St. Gregory's University announced on Tuesday that Johnny Hunter has been hired to lead its swimming and diving program. Hunter takes the reigns from Lyndsay Watts, who guided the team through its inaugural 2014-15 season.

Hunter, a Shawnee resident, has nine years of coaching experience. He was most recently an assistant coach at Oklahoma Baptist where he helped guide the women's and men's teams to seven team national championships and several individual titles.

Hunter was an assistant at Shawnee High School for nearly six years, coaching one individual and two relay state champions. He also has spent time leading the USA Swimming program in Shawnee as well as coaching young swimmers at the Shawnee YMCA.

"I am excited to be associated with St. Gregory's, which has a rich history of service, academic excellence, and outreach to the community," Hunter said. "My experiences with USA Swimming and at OBU have helped me fine tune my knowledge of not only the technical aspects of swimming, but also the mental and emotional aspects of high-level competition. I can't wait to get started here at SGU."

Shawnee High School head coach Valarie Colburn will serve as Hunter's assistant. Colburn has coached at SHS for five years – the last three as head coach. She has been a swimming instructor at the Shawnee YMCA for more than 12 years, including the past 11 as coach of the Stingray swim team.

"Valarie and I have coached swimming together for years," Hunter said. "Our training philosophies are very similar – we both care about the individual team members. We want to see achievement in athletic endeavors as well character development. There is no 'winning and losing'. There is only winning and learning."

St. Gregory's added swimming and diving as a varsity sport in November 2013. In their first season of competition, eight Cavalier swimmers qualified for the NAIA Swimming & Diving National Championships, held in Oklahoma City in March.

"Our swim program got off to a great start last season under Coach Watts, and I am confident that Coach Hunter and Coach Colburn will help continue that momentum," said SGU athletic director John Martin. "Both are seasoned coaches who know what it takes to succeed at this level. I am excited about the future of Cavalier Swimming."