send a school-record number of women's qualifiers to the NCAA Championships as Maryland peaked at 16th in the national rankings that season, its highest listing in school history.
Prior to his stop at Maryland, Tallman spent two years as the head swimming coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. While at IUP, he was selected as the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 1999 after helping the women's team to the PSAC title, ending Clarion University's 23-year stranglehold on the championship. He also helped the IUP women's team to sixth- and seventh-place finishes at the NCAA Division II championships. In his two seasons at IUP, the women's squad was 18-0 in dual meets.
Fifteen IUP swimmers achieved All-America honors under Tallman's tutelage while 18 swimmers earned all-PSAC accolades and five student-athletes were named Academic All-Americans.
A 1997 graduate of The Catholic University of America, Tallman swam for four seasons and captured 11 titles at the Capital Athletic Conference Championships. He set school and conference records in the 100 and 200 breast, along with the 200 and 400 medley relays.
Born Sept. 24, 1973, in Camden, N.J., Tallman, who is also an accomplished cyclist, has a number of Notre Dame connections. His father Dennis is a '73 graduate and his grandfather, Edgar F. Bailey, played football for the Irish in the 1940s.
Tallman married the former Heather Grzeskowiak in the summer of 2006. The couple, along with daughter Hannah, and son, Martin, reside in Mishawaka, Ind.
