Doug Grooms begins his 23rd season as the head coach of the Miner swimming program during a career in which the Miners have earned several top 10 finishes at the NCAA Division II Championships.
Since becoming the Miners' head coach prior to the 1998-99 season, the Miners have recorded 13 finishes among the top 10 in the country, headed by a second place performance at the 2008 NCAA Division II Championships. The Miners have finished among the top five in the country five times under Grooms, including a third place finish in 2009 and a fourth place showing in 2007. In addition, the Miners were in ninth place in the team standings at the 2020 NCAA Division II when it was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Miners have also enjoyed plenty of individual success in the pool as well, as they have had six national championship performances. Tim Samuelsen captured titles in the 1,000- and 1,650-yard freestyle in 2018, the 200-yard freestyle relay team won back-to-back national titles in 2001 and 2002, the 400-yard freestyle relay team claimed the national championship at the 2002 meet and Zlatan Hamzic won the program's first individual national title in 2009 in the 200-yard breaststroke.
Missouri S&T recorded its fourth second place finish at the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championships in the 2019 season and saw all eight of its swimmers that earned berths to the NCAA Division II meet land All-America honors. Grooms was also selected by the GLVC coaches as the league's "Coach of the Year" for the fourth time. In 2016, S&T netted its highest number of points at a GLVC meet at the time with 761.5; the Miners surpassed that mark with 768.5 in finishing second in 2019 and then recorded 1,192.5 in an expanded scoring system in 2020.
Missouri S&T finished ninth at the 2011 NCAA meet after recording three consecutive finishes among the top four at the NCAA Division II Championships. The Miners had six All-America performers and set 14 school records at the 2011 NCAA meet.
After placing fourth and second at the two previous national meets, the Miners had 15 individuals earn All-America honors to lead S&T to a third place finish at the 2009 Division II meet in Houston. The highlight of the meet was the school's first individual national championship which came from Hamzic with his victory in the 200-yard breaststroke in school record time.
The second place finish by the Miners at the 2008 NCAA Division II Championships was the highest finish ever for a Missouri S&T athletic team at a national competition. All 13 members of the Miners who competed at the national meet earned All-America honors during the four-day meet, including a second place finish by Hamzic in the 200-yard breaststroke and the team set nine school records during the national meet.
Missouri S&T's performance at the meet helped earn Grooms the national "Coach of the Year" award from the College Swimming Coaches Association of America.
A year earlier, Missouri S&T finished fourth at the 2007 NCAA Division II Championships, with all 12 of its participants earning All-America honors during the meet. Over the course of the four-day meet, the Miners established nine new school records and the 12 individuals earned a total of 37 All-America awards -- including the relays -- of which 17 came on an individual basis. The fourth place showing was the Miners' best performance at the national meet in nearly a decade.
In addition to the success at the national level, the Miners claimed their seventh straight championship at the New South Intercollegiate Swimming Championships in the 2007 season.
In 2014, the Great Lakes Valley Conference began sponsoring a league championship in swimming and in the first two conference meets, the Miners finished third in 2014 and second in 2015, buoyed by the performance of Keith Sponsler, who was named as the GLVC's "Swimmer of the Year."
At the 2006 NCAA Division II Championships, all 11 Missouri S&T competitors that went to Indianapolis for the meet earned All-America honors to continue the Miners' run of success at the national level.
The Miners recorded a sixth place finish at the 2005 NCAA Division II Championships as all eight of the Miners that took part in the national meet earned All-America honors. All told, the eight performers at that meet posted 17 personal bests at the meet held in Orlando, Fla. The sixth place showing came on the heels of a ninth place effort in 2004, as again all of the Missouri S&T participants -- nine in all -- earned All-America honors.
The Miners finished 13th in 2003 at the NCAA meet after posting back-to-back fifth place finishes in 2001 and 2002. Missouri S&T saw all six of its participants that competed at nationals earn All-America honors in 2003. The Miners had All-America showings in 10 individual events and in all five relays during the 2003 national meet.
In 2002, the Miners posted their highest point total ever at a national meet with 302½ points to place fifth which included the two national championships. The Miners’ 200- and 400-yard freestyle relay teams pulled out the titles, with the 200-free relay title being a repeat championship with three of the four swimmers that competed in that event in 2001. The Miners had All-America performances from all 12 swimmers that participated and had seven new school records established.
The Miners' fifth place performance in 2001 was highlighted by the first national championship in school history by the 200-yard freestyle relay team. That helped the Miners reach a level that was surpassed by only one other Miner team at nationals, the 1998 team that finished third in the nation. Grooms was a part of that team as an assistant coach.
In addition, the Miners also won the Central States Invitational, the team's seventh such title in a nine-year span. Among the teams the Miners ousted at that meet was Drury, who finished second at the national meet.
Grooms -- who also headed the Miners to a sixth-place performance in 2000 and a seventh-place finish at the 1999 NCAA Championships -- has coached 334 All-America performances and 17 Google Cloud Academic All-America swimmers. The team has been the top-ranked academic team in NCAA Division II by the College Swimming Coaches Association on nine occasions during that time.
As the Miners won the 1999 Mideast Regional Championships, their sixth title in a seven-year span, Grooms was selected as the Mideast Regional "Coach of the Year".
Prior to becoming head coach, Grooms served as the assistant coach in the program for the previous six years. The Miners had top 10 finishes in the last two years of that span, including the third place showing in 1998 that ranked as the highest finish ever for a Missouri S&T athletic team at a national event until the national runner-up finish in 2008.
The Miners also had a top 10 finish in 1997 when they finished eighth, which was also the team's first top 10 finish at nationals in 11 years.
The Miners had a then school record 13 swimmers win All-America honors during Grooms' last season as assistant coach.
Grooms competed as a swimmer at Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State) and received his degree from that university in 1988 after serving as a team captain. He has head coaching experience at the high school level, serving as the mentor at Hastings, Neb., High School before joining the Missouri S&T staff in 1992 as an assistant coach in football and swimming. He relinquished the football duties upon becoming the head swimming coach.
Grooms, a native of St. Joseph, Mo., and wife Dyan have three children, Morgan, Jacob and Emalee.
