Louisville has announced the addition of Kevin Arakaki to its staff as an assistant coach for the upcoming 2024-2025 season. Arakaki takes the position formerly held by Trevor Maida who joined the Texas program under Bob Bowman earlier this offseason.
“I am thrilled to welcome Kevin back to our program,” said Louisville head coach Arthur Albiero. “He did a phenomenal job creating great relationships when he was our volunteer coach previously. He understands our program culture of excellence and he will be a great addition to our “rock star” coaching staff. After we made the announcement to our team, the exciting responses I have received from team members who worked with Kevin before says it all. It was pure joy and excitement!”
Arakaki spent three seasons as a volunteer with Louisville, notably helping the programs to their highest combined finishes in 2019 when the women finished 4th and the men were 5th. The men also swam to a 2021 ACC title during Arakaki’s stint as a volunteer assistant. Arakaki notably primarily worked with the sprint group during his first stint and will most likely return to the same group as Maida worked with the sprint group this past season and is now going to lead the sprint group at Texas.
In addition to working with Louisville, he also assisted with Cardinal Aquatics, the club swimming affiliate of Louisville. He served as the national group coach.
After spending time at Louisville during his first stint, he was named assistant coach at fellow ACC school Pitt in 2021. He was the only swimming coach to be retained when Chase Kreitler took over the program in the 2022 off-season.
Pitt saw 15 athletes qualify for the 2022-2023 NCAA Championships. The team sent six men, two swimmers and four divers, to the 2024 NCAA Championships. The women’s team sent two swimmers and two divers to 2024 NCAAs.
Arakaki spent his student-athlete career at Western Illinois, graduating in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. He went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Sport Psychology from California Southern University in 2019. He began his coaching career with Hawaii Swim Club, his local club team.
