Erin McNulty announced as RPDC

Erin McNulty has been recruited as the new Munster Regional Pathway Development Coach. Erin will formally take over the role in September. We caught up with Erin this week to learn a bit more about her impressive swimming background.

Erin swam for Humboldt Swimming Club (HSC) from 10-18 years old, a small, rural club in Northern California, where she eventually returned as a coach intermittently between 2012-2018. She got very lucky with a talented coach, Cameron Mull, a US Olympic Trials semi finalist and former Ohio State swimmer who encouraged with her to pursue collegiate swimming.

Following an extensive recruitment process, Erin signed to the University of Hawaii at Manoa, a Division 1 University in Honolulu, HI.

While at UH, she achieved the following:

All-MPSF first team athlete
MPSF gold, silver, and bronze medalist
NCAA B Cut Qualifier
All American Academic Honourable Mention
Peter Chi Most Inspirational athlete

Primarily a butterflier, she held multiple school records during her tenure at UH as well as a State of Hawaii Open record in the 100LCM Butterfly (1:00.68). To this day she still holds the second fastest times in school history in both the 100SCY Butterfly (53.08) and 200SCY Butterfly (1:58.30).
While at UH, she continued her coaching through a number of high performance camps and clinics for age group swimmers and adults. She also was an open water coach through BC Endurance, where she directed a triathlon programme.

Erin endured significant ankle injuries throughout her career, including three ankle surgeries, which required significant modification to her stroke. Swimming World wrote an article on my injuries and comeback (linked here), and documented her stroke in a video - (to a mortifying soundtrack of Hawaii 5-0, Erins words, (linked here)! Despite the injuries, she managed to qualify and compete in the US Olympic Trials in 2016 in Omaha, Nebraska. Much of this success, Erin modestly mentions was due to training partners and her coach Joe Spahn, now associate Head Coach at San Diego State University, and Jennifer Buffin, then UH Associate Head Coach.

After 8 years out of the pool, Erin has recently returned to the water with Kingdom Masters. Competing in the 2024 Masters Nationals in Limerick she won the 50 fly, 100 fly, 50 free, and 100 free. Both the 50 fly (29.53) and 100 fly (1:06.42) broke Irish Masters records (30-34).

Erin is very much a coach that practices what she preaches and continues to be a force in the pool. We look forward to seeing Erin in her new role in September and supporting swimmers and coaches across the region develop their full potential.