Austin Pillado begins his second season at Washington State after joining the program as an assistant coach prior to the 2024-25 season. Pillado was promoted to Associate Head Coach this past summer.
Pillado came to Pullman after working the 2023-24 season as an assistant coach on the National Champion Arizona State Men’s Swimming and Diving Teams and working the previous two seasons as an assistant coach at Penn State.
In his first season with the Cougars, Pillado helped WSU post a perfect 8-0 record in dual meets, tying the record for single-season wins and the first undefeated season in program history. Three Cougars earned trips to the NCAA Championships, marking just the second in program history with three NCAA selections. Ten swimmers and four relays earned All-Mountain West honors after WSU claimed five individual titles and two relay championships while four swimmers earned CSC Academic All-District honors.
Pillado served as an assistant coach with the Arizona State Swimming program in 2023-24, which saw the women finish No. 24 nationally and the men claimed their first National Championship in program history. The Sun Devil men were also crowned the 2024 Pac-12 champions for the second year in a row. Pillado primarily trained the breaststroke group, which saw four men go under the 52-second barrier, and assisted with the sprint group in Tempe. Pillado was able to work with some of the best athletes in the world, ranging from Simone Manuel, Ryan held, and Olivia Smoliga within the professional group at Arizona State.Â
In his time with the Nittany Lions, Pillado worked primarily with the sprint freestylers and breaststrokers where PSU broke nine school records. In 2022-23 at NCAA Championships, Pillado coached Victor Baganha to an All-American finish in the 100 fly and the first All-American in that event for Penn State in 20 years.
Outside of Penn State, he served as an assistant coach for the Swedish national team for the European Championships in 2022. His other collegiate endeavors include as an assistant coach at Saginaw Valley State from 2020-21 where he coached the Male Freshman of the Year with seven school records being broken. Pillado started his coaching career as a volunteer assistant coach at Texas A&M (2017-20) where the Aggies won two SEC championships, had 11 conference champions and 33 All-Americans during his time on the coaching staff.
Pillado swam at Davis and Elkins College from 2013-17 and also competed in one season of track and field in 2017. At Davis and Elkins, he was named the Male Athlete of the Year in 2016. Pillado graduated with his bachelor's degree in Sports Management/Athletic Training in 2017 from Davis and Elkins College along with a master's degree in Sports Management from Texas A&M in 2020.Â
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