From UVA to Texas A&M: Blaire Anderson on Culture, Change, and Coaching in the SEC

GMM by @SwimOutletGear @SwimOutletTV
This week on the GMM Podcast, I sit down with Texas A&M Director of Swimming and Diving Blaire Anderson, a coaching talent to watch in the coming years as she develops the Aggies in the new era. In just her first year running the combined Aggie program, Anderson has already left a mark, guiding the men’s team to a 5th-place finish at the 2026 SEC Championships and 12th at NCAA Championships, while the women’s squad placed 8th at SECs and 25th at the NCAA Championships.

Anderson’s journey has been anything but ordinary. A native of Gainesville, Georgia, she’s worked her way up the ranks with grit and vision starting at Brenau University, where she built the NAIA women’s program into a national contender, followed by assistant coaching stops at Dartmouth, Indiana, and Virginia under Todd DeSorbo’s powerhouse staff. After seven years in Charlottesville helping build the most dominant women’s team in NCAA history, she took the reins in College Station in 2024, the first time Texas A&M officially combined its men’s and women’s programs under a single head coach.

In this hour-plus podcast we cover a lot of ground. Here are few highlights:

--Her training philosophy and how it’s evolved from her days in the NAIA to her time at UVA and now leading an SEC program.

--The nuances of managing a combined team, balancing two high-performance programs under one culture.

--How she handled losing key athletes to the transfer portal, including Baylor Nelson, and what she learned about navigating the post-House era of college athletics.

--The Aggie men’s relays, which took a leap forward last season, and her strategy for rebuilding the women’s relays after losing most of her 2025 NCAA relay core to graduation.

--Her program goals for the coming seasons and how she measures success beyond just team placements.

Anderson’s a great interview, insightful, always with an emphasis on sharing how she's played a role in developing and building programs. I think the most interesting part of this conversation is when she details what she’s learned on her journey from Brenau, Dartmouth, Indiana, UVA to Texas A&M. I hope you like this podcast. We will have Anderson back.

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This is a Gold Medal Media production presented by SwimOutlet.com. Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist and the co-founder of SwimSwam.com, a Swimming News website.

Opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the interviewed guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the hosts, SwimSwam Partners, LLC and/or SwimSwam advertising partners.