Swimming & Diving
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
Bill Tramel is now in his ninth year at the University of North Carolina as the head assistant swimming coach for the Tar Heel men’s and women’s swimming teams. The St. Louis, Mo., native is also in his 16th year of collegiate coaching overall.
At Carolina, Tramel has coached nearly 40 All-Americas and more than a dozen ACC champions and school record holders. He has coached an outstanding group of swimmers since 1995 which included a slew of 2000 Olympic Trials qualifiers, including Sean Quinn, fifth in the 200-meter breaststroke.
In 2001, the Carolina women’s team broke back into the Top 10 at the NCAA Championships, finishing ninth. The Tar Heels had not finished in the Top 10 since 1987. Helping teams achieve that kind of progress has been consistent throughout Tramel’s coaching career.
Tramel joined the Tar Heel staff in 1995 after a year as an assistant coach at the University of Georgia. While an assistant at Georgia, where he worked alongside 2000 U.S. Olympic coach Jack Bauerle, Tramel helped lead the Bulldogs’ women’s team to a nine-spot improvement at the NCAA level -- from 15th place in 1994 to sixth place in 1995 as well as to the NCAA women’s championship in the 200-yard freestyle relay that year.
He also served for two years as the top assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the University of South Carolina’s men’s swimming program from 1992-94. During Tramel’s stay in Columbia, the Gamecocks moved from a 37th-place finish at the NCAA meet to 19th place.
Tramel says he is proud that he was able to assist the drastic improvement of all three schools during his collegiate coaching career.
One of the major contributing factors to the improvement of Tramel’s swimmers comes from his sincere caring for each of his protoges. “I look at each swimmer as my own kid. I care about them as people, not just swimmers,” he explains. “I have an interest in what is going on in their lives outside of the pool. I know what their majors are and what their personal interests are.”
He is also a tireless recruiter on behalf of the UNC swimming efforts, going coast to coast to convince young men and women to attend the University and get a great education.
After coming to UNC in August of 1995 as a full-time assistant coach, Tramel immediately demonstrated that the Tar Heel program had hired another excellent coach. The numbers for the past eight seasons simply do not lie. Team improvement at the NCAA level and winning championships at the ACC level is the norm for teams coached by Tramel. While at UNC, he has been associated with teams which won women’s ACC championships in 1996, 2000, 2001 and 2002 and men’s ACC titles in 1996, 1997 and 1998.
In 1996, Tramel’s group produced seven Atlantic Coast Conference individual champions, including a 1-2-3 sweep of the men’s 500-yard freestyle and a 1-2 finish in the men’s 1650-yard freestyle. Tramel coached Chrissy Miller to an MVP performance in the women’s ACC championship meet as the sophomore swept the league titles in the 500 and 1650 free and the 400 IM. Tramel mentored breaststrokers who placed 1-2-3 in the 200-yard breaststroke at men’s ACC’s and 1-2 in the 100-yard breaststroke at the conference meet. Eight of his swimmers qualified for the 1996 NCAA Championships and six individuals combined to produce 10 NCAA All-America performances. In addition, the Tar Heel men’s breaststroking corps was outstanding at NCAA’s, placing two individuals in the Top 10 of the 100-yard breaststroke and three in the Top 12 of the 200-yard breaststroke. Micah Copeland and Trevor Runberg both earned All-America honors in the 500-yard freestyle, while Mike Chorba was an All-America in the 1650-yard freestyle and Eric Fehr in the 400-yard IM. On the women’s side in 1996, Chrissy Miller made All-America in the 400 IM and she combined to help lead the women’s 800-yard freestyle relay team to an ACC championship and an All-America performance. Likewise, on the men’s side, the Tar Heels won the ACC title in the 800-yard freestyle relay for the seventh straight year and went on to finish 10th in the event at NCAA’s. Tramel’s distance swimmers established two school records in 1995-96 and put up on the scoreboard 23 performances that ranked among the Top 10 of all time short course performances at UNC. But likely most impressive about that season is that the Tar Heel women’s team improved from 23rd to 18th and the Tar Heel men’s team from 32nd to 15th at the NCAA Championships during his first year on the coaching staff at Carolina.
