WILLIAMSBURG — Tribe Athletics and William & Mary recently announced that head swimming coach Nate Kellogg has been named the Colonial Athletic Association Swim Coach of the Year.
It is the third Coach of the Year honor for Kellogg, who has been the head coach of the program for five years.
Kellogg, who grew up swimming, swam collegiately for George Mason University. He was an inaugural member of the team and helped lead the program to a second-place finish at the CAA Championships in his senior year.
After graduating with his undergraduate degree, Kellogg went on to Georgia Southern University to earn his master’s degree. He took over as interim head coach shortly before the 2004-05 season, fresh off his collegiate days at George Mason, and led the Eagles to four-straight winning seasons and a 109-59-1 (.648) record overall.
After taking second in the NEC conference in 2006-07, Kellogg led GSU into the CCSA, finishing in third place each of his last five years. The program was an undefeated 4-0 in conference dual meets in 2015-16. Over that stretch, his athletes set 83 school records, had six NCAA qualifiers, and 133 total all-conference selections.
Kellogg transitioned to William & Mary ahead of the 2016 season as an assistant coach.
During the 2024-25 swim season, Kellogg helped lead both the men’s and women’s programs to the CAA Championships.
“It was a great season. We finished second overall by, I think, 46 1/2 points, which over the course of 3 1/2 days, is remarkable. For us, we are a swimming-only program, we don’t offer diving, and our competition is swimming and diving. We’re competing against teams that offer diving, and we have to really come back from a 100 to 200 point deficit out of the gate. We know there is a sense of urgency because of that,” Kellogg said.
After the championship races finished, Kellogg was standing on the pool deck alongside some of his swimmers when he was announced as the Coach of the Year.
“When we got on the bus this year after the meet had ended, the kids were pretty excited. I told them that this award was a direct reflection of them. It starts and ends with the athletes. If we don’t have great athletes, the awards and recognition doesn’t come. It’s all a testament to them,” Kellogg said.
After taking a short break to celebrate, Kellogg has jumped back into recruiting ahead of the 2025-26 season. He has hopes to build off the momentum that came from the podium finish at CAA Championships.
“We would love to win, that’s an outcome that not totally in our control. We want to put ourselves in the best possible position to be successful. We want to focus on what we can control, which is how we prepare, our process and all the things that go along with it. To me, working extremely hard, challenging our kids, getting them to buy in, and quite honestly keeping it fun. If we are working hard, but if we can pair that with having a lot of fun and creating an environment where our athletes look forward to coming to practice, that’s when you will see our team really elevate,” Kellogg said.
For more information on William & Mary swimming, visit TribeAthletics.com.