Steve Allnutt was recently announced as the new head coach of the University of Hawai'i men's and women's swimming and diving teams. Allnutt, a former Rainbow Warriors swimmer from 2007-11, returns to UH after spending the past 10 years as an assistant coach for San Diego State and San Jose State.

In two seasons with San Jose State, Allnutt helped lead the Spartans to dual-meet victories over Mountain West rivals Fresno State and Nevada for the first time in over a decade, and helped the Spartans distance team to a second-place finish at the inaugural MPSF Open Water Championships. Allnutt also helped lead San Diego State to four Mountain West titles while serving as an assistant coach and associate head coach during his eight years in San Diego, finishing his Aztecs tenure with a record of 85-2 in dual meets.

Allnutt returns to a program he once led to the 2011 Conference USA title. Hawai'i is coming off a historic 2023-24 season, sweeping the MPSF team titles with the men's and women's teams for the first time since 2020. The 'Bows also sent the men's 200 free relay team and diver Mackaby Pennington to the NCAA Championships.

Ahead of his first season as the UH head coach, Allnutt sat down with Jonathan Chen of HawaiiAthletics.com to talk about the upcoming 2024-25 season.
 
Q: You are a Rainbow Warrior alum who also served as a grad assistant here. Did you ever envision yourself returning to Hawai'i as the head coach and now that you are here what does it mean to you?
A: It means a lot. I always kept open the possibility of coming back to Hawai'i, either as an assistant coach earlier in my career or as a head coach. After seven or eight years in California, I wasn't sure if it was ever going to happen, but when the opportunity presented itself and it was the right time, it means so much to be back here and see familiar faces. To see how this athletic department has grown and really molded itself into a super competitive department on the national scale, in modern Division I athletics, has been really impressive to me, and just to get to be a part of that and support our student athletes has been awesome. What it means to me, personally, everybody has thrown out the words full circle a lot in the last couple of weeks, and they ring true. It's surreal to be here and get to help provide the student athlete experience to our current student athletes that I had, and I want to make sure that we're doing things that take it to the next level. Really give them a chance to represent our university, our state, and who they are as people on the biggest possible stage that they can.
 
Q: With your background, you have a unique understanding of our programs' culture and history. How are you taking that knowledge and incorporating it into your first year at the helm?
A: I think that being here in Hawai'i, it presents us with a few unique challenges, but more unique opportunities. And we want to build this program so that we can really do right by the past of the program, the future of the program, and our current student athletes, the ones who are really going through it right now, and really give them the best support from the past and help them build themselves up, because one day they'll be alumni. And for my first year here, I really want to learn the traditions that have been built in the last 10 years since I've been away, because the program has had a lot of success, and I would like to do the best I can to connect with the community, the greater swimming community in Hawai'i, the greater athletics community, and really show our current student athletes, how amazing it is and what a special opportunity they have, so that we can inspire them to come and bring their best selves every day.
 
Q: What was your first impression of the current roster?
A: We have a wonderful combination of very high top-end talent and good depth across the swimming pool and the diving boards for both the Wahine and the Warriors. It really is a complete team, or as close as you can get to it. To continue the success we've had, we want to make sure that we're really building upon the strengths of the student athletes that are already in our program and gradually bringing in new student athletes through recruiting and transfers over the next couple years to continue that.
 
Q: You inherit a program that has enjoyed success on a pretty consistent basis. What are some of your goals for the program, both in the short and long term?
A: Some of the goals we like to accomplish are maintaining our standard of competing at the forefront of the Big West Conference, which is new for swimming and diving. This year is the first year Big West has sponsored swimming and diving in at least a decade and a half, maybe two. We want to continue and really solidify the success we've had competing at the national championships. Last year with the men, the previous year with the women, and on and off over the past two or three decades. We want to make that a consistent thing, where we have divers and swimmers in individuals and relays competing at the NCAA championships, putting points on the board, which will earn you the honorable mention or all-American status. Just really make that a consistent thing, year in and year out, with a program on top of the conference competition.
 
Q: During your time as an assistant coach for the past decade, what have become your core values that you have developed that are key to your coaching philosophy as you begin your head coaching career?
A: Yeah, my main core values when it comes to working with our student athletes are that it's our role as coaches to serve them and to serve our athletic department, our alumni, our sponsors, you know, the people that make all these amazing opportunities possible. And to do that, we want to take care of our student athletes as people above everything else. Make sure that they're doing well in who they are as a human. On top of that, we want to really invest in their academic success and make sure that they have a purpose with their classes, with their degree. We know when people feel at home, they feel like they have the Ohana here, and they are doing well in the classroom, they're succeeding and working toward the goals that will take them, not just for the next four years, but for the next 40 years that then when they come to the pool, they can just be an athlete. They can come and put their full selves into the training sessions we have for them, into the competitions that we have the opportunity to do, and really become that whole you know, student athlete, scholar athlete, life that they want out of their time here in university.
 
