Coach of the Year

Since 2019, Nate Kellogg has guided William & Mary student-athletes as head coach of the combined men’s and women’s swimming program. After a historic season of success in the pool and the classroom, capped off by a CAA title for the women’s team, Kellogg has been named 2027 Coach of the Year by the W&M Alumni Association.

This past year, William & Mary Women’s Swimming made history at the 2026 CAA Swimming & Diving Championships. Led by Kellogg, the Tribe women smashed the CAA record with 1,647 points at the conference championship meet, earning the team title — all without a diving team. Tribe swimmers won 32 individual medals at the event, including seven first-place finishes.

“The thing that stood out is that our team was extremely deep. We didn’t have many weak spots or holes. It’s probably the deepest team I’ve ever been a part of,” says Kellogg.

The conference title is Kellogg’s third. The Tribe men won the CAA championship in 2020, while the women took home the top spot in 2022. Kellogg was also named CAA Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year for the fourth time, in addition to his CAA Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year honor won in 2020.

Kellogg grew up near Richmond, Virginia. While baseball was his first love, he eventually focused on swimming and earned a scholarship to George Mason University. During his time there, Kellogg discovered his passion for coaching.

“Around my junior year, I just had this feeling that I didn’t want it to end, and I couldn’t not see myself on the pool deck every day,” says Kellogg.

After graduating from George Mason, Kellogg was hired as a graduate assistant for the Georgia Southern University swim program while pursuing his master’s degree in sports management. But just a couple months in, the program’s head coach left for another position.

“They asked me to be the interim head coach for the rest of the year,” Kellogg says. “I was a full-time grad student at the time. I had no assistant coaches, and I had never written a college workout. I had never recruited. During those eight months, my learning curve was vertical.”

After the season, Georgia Southern hired Kellogg as its full-time head coach. He coached at the school for 12 years, finishing his Eagles tenure as the program’s all-time leader in wins. But Kellogg still felt he lacked the experience of learning from an established head coach.

“I’d never been an assistant coach, and so I thought to really be a good head coach one day, or just a better coach in general, I probably needed to have that kind of experience,” says Kellogg. “My former grad assistant at Georgia Southern, Chris Carter, was hired by William & Mary as an assistant coach, and they had an opening for a second assistant coach.”

Kellogg made the move to W&M in 2016, assisting then-Director of Swimming Matt Crispino ’02.

“I learned about building relationships and bringing a team together by watching him,” says Kellogg. “Ultimately, that’s what leadership is, and Matt Crispino is an excellent leader. I honed in on his leadership skills and how he went about developing and cultivating relationships.”

After Kellogg’s third year as an assistant, Crispino left for Princeton University. Just like at Georgia Southern, Kellogg was elevated to the head job.

Over Kellogg’s seven seasons leading the W&M program, Tribe swimmers have won individual accolades and contributed to team success. Three W&M athletes have won CAA swimmer of the year since 2019, and Kellogg’s teams have sent swimmers to both the NCAA championship meet and the U.S. Olympic Trials.

And, led by Kellogg, the Tribe has had as much success in the classroom as in the pool. Eight Tribe swimmers were named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team for the 2025–2026 season, including four each from the men’s and women’s teams. Women’s swimming sported the best team GPA of any Tribe program in the fall 2025 semester, clocking in at a 3.67 average.

While Kellogg is excited about his team’s accomplishments in the water, he’s most proud of contributing to the personal growth his athletes experience while at William & Mary.

“Obviously, you get excited about the kids who swim a time they had no idea they were getting close to. When they hit the wall, their jaw drops,” says Kellogg. “But there’s also the moments where an alum who swam for you four or five years ago gets engaged and you get invited to the wedding. You get to see them start that phase of their life. Or when one of your seniors gets hired and gets their first job out of college. Those milestone moments are incredible.”