Reott joins Pitt swimming staff
PITTSBURGH — Kelsey Reott’s love for swimming was fostered with group lessons at the Butler YMCA and competition as a member of the Slippery Rock Eels.
Recently hired as an assistant for the University of Pittsburgh’s swim team, her passion to learn the sport’s in and outs will continue to be fed.
“It was just something that I loved going to every day,” said Reott, who also qualified for the PIAA Class AA championships twice while at Slippery Rock High School, where she graduated from in 2012. “I’ve been really lucky that, through word-of-mouth and meeting people, I've lucked out with some great opportunities.”
Reott’s collegiate coaching path has gone through stops at Westminster, her alma mater, and Bucknell, where she spent the previous three seasons. As an undergrad, she swam for the Titans and was a four-time All-PAC first-team honoree.
She relocated to Virginia to work as an eighth-grade special education teacher upon graduation.
Within her first month working there, it was passed through the grapevine that Reott had been around swimming for some time. She was asked to lend a hand to the high school team and the Battlefield Area Star Swimmers, a local club team.
If not for that, which kicked off a chain of events, she likely wouldn’t be where she is today.
“I didn’t plan on it,” Reott said about coaching. “I loved my college experience, but when you come from a small town, people don’t really talk about coaching full-time for the rest of your life.
“I planned on just focusing on teaching.”
After that first season as an assistant coach with BASS, the squad’s head coach retired. The light bulb went off in Reott’s head to apply for the spot.
“I did that without thinking it through,” she said. “And it was the greatest decision I ever made.”
Reott began to envision a future mentoring beside the pool rather than in front of a classroom. Toward the end of her only season at the helm, she was approached by the coach of a much larger crew.
“This one was pretty much a business, like 800 people or so,” Reott said. “He came up to me and was impressed with how my team did and said, ‘Hey, do you want to apply for a full-time coaching job?’”
She called her mother and mentioned the salary. She was skeptical.
She then called her former coach at Westminster, Pat Smith, who confirmed the job’s legitimacy. When she visited soon after for Easter, he also convinced her to return to the school to get her master’s degree and be his graduate assistant instead.
“In coaching, timing is everything sometimes,” said Smith, whose other assistant moved on just days before the holiday. “I wanted to get her before somebody else did, quite honestly … It is crazy that she really didn’t consider it at first, but has really moved through the coaching ranks in the past five years.”
She took lessons from that staff and then the one she worked alongside at Bucknell, which helped open her eyes to other coaching practices.
“That’s been a big goal of mine just this past year that I want to continue,” Reott said. “Meeting new coaches and seeing what they do, because everyone has a different way that they do things.”
She’s reached out to other coaches, sending emails and figuring the worst they could say is no. One of those she got in touch with was the University of Virginia’s Blaire Bachman, a talented recruiter who helped the Cavaliers’ women’s team to its first NCAA championship in 2020-21.
A conversation with Bachman helped Reott re-think her goals.
“Her point to me was to go and check out places,” Reott said. “Go and watch practices. Go and see what opportunities are out there as a head coach, as an assistant, and see what sparks your interest.
“As much as being a head coach excites me, I do think there’s a different growth opportunity as an assistant and getting to work with different people, especially in the ACC.”
That sort of attitude is nothing new, according to Smith.
“When she was on our team, she was a team captain,” he said. “It was almost just like (she had) a desire to never lose and always get better … We recruited some swimmers that swam the same kind of events as her, but even if they passed her, she always helped make the team better.”
That desire — along with an unexpected opening — landed Reott with the Panthers. She’ll be helping with recruiting and coaching different groups. Along with helping the team’s swimmers with their crafts, Reott wants to have an impact on a personal level.
“I just want them to feel supported,” said Reott, who has her master’s in clinical mental health counseling. “Yes, I’m here to help make them fast in the pool, but I want to help them grow … I’m there to celebrate the good days, which are awesome, but I’m also there for the bumps in the road.”
