Coaches and Directors
Coach Rick Bishop is the new the new owner of Tiger Aquatics Swim Club as well as the LSU Men's and Women's Swimming & Diving Coach. Coach Rick is honored to be stepping into the role as owner & director of Tiger Aquatics. As a coach with 30+ years of experience in swimming, many in the USA Swimming Club ranks, Coach Rick believes that the developmental system within USA Swimming offers young kids a tremendous opportunity to grow as individuals and pursue their athletic dreams. The sport of swimming teaches great fundamental life lessons in so many areas; team work, perseverance, building friendships, competition, as well as allowing swimmers to be involved in a sport that they can pursue our entire lives.
Before stepping on to campus, Rick Bishop fulfilled some impressive duties with the Hong Kong National team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He served as the head coach of the squad, but was the primary coach for Siobhan Haughey, who has been under Bishop’s tutelage throughout her career at the University of Michigan. In Tokyo, Bishop coached Haughey to a silver medal in the Women’s 100-meter freestyle and the 200-meter freestyle, where she broke an Asian record in each event. Bishop also served as the primary coach for another Olympian, Maggie MacNeil, throughout her career at Michigan.
Bishop, a veteran coach at the college and international level, was named the LSU Swimming head coach on June 24, 2021, by athletics director Scott Woodward.
Bishop spent the past nine seasons as associate head coach at the University of Michigan and has experience in both collegiate and international competition as a coach. At Michigan, he built the women’s team from the ground up and turned the program into a national powerhouse. Bishop was also tabbed as the Hong Kong national team coach and led the nation’s program at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics last summer. It was the third time in his career he took the reins for a national team at the Olympics. During Bishop’s tenure, the men’s team reached the pinnacle of the sport as the 2013 NCAA Champions. The Wolverines were Big Ten Champions from 2013-16 and took the title again in 2020 and 2021. The women’s team also flourished and saw dramatic improvements on the recruiting trail and in the pool, jumping 26 places at the NCAA Championships in three years from 36th in 2013 to 10th in 2016. Under Bishop’s guidance, three recruiting classes finished in the top-10. The Wolverines won three consecutive Big Ten titles from 2016-18 and tallied runner-up finishes from 2019-21. At the NCAA Championships, the women’s team has finished as high as third in 2019, along with a fourth-place finish in 2018 and sixth-place finish in 2021. Bishop’s swimmers completely rewrote the record book, breaking 19 school records (in short course yards), including 15 since 2018. Bishop coached Maggie MacNeil, one of the most accomplished swimmers in Michigan history, to the 2021 100 free and 100 fly NCAA titles. She also won Big Ten Swimmer of the Year twice and is a 14-time Big Ten champion and 19-time all-American.
Bishop served as an assistant coach for USA Swimming at the 2016 FINA Swimming World Championships (25m) in Canada and at the 2017 World University Games in Taiwan. Several swimmers under his guidance have represented their countries internationally, including MacNeil (2019 FINA World Championships gold medalist in the 100-meter butterfly); sisters Gabby DeLoof (2018 Pan Pacific Championships), Ali DeLoof (2016 FINA World Championships) and Catie DeLoof (2019 World University Games); Hong Kong’s Siobhán Haughey (2016 Olympics), Claudia Lau (2016 Olympics) and Jamie Yeung (2017 World University Games); Clara Smiddy and G Ryan (2015 Pan American Games); Sierra Schmidt (2019 World University Games); Canada’s Marni Oldershaw (2013 World University Games) and Singapore’s Samantha Yeo (2015 FINA World Championships).
Prior to serving on the Michigan staff, Bishop spent four years with USA Swimming. Bishop’s role with USA Swimming expanded every year after his arrival in Colorado Springs in 2008, including serving as a sport performance consultant for the Club Development arm of USA Swimming for two years before moving on to the national team in 2010. There, Bishop was performance support manager for one year (2010-11), managing the national team performance staff at the 2010 Short Course World Championships in Dubai. Bishop was Manager of Coach Services and Education (2011-2012), where he was responsible for choosing the 2013 World University Games team.
Over his 20-plus years as coach, Bishop has garnered significant international experience. He spent two years on the Brazilian National Team coaching staff, first serving as an assistant coach at the 1995 World Championships in Rio de Janeiro and 1995 Pan-American Games in Mar del Plata, Argentina, before heading up the Brazilian Olympic Team at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta. He also served as an assistant coach for Jamaica at the 1998 Pan-American Games in Winnipeg and was the head coach for the Netherlands Antilles at the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Australia.
Bishop began his coaching career by serving a three-year stint as an assistant men’s swimming coach at Harvard (1988-91) before moving to the University of Memphis Tiger Swimming (MTS) Club (1992-96), where he coached six swimmers to the Top-50 of the world rankings between 1994 and 1995.