Q: You've enjoyed tremendous success with the San Diego State women's programing winning four Mountain West titles in eight seasons. What were the most important things you learned as a coach from that period that might translate into success here in Hawai'i?
A: I think the biggest thing I learned with Coach (Mike) Schrader and our diving coach Coach (Roland) McDonald at SDSU, was how to work hard to bring out the best in each athlete, really see a future vision for their success, and use the team environment to bring out the best performances for the events. As a diver stepping up on the boards, there's no opposing defense up there. You are up there by yourself, but the whole team is behind you. Same for the swimmers stepping up on the blocks for their races. It is an individual performance, but there's a team aspect and it's a team sport. We want to create a team environment that helps produce the best individual results, which add up to the team results. Finding that balance between taking care of each person and building our team unity is something that I took away from my time at SDSU and at San Jose State.
 
Q: What do you think are the biggest strengths that you bring to the program as a head coach?
A: I think relationship building. It's something that I learned here, to form bonds in the community, to really work with each individual person and see them not as a means to an end, but as the end itself. That's what we're here for, is we're here for the people and here to build the relationships. Another strength that I bring to the program is a true love for swimming and diving. Diving is very important to our success, Coach Brandon (Blaisdell) has done an incredible job on not only the performance of our divers, but also in the recruiting, bringing in strong classes to continue the success we've had on the diving boards. We want to have the cohesiveness between the men's team and the women's team. Although we compete in separate categories, we are all one team. We are very fortunate to have the second largest team on campus with nearly 60 individuals, and we know that each athlete has 60 people they can learn from and gain that knowledge from, and come together to help us get the best team results and have the best experiences.
 
Q: On the flip side of that, what do you think are the biggest challenges you face here and how do you look to tackle them?
A: I think the biggest challenge is going to be the usual athletics challenge. We want to be better. We want to compete at a higher level. We want to score more points. We want to make a higher degree of difficulty dive. We want to swim a faster time. There's a lot of strong competition out there, and by going up against that strong competition, it will force us to bring out the best in ourselves. When we strive for really high results, that means we have to find a way to have great mental health, to take care of our nutrition, to emphasize recovery, to get the work done in the classroom, so we're able to compete, to come together as a team and having those really high expectations and goals. The hardest part is managing all of it and staying organized, both on an individual scale and on a team scale, with a team of this size to keep us all moving forward in the same direction. But that is something that, we have fantastic staff, we have a ton of support from our athletics department, and even from the state of Hawai'i, for what we do here and how we represent our state on the national level, on the international level, at the Olympics, World Championships, NCAA championships, Big West championships. We have the support to face these challenges. I really believe we do here.
 
Q: You were just hired recently and have had a relatively late jump with school having already started. What have your priorities been since taking over the job?
A: It has been a big whirlwind, lots of hours in the office. My number one priority coming in was to make a connection with our athletes who are in their last year of eligibility, whether that is a fifth-year transfer, or a senior has been here for four years and is ready to move on to the next phase of their life. We want to make the next six months of their student athlete journey paramount in our goal setting, and building those relationships. That has been my number one to-do. We have some incredible people who are going to be finishing their career as Rainbow Wahine and Rainbow Warriors. We want to honor them and really let them go out on a big high.
 
Q: The transfer portal has helped change the landscape of college athletics. How have you adjusted over the years to recruiting and retention and what is your overall philosophy when it comes to recruiting here in Hawai'i?
A: I believe that we form much of our strength from diversity. That could be bringing in athletes from all over the world, all over Hawai'i and all over the greater United States, and included in that is bringing in people who have varying backgrounds in athletics, including transfers. We want to make sure that we're getting the right people here, however they get here. We provide such a unique experience here, we have had a lot of success in retaining our athletes relative to many other schools. We want to keep that going, and a lot of that is the connection to the community. When people come to be part of the UH swimming and diving family, they realize that it's more than just the results that matter. We want to get them involved in everything you know, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawai'i related, so that they feel like this is their home, whether that's for one year as a grad student or transfer, or four years as a standard student athlete. And for some people, potentially for the rest of their lives, creating a life for themselves and a family here, beyond just their student athlete experience. So we love the diversity. And we want to use that as part of our strength.
 
