2022 Swim Coach of the Year Kevin Woodhull-Smith

By Press release submission

Mar 15, 2022

Barton College issued the following announcement on Mar. 7.

Following a stellar season coaching the Barton College men’s and women’s swim teams, Coach Kevin Woodhull-Smith was awarded the Men’s and Women’s Coach of the Year (two awards) as voted on by his coaching peers. Woodhull-Smith has received three Coach of the Year awards within his two-year-tenure at Barton.

Hired in summer 2020, Coach Woodhull-Smith led the Bulldogs’ women’s swim team in its first season to the Conference Carolinas Championship and was named the league’s Coach of the Year while the men’s swim team finished runner-up.

The Barton men’s and women’s swimming teams both finished in second place at the 2022 Conference Carolinas Championships, which concluded February 19 at the Kingsport Aquatic Center in Kingsport, Tenn. Barton senior Kleanza Cathers (Kitimat, British Columbia, Canada) qualified for the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships, becoming the first women’s swimmer in school history to qualify for nationals. Cathers will compete in the women’s 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle events at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro beginning Wednesday, March 9, and running through Saturday, March 12.

Woodhull-Smith joined the Barton Bulldogs family after serving eight seasons as an Assistant Men’s and Women’s Swimming Coach and later Head Assistant Coach for the NCAA Division I Pirates at East Carolina University in Greenville. Woodhull-Smith led the Pirates’ men’s team to four American Athletic Conference Championships – 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2020 – to go along with eight league individual championship in a total of 22 events. Woodhull-Smith also coached 28 swimmers to All-AAC honors while five swimmers qualified to the NCAA Division I National Championship.

Woodhull-Smith, a 2010 graduate of North Carolina State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting, lettered four seasons on the nationally-ranked Wolfpack squad and qualified for the Olympic Trials in June 2008 in the 200-meter individual medley. Woodhull-Smith also completed his Master of Science degree from NCSU in Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management in 2012.

Woodhull-Smith’s wife, Britney, serves as Barton College’s Assistant Athletic Director of Compliance and Senior Woman Administrator. The couple have three children: Vincent (son), and Drake and Harley (twin daughters).