In 1998, Bishop moved to Jacksonville, Fla., where he began a four-year stint as an assistant coach for The Bolles School, a private college preparatory day and boarding school. He assisted with high school national championship and state championship teams, coached high school all-Americans and U.S. Nationals finalists, and was co-Director of The Bolles School Summer Swim Camps. He went on to serve as head coach and aquatics director at the Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tenn., beginning in 2002, and also served as program director for the Baylor Swim Club, the school’s club team. In 2004, Bishop guided Baylor to a first-place finish (combined team) at the Tennessee State High School Championships, and coached 20 men’s and women’s all-Americans from 2003-04. Bishop returned to The Bolles School in 2006 as head coach of the high school team and aquatics director of the club team, the Bolles Sharks. In his first year, both his boys and girls teams won the Florida High School 1A State Championship. The next year, in 2007, Bishop guided Bolles to a second-place finish at the 2007 USA Swimming Spring Championships (combined team), with Bishop guiding four Olympic Trials qualifiers and five swimmers ranked in the Top 105 in the world rankings.
Bishop attended the University of Massachusetts (1988), receiving his bachelor of science in exercise science, with a concentration in exercise physiology. At UMass, Bishop was team captain on the first team championship in the program’s history in 1987.
Bishop and his wife, Pamela, have three sons – Liam, Aidan, and Kilian
Coach Niamh Robinson joined the Tiger Aquatic's coaching staff in the Spring of 2022. She is a current student at LSU majoring in Journalism with a minor in Sport Studies. Niamh is also a former member of the Women's LSU Swimming and Diving Team where she holds the school record in the 200 Breaststroke.
Grace Carter is in her 2nd year as an assistant coach of Tiger Aquatics. She has been swimming all her life - summer league, high school and year round swim since she was 5 years old. Grace was a state qualifier from 2012 to 2021. Her best events were the 200/100 backstroke. She has been coaching and giving swim lessons the past 5 summers. She will be in her second year managing the LSU Swim team.((Grace grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana and attended Byrd High School where she graduated in the top of her class. Both of her parents were collegiate swimmers and she has one younger brother who also swims. Currently she is a sophomore at LSU majoring in kinesiology.
Lyle Robelot returned to Baton Rouge in August of 2018 as an assistant coach for LSU after spending time as an assistant coach at Tulane.
Robelot was on staff with the LSU Tigers from 2012-14 as a volunteer assistant. The Baton Rouge native also served as the head swimming coach at St. Joseph’s Academy for three seasons, leading the Red Stickers to a state championship during his tenure. He was also named the CCSL Women’s Coach of the Year in 2010 and 2011. During the 2017-18 season with the Tulane Green Wave, Robelot helped the swimmers break or tie eight school records and earn six medals at the AAC Championships. Prior to his time at Tulane, Robelot spent the 2016-17 campaign as a volunteer assistant at NC State, where both the men and women took home the ACC Championships.From 2014-16, Robelot worked as an assistant coach at Nova Southeastern University. In his two seasons there working with sprinters, Robelot helped the team break 33 of the program’s 38 records. Nine swimmers also won individual national championships.
Robelot has earned two degrees from LSU; a bachelor’s in kinesiology and a master’s in exercise physiology. The Baton Rouge native is a McKinley High School graduate.
Margot is a native of Gretna, outside of New Orleans where she
attended Arden Cahill Academy and Archbishop Blenk High School. She
started her swimming career in Louisiana as a 6 year old and swam
middle school, high school and on year-round teams until she went
to college in 1998. She was team captain her senior year and a
three-year letter recipient. She was a state qualifier at
Archbishop Blenk High School in Back and Fly in 1996, 1997, 1998.
Her favorite events are 100 back and 100 fly and she loves teaching
stroke technique.
Margot began teaching swim lessons through the Swim America at
Arden Cahill in 1991 and has been on the pool deck, since.
During her high school and college years (1995-2002) she was with
Bellemeade Swim Clubs and was the pool manager, head coach and swim
instructor.
Margot restarted her coaching career in 2013 with opening of
Greystone Golf and Country Clubs new swim team and has been part of
the growing new program in Livingston Parish since. She
started the middle school/junior high program for Livingston Parish
in 2017 and started coaching the CUBS/PAWS in Denham Springs group
in 2017 where she currently presides as the Head Site coach at the
Denham Springs PARDS location.
Margot is a graduated from LSU in 2003, in Advertising and Audio
Visual Arts. After running a publishing and graphic design company
for 15 years, she steps away to coach and teach full time. Coach
Margot teaches 8th grade Quest for Success, Graphic Design and La
History at Southside Jr High. She currently lives in Denham Springs
with her husband, Bryan, 3 children – Laird, Berkley and
Tucker May and her black lab.
