Reed Merritt remembers his last dive at Texas as his fondest memory.
Coming off of neck surgery and having a down year, doubt lingered in his mind about his performance. He couldn’t live with a balk as his last attempt. As he emerged from the water, teammates surrounded him with a warm embrace.
He had stuck the landing.
A week later, when he went home to California for spring break, he stayed there. COVID-19 had cut his senior year short. Merritt didn’t pack up his apartment. He didn’t get a proper graduation or a proper goodbye. He felt like his final chapter at Texas was unfinished.
However, after a short stint at Stanford as a volunteer assistant coach, Merritt will get a chance to rewrite his ending at Texas. In May, Texas announced Merritt as the assistant diving coach for the Texas men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs.
“Coming back to Texas, it’s almost like that chapter never finished, and I get to continue being at Texas this time, just as a coach, which has been awesome,” Merritt said. “It means a lot to me to be back here, almost like that chapter never ended.”
Merritt joins an elite staff led by swimming and diving director Bob Bowman and his former diving coach, Matt Scoggin.
“We are very fortunate to announce that Reed Merritt is our new assistant diving coach,” Scoggin said in a press release on May 7. “Reed is a Texas Ex diver that helped his team win two NCAA national championships and has been coached by four U.S. Olympic Team coaches.”
In his short coaching career, Merritt has been able to learn from high-level coaches. At Stanford, Merritt coached alongside Patrick Jeffrey, who coached in the 2000 Olympics and was a two-time Olympian himself in 1988 and 1996. Merritt also learned from former Olympic women’s swimming head coach Greg Meehan.
“I got to work with them and learn from them, which was a blessing,” Merritt said. “Then to come here and be able to learn from another Olympic coach and work with super, super, high-level athletes, it is just an invaluable experience, which I hope will help spearhead my career a little bit.”
Merritt quickly learned that coaching isn’t just about the competition or analyzing dives. His biggest takeaway from his time at Stanford was that he needed to build relationships with the people he coaches.
“There’s a heavy emphasis on the relationship-building side of coaching, which I feel like is not as talked about,” Merritt said. “It’s invaluable that your athletes trust you, are willing to listen and learn from you. If they trust you, then they’re more likely to make these changes and get better.”
At Stanford, Merritt coached Jack Ryan, Anna Lemkin and Misha Andriyuk, who all placed at the 2025 NCAA Championships.
Merritt sees similar potential in this year’s Texas divers. He foresees big seasons for multiple Texas divers, including senior Nick Harris, sophomore Jacob Welsh, senior Sarah Carruthers and junior Bayleigh Cranford.
“The team is already very close,” Merritt said. “On top of that, we have some crazy talent on this team, which is super exciting because everybody’s pulling each other along. Everybody’s building each other up, and everybody’s pushing each other, men and women alike.”
While Merritt will cherish his time and teammates as a competitor at Texas, he has many more memories to make as a coach.
The ink hasn’t dried just yet on Merritt’s chapter at Texas.
