Cincinnati Promotes Joey Ferreri to Head Swimming and Diving Coach
The University of Cincinnati last week promoted Joey Ferreri to the role of swimming and diving head coach.
Ferreri was promoted from associate head coach after the retirement of Mandy Commons-DiSalle at the end of March.
Ferreri swam for the Bearcats from 2013-15. He’s spent 11 years on staff since then, as an assistant coach, then recruiting director from 2019-21, then since the summer of 2021 as Commons-DiSalle’s associate head coach.
“I’m honored to be named head coach of Cincinnati’s swimming and diving programs,” Ferreri said in a press release. “I’m incredibly grateful to Director of Athletics John Cunningham and Deputy AD Maggie McKinley for their trust and belief in me. I’ve spent more than a decade preparing for this opportunity, and I’m ready to build a program that is prepared, passionate and driven to compete at the highest level. I’m excited to lead our student-athletes as we chase success in the classroom, in the pool and on the national stage.”
While at Cincinnati, Ferreri has helped the Bearcats qualify 15 swimmers to NCAAs and win two Big 12 individual championships. He’s helped account for 54 champions in the American Athletic Conference, 16 AAC records and two semifinalists at U.S. Olympic Trials. Ferreri helped recruit and develop reigning Big 12 Women’s Swimmer of the Year Joleigh Crye and Big 12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year Mia Hensley.
The Bearcats won their first Big 12 titles in 2025 and secured an NCAA A cut in the 200 medley relay. Both the men’s and women’s team finished fourth in the team standings at Big 12s and produced NCAA qualifiers for the first time since 2017.
Ferreri was a multiple-time finalist at AACs in his career, finishing as high as fourth in the 1,650 freestyle in 2014. He served as a team captain and earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing in 2015 and his master’s in business administration in 2018. The former distance swimmer has extensive open water coaching experience, working at the USA Open Water National Select Camp in 2016 and as an assistant coach in 2018, after qualifying three athletes to nationals that year.
“I’m excited to announce Joey Ferreri as our new head coach for men’s and women’s swimming and diving,” Director of Athletics John Cunningham said. “Over more than a decade as an assistant coach after competing as a student-athlete and earning his degree from UC, Joey has proven to embody the Bearcats’ spirit every step of his career. We had a rigorous national search, and Joey proved there was no one more equipped to take the reins of this program and lead it forward. Congratulations to Joey, his wife, Sara, and his son, Vinny.”
