Andy Eaton

Since joining the team, he has helped improve the team’s finish at the SEC Championship and NCAA Championships every year. In just three years, the number of NCAA qualifiers jumped from two to eight and the SEC Championship place improved from 11^th to seventh. In 2024, the team celebrated another step forward with two women scoring in finals at the NCAA Championships. During his time at South Carolina, Eaton has coached multiple top eight SEC finishers and swimmers with great success internationally, including athletes competing at the Olympics and Asian Games.

Eaton is passionate about developing athletes, helping them to become better swimmers and to grow as individuals. With a diverse background in coaching, psychology, biology, statistical analysis, and performance strategy, Eaton brings a fresh perspective to coaching. Always eager to learn and apply enhanced methods, he studies the training methods of top athletes and is constantly innovating.

From August 2019-July 2021, Eaton was assistant coach for Franklin & Marshall College. During his tenure, F&M had two of its best seasons in team history. The men won conference for the first time in a decade, the women and men broke nearly every team record, and the team set its record for All-Americans. Two F&M athletes competed at the 2020 Olympic Trials.

In 2019, Eaton volunteer coached with Emory University, during which the women won DIII Nationals and the men placed second. He primarily coached the sprint group, which included swimmers with times that would qualify for DI Nationals.

Before coaching collegiately, Eaton was one of the head coaches of Chattahoochee Gold Swim Club in Georgia. He coached athletes ranked in the age group national top 10 and swimmers that went on to compete for elite DI universities.

Prior to coaching, Eaton was successful as a business consultant for Accenture, one of the top consulting companies in the world. Promoted to manager, Eaton helped some of the largest businesses in the world implement organizational changes to become more successful. His work took him to Japan, Spain, and all over the United States. He considers the skills and work ethic learned during that time as essential to his swim coaching.

Eaton graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Kenyon College. At Kenyon, he was team captain, 24-time DIII All-American, and 4-time DIII team national champion.

Eaton and his wife Danice reside in Columbia, SC. Their son Thomas attends the University of South Carolina as a graduate student and swims for the Gamecocks. Their daughter Kate attends Emory University and swims for their team.