Megan Garland was named Iowa Swimming and Diving Assistant Coach on August 15, 2023.
In 2024, the Hawkeyes finished with a 5-5 record, and dual meet victories over Illinois, Iowa State, Nebraska, UNI and Vanderbilt. The Hawkeyes scored 303 points at the 2024 Big Ten Championships, an over-100-point improvement from last season. Four Hawkeyes posted a total of 10 NCAA B cut times (Kennedy Gilbertson, Jenna Kerr, Scarlet Martin, Olivia Swalley). Further postseason success took place at the National Invitational Championships in Ocala, Florida. Competing against 65 teams, Iowa placed ninth with 327 points.
Garland joined the staff following a career coaching at levels of the sport, teaching toddlers to working with Olympians and Olympic hopefuls.
Prior to the University of Iowa, Garland joined the NOVA coaching staff in September 2017 after coaching in Florida for seven years. Garland has been lead and assistant coach to several groups in her time at NOVA including Senior Elite, Senior Silver, Senior Bronze, Senior Development Gold, Senior Development Silver, AGG, AGB, AGDS, Novice Gold, Novice Silver, and Novice Bronze. She also helped with lessons and spring clinics.
Garland has had an impact on US National qualifiers, Speedo Summer and Winter Junior National Qualifiers, NCSA Junior National Qualifiers; as well as Senior State and Age Group State Champions. In March of 2023, Senior Elite swimmers broke 10 individual team records, five relay records, and recorded the fastest times for a 15-year-old boy in the country in the 500 and 1000 freestyles. In addition to her coaching duties Garland ran NOVA’s social media.
From 2015-17, Garland was the assistant coach at Florida Southern College and the head coach of Lakeland Area Swimming. While there she helped coach the men to third and fourth place finishes at the 2016 and 2017 NCAA Division II Men’s National Championships, and the women to fifteenth and thirty-seventh place finishes at the Women’s Championships. She was also a key component in the Moccasins’ double Sunshine State Conference Championship in 2016, with the men winning their fourth straight SSC title, and the women winning their first. She assisted in the coaching of 62 Division II National Championship All Americans, and 31 Honorable Mention, All Americans, and two National Championship Relays. Garland produced multiple Speedo Junior National qualifiers, Sectional Qualifiers, Senior Champs qualifiers, and Florida Age Group Champs qualifiers. She also assisted in the coaching of Senior National and US Open qualifiers, and a 2016 Honduras Olympian.
Garland was a member of the coaching staff at Nova Southeastern University from January of 2010 through August of 2011, and helped the Sharks win the inaugural SSC Men’s Championship in her first season there.
Garland spent five years with the South Florida Aquatic Club in Pembroke Pines where she was an assistant swim coach for various age groups, senior athletes, and adults. During that same time she also served as the head swimming and diving coach at Archbishop Edward McCarthy High School from September of 2011 through April of 2014, was a member of the Florida Gold Coast Southern Zone coaching staff in 2012, and a Florida Gold Coast All-Star Open Water coach from 2012-14. Garland produced her first Junior National qualifier here, and assisted with the coaching of the professional group that included a four-time Jamaican Olympian. She also was an assistant coach at a swim camp for the Jamaican National team.
Garland was a four-time letter winner at the University of Tampa from the fall of 2005 through the spring of 2009, and earned two All-America honors. As a collegiate swimmer, she helped Tampa to four top-15 finishes at the NCAA Division II National Finals. She earned honorable mention All-American status as a member of the Spartans’ 200-yard freestyle relay team, and was an All-American in the 800-freestyle relay where she helped them set the school record for that event in 2009. As a senior captain that year, Garland qualified for the National Finals in six events and helped lead the Spartans to the Bluegrass Mountain Conference championship. Garland’s coaching career began in August of 2009 following her graduation from the University of Tampa. Returning home to her native Aurora, Illinois, Garland was the assistant varsity coach and head JV coach of the girls’ team at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.