Tramel’s group again excelled in 1997 as Carolina repeated as the ACC men’s champions and the Tar Heel women improved to 16th place at the NCAA’s. Six of the swimmers in his group earned All-ACC honors and Eric Fehr and Jeff Weiss were both ACC titlists. The Tar Heel men also won the 800-yard free relay at ACC’s for the eighth straight year. Three swimmers in Tramel’s group earned honorable mention All-America honors in individual events at the 1997 NCAA men’s championships and the Tar Heels’ 800 freestyle relay team notched 12th place. On the women’s side, a trio of swimmers earned All-ACC honors. Chrissy Miller went on to earn All-America honors and the 800 free relay team took 11th at nationals. Miller was a consolation finalist in two events—the 500 freestyle and 200 butterfly.
In 1998, Tramel was instrumental in leading Carolina to its sixth straight ACC men’s title. Eric Fehr was an ACC champion for the Tar Heels in the 200-yard freestyle. The women’s team improved to 12th at the NCAA Championships that year from 16th the year before. Chrissy Miller was an ACC champion and first-team All-America and she was the ACC meet MVP for the second time in three years.
In 1999, freshman Molly Sullivan thrived under the tutelage of Tramel. She won the ACC championship in the 1650-yard freestyle and was an NCAA qualifier in that event, the first of four successive years in which she was an NCAA qualifier. Freshman Melissa Fiss also earned All-America honors in her first year as a Tar Heel and was ACC champion in the 200 fly.
In 2000, Tramel coached Sean Quinn and Dave Slawinski to a 1-2 finish in the 200 breast at the ACC Championships. Quinn set the school record in the event and went on to earn first-team All-America honors. Slawinski also garnered honorable mention All-America. On the women’s side, Tramel helped lead Carolina to its first ACC championship in four seasons, the first of three straight for the Tar Heels. Lauren Silva earned All-America honors for the Tar Heels as UNC improved five spots at the NCAA Championships from the previous season.
Tramel’s group had continued success in the 2001 season. Lauren Silva and Kelly Weeks earned All-America honors. Molly Sullivan, Sean Quinn and Steve Mohr were all NCAA qualifiers. The women’s team again won the ACC title and broke into the Top 10 at ninth place.
In 2002, swimmers from Tramel’s group again had outstanding seasons. The UNC women won the ACC title again and were 13th at NCAA’s. Kelly Weeks earned All-America honors and Whitney Smith on the women’s side and Yuri Suguiyama on the men’s side qualified for NCAA’s.
The 2003 season saw another great coaching effort by Tramel as the Carolina women again finished in the Top 20 at No. 17. On the men’s side, Yuri Suguiyama won the ACC title in the 200-yard freestyle and earned All-America honors in both the 500 free and 1650 free while Sean Quinn won the ACC title in the 200-yard breaststroke and was also an All-America. On the women’s side, Whitney Smith had a magnificent junior year, earning an NCAA invitation and personal best times. In seven of eight seasons, UNC has had at least one 1650-yard freestyler qualify for NCAA’s.
Well respected in the NCAA ranks, Tramel has served as a CSCAA Top 25 pollster since 2000 and has had two articles published.
Prior to his work at South Carolina, Tramel spent two years as an assistant coach for both the men’s and women’s swimming programs at the University of Missouri, his alma mater. He had been a member of the Tiger swimming team and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance in 1992.
His early coaching duties were also as an assistant age group coach at the Sugar Creek Swim Club in St. Louis, Mo, in 1988. A year later, he was the assistant age group coach for the St. Louis Aquajets. Tramel is a 1987 graduate of Parkway West High School in St. Louis, Mo. He enjoys NHL hockey and live music. He also rarely misses a home Tar Heel basketball game.
