Ed Pretre (pronounced PREE-tree) enters his seventh season as the head men's and women’s swimming coach at Truman for 2017-18. In his six years as a Bulldog, Pretre has rebuilt the program from the ground up and has had consistent success. He has been named Coach of the Year twice, once in the New South Conference and in 2015 in the GLVC when the women's team upset 10-time National Champion, Drury, for the first GLVC title in school history. This past season in 2016, the women finished second and the men jumped to their highest finish yet with a fourth-place showing in the GLVC. Under Pretre, the Bulldogs had seven women qualify at the NCAA Championships this past season as well as Will Shanel placing in the top eight for the third-straight year at the NCAA championships in the 400 IM.
In the 2014-15 season, the men’s team finished in 20th place while the women placed sixth in CollegeSwimming.com's final rankings. At the NCAA Championships, the women jumped from 35th to 12th while the men placed 27th.
Over the last six years, Pretre has coached 30 All-Americans at the Division II Championships and his swimmers have broken 25 school records. Pretre was an assistant coach at three NCAA Division I institutions prior to his arrival at Truman. In 2005, he was the assistant men’s coach for Princeton (N.J.) University where he worked with breaststrokers and butterflyers and coached several Ivy League finalists, Olympic Trial qualifiers and an NCAA finalist.
In 2006, he shifted to the women’s side and joined the Rutgers (N.J.) University staff while taking on the additional role as recruiting coordinator. Pretre specialized with training sprinters, IMers and all stroke groups while helping numerous swimmers score at the Big East Championships. He coached two Big East Champions in Kasey Kesses (100 fly) and Shana Longacre (100 breast). Pretre also coached Shayna Longacre to the NCAA Women's Championshipshere she earned honorable mention All-America honors with a 15th-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke, and helped her make the US National team in 2007.
Most recently, Pretre was at East Carolina University where he was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for both the men's and women's programs. During his watch, 12 swims made the all-time top 10 lists at ECU, while five earned NCAA B-cut times and five broke school records. He helped the women’s team to their highest finish ever, a second-place showing, at the Conference USA Championships.
“I will act on every opportunity to help my swimmers improve and achieve success in the pool, the classroom, and the community by creating an atmosphere where they are highly motivated, disciplined and dedicated,” said Pretre. “I have a passion for the sport and am honored to work with such a gifted group. I look forward to contributing to the character building that Truman inspires in its student-athletes.”
Pretre began his coaching journey in 2000 with a six-year stint as the Fanwood-Scotch Plains YMCA head coach. He produced YMCA and New Jersey high school state champions during that period while also increasing the national team squad size from just four to over 20 athletes in four years.
Pretre is a 1997 graduate and letterwinner in swimming from West Virginia University in Morgantown and holds a Master's degree in Special Education from New Jersey City University. Pretre and his wife Collette have a son, Brayden, and a daughter, Ella Grace.
Upon his Hiring...
“We are excited to have Ed Pretre be the next coach for the men’s and women’s swimming team at Truman,” said then-Associate Athletics Director and chair of the search committee Linda Anderson. “His experience training swimmers at Princeton and Rutgers has prepared him to coach in an academic environment such as Truman and his coaching and recruiting experience with Division I and national level swimmers provide a background that will continue to attract national caliber swimmers to Truman and keep our program a strong contender for NCAA Championships.”