Q: The Big West Conference is sponsoring men's and women's swimming and diving for the first time this season. Will there be a big adjustment for the team to compete in the Big West this year?
A: I would say no, not really. All of the current Big West teams this year were previously in the same conference, in the MPSF. Now there's a few less, but it's all the same people, all the same rivals. We like that, because we like that continuity of competition. You can build those bonds with the other coaches and the swimmers. They know who they're going to be racing, and its really fun. We were able to get into a really high-performance conference championship venue this year at the University of Houston. It'll be the first non-COVID season in at least 20 years, if not in program history, that we will have the men's team and the women's team, all of the swimmers and divers at the same conference championship. Over the last handful of years the swimming competition venues have not had the adequate tower for the divers, so the divers have been doing the conference championship in a separate location. During my time here, before Hawai'i was in the MPSF, the WAC did not sponsor men's swimming, because Hawai'i was the only team that had men's swimming. So there was a long stretch where the swimmers and divers were together, but the men's and women's teams were at separate locations in the same week. I know that was very hard on the coaching staff, the head coach can only be in one place. That had some unique challenges. But this year, we're all one Ohana, we're all one family. Together we'll all get to see the hard work on the diving boards and in the racing lanes, now we get to see that all show up in the same conference championship and we're gonna bring a lot of energy to that competition.
 
Q: What makes Houston such a special place to compete at?
A: Houston is one of the best conference championship facilities in the nation. What you're always looking for in any championship site, in an ideal situation, is an indoor facility, with a diving area separate and a tower, a swimming area usually in a 50meter pool even though the competition is usually 25 yards, to have enough space for the competition, but also adequate warm up area. You would like it to be sea level to provide the endurance swimmers the most accurate representation for their performance. Even though Houston is outside of the Big West territory, unfortunately there's only one facility on the west coast. So we have to go into the central time zone to find some of the best pools to do that. We're fortunate to get to use the University of Houston. Indoor pools are faster because there is less variability in weather. Not every pool has a tower, not every place is at sea level. On the west coast, it's so much cheaper to build an outdoor facility if you can. Most pools in California and Hawai'i are outside, so there's just not a lot of adequate division I big championship facilities.
 
Q: What are some of your favorite memories of your time here as a student-athlete?
A: Probably top of the list was the 2011 team championship, the Conference USA championship. Our team had been second place for four years in a row. My first three years were years two, three and four of being second place to SMU. Coming in as a senior and winning a championship was really just something that we'd worked so hard for. To see that payoff, it was indescribable. But to be honest, just getting to be an athlete at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex, like we have one of the most amazing, beautiful facilities in the whole world. To get up in the morning, get to see the sunrise. You might be doing a really challenging training set, but when you get a chance to look up and see a rainbow, you realize that there's more to life than the current physical discomfort you're going through, and that there's a meaning to the hard effort you're putting in. The everyday things were so important, working toward the goals, hanging out with the friends at the beach when we did beach practices, that's a tradition we've continued to this day. Getting to connect with the greater Hawai'i swimming community through triathlons and through open water swimming was something that I'll have memories of for a lifetime and I hope that we can pass those on, give those same experiences to our current student athletes.
 
Q: What type of interests do you have outside of the pool?
A: The most important thing in my life, even more important than swimming, is my fiancé Sam. She is an amazing, wonderful woman, and I'm so blessed to have her blessing to come here and get to do the profession that I love and be surrounded by awesome people. That's a big part of my life. Outside of work, I'm much more of a sports participant than a sports watcher. My enjoyment with sports is going out and going for a run, going for a bike ride, going for a swim. I love anything that has to do with racing, and I think that's what's attracted me to this sport. So I like to just go and participate, sign up for a local race, find the local training groups, get to know people who love the same things that I do. Any kind of endurance sport has a special place in my heart.
 
Q: What is something that people don't know about you that might surprise them?
A: This is a hard question, because I'm pretty much an open book. I love sports, especially endurance sports, and I did triathlon for four years. I got to compete at the Age Group World Championships in triathlon in Montreal in 2022. That was really fun, a culmination of four years of training and competition to get to represent Team USA. Not against any professionals, but against other older individuals in the age group that I am in these days, that was really fun. I also love body surfing. Body surfing is one of my favorite things to do.
 
Q: What's your favorite body surfing spot on Oahu?
A: The go-to is Makapu'u. But when it's really on, the best spot I found is Makaha.