Head Swim Coach Bellemeade Swim Club 1998-2001
Assistant swim coach - Greystone Golf and Country Club
2012
Head Swim Coach Greystone Golf Country Club 2013 -
present
Head Swim Coach
Juban Parc Junior High 2018 - 2021
5th grade - Seventh Ward Elementary 2018 - 2021
5th grade - Lewis Vincent Elementary 2018 - 2021
Head Swim Coach Southside Jr High 2017- present
Swim Coach Denham Springs High School 2022-present
Taylor Champagne is the assistant swim coach at the Denham Springs branch of Tiger Aquatics.
She started swimming at 4 years old at the summer league swim team in Norco, Louisiana. She continued swimming when moving to Gonzales in summer league and year-round. She swam for Denham Springs High School all 4 years of high school, qualifying for state each year and placing in the top 16 at finals each year. Her favorite events include: 100 back, 200 IM, 200 Free and 100 Free.
She has been the
assistant coach of the Greystone summer league swim team since
2015. She is the coach of the
Denham Springs High School Swim team as of 2021. She began coaching
Tiger Aquatics under Margot May in November of
2021.
Coach Taylor graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University with a degree in Elementary Education in 2021. She is a 2nd grade Math teacher at Gray's Creek Elementary in Denham Springs.
Coach Richard "Rich" Salhus, joins Tiger Aquatics this Fall as the Masters Coach. Rich has numerous years of experience in coaching collegiate, club and masters swimming. We are excited and welcome Coach Rich as a new addition to our Tiger Aquatics staff!
Salhus joins the Tigers coaching staff after spending three seasons with the United States Military Academy at West Point. During his time at Army, Salhus coached the middle distance and distance swimmers. He directly coached the Patriot League Champion in the 1650-free, which broke the school’s record by 10 seconds.
In his stint with the Black Knights, the team captured a total of 17 Patriot League Champions, while breaking 12 school records. Salhus saw five athletes receive All-Conference accolades and six swimmers clock NCAA ‘B’ standard qualifying times. In addition to the accomplishments in the pool, the women’s team recorded the highest team GPA in program history during the fall of 2020. Before arriving in New York, Salhus spent time at the University of Iowa, his alma mater, heading the recruiting for the men’s team and international athletes. While given the reins of the recruiting department, Salhus also supervised other needs for the program such as meet entries, roster management, scheduling and programming practices.
Salhus helped coach the Hawkeyes to nine individual NCAA qualifiers and two relay teams who met the NCAA ‘A’ standard for nationals. In his three years there, he saw 30 school records fall and over 120 changes to Iowa’s All-Time Top-10 lists. The Iowa student-athletes under Salhus’ guidance achieved greatness in the classroom on top of the success they saw in the pool. The Hawkeye women’s team was named CSCAA Scholar All America Team during each of his three seasons and in 2019, Ben Colin became the first Hawkeye to receive the NCAA Jim McKay Scholarship. Annually, one male and one female are recognized with the McKay scholarship for outstanding academic achievement and their potential to make a significant contribution to the sports communication industry or public relations.
During his first season in Iowa City, the Hawkeyes tallied a top-26 finish at the NCAA Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships. Fueled by first-team All-America performances from breaststroker Emma Sougstad and platform diver Calli Head, Iowa accumulated 26 team points to post its highest finish since 2005. The Hawkeyes went a combined 13-5 in dual competition — 7-2 for the women, 6-3 for the men — with a roster comprised of underclassmen. Iowa had 56 automatic or provisional NCAA qualifying standards during the season. Before returning to his alma mater, Salhus helped the Iowa Flyers Swim Club achieve a number of accolades during his tenure. He coached three 2016 Olympic Trials qualifiers, including a fourth-place place finisher in the 200-fly and was named National Junior Team Coach in 2016-2017.
Before coaching, Salhus was a South African Junior National qualifier, winning numerous medals, including the gold in the 50-free and 50-fly. He was also a South African Junior Squad member and qualified for multiple South African Senior Nationals and Olympic Trials. He was a finalist in the 200-free and 50-fly and a gold medalist in the 400-free and 800-free relays. Salhus competed for Jon Rudd under Plymouth Leander in the United Kingdom where he held various records in Devon County. He went on to win silver in the 17/18-year-old 50 free and bronze in the 800-free relay at the British Youth Championships and he also competed in the Great Britain Open Championships, where he was a finalist in the men’s 50-fly and semifinalist in men’s 50-free.
The Johannesburg, South Africa, native was a four-year Iowa letter winner, competing from 2007-11. He earned Big Ten Swimmer of the Week honors in 2008. He graduated from the University of Iowa in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in health science with a minor in health and sports studies. He and his wife, Mary, have two sons, Liam and Oliver.
