Oklahoma Baptist added former Olympic and NCAA Division I swim coach Samuel Freas as its first swimming and diving coach to begin the program in 2011.

Dr. Freas, who coached the Republic of South Africa's swim team in the Olympics, has been the head coach at Arkansas, Hawaii and Louisiana State, as well as SUNY-Potsdam and Allegheny College.

In his first four seasons, his men's teams at OBU won the NAIA national championship every year. After a runner-up finish in 2012, the women's team won the national championship three consecutive years.

He was 64-12 at Allegheny, 84-15 at Arkansas, 61-9 at LSU and 40-0 at Hawaii in dual meets, with multiple top-10 team finishes at each stop. His swimmers at Arkansas set seven U.S. records, three world records and produced 11 Olympians and one world champion. In all, 19 of his college swimmers have competed in the Olympics.

In addition to his work with athletic programs, Freas has served as a faculty member at Arkansas, LSU and Allegheny College. He also was director of athletics and health, physical education and recreation at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, and associate dean at Palm Beach State College in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Freas was Southwest Conference Coach of the Year four times, Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year three times and Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year twice in swimming and once in diving.

An author of several books on swimming, Freas served as president and CEO of the International Swimming Hall of Fame from 1989-2004.

Freas attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and graduated from Springfield College with bachelor's and master's degrees. He did Ph.D. degree studies at Iowa before earning a doctor of education degree from California Western.
 

Sam Freas at OBU

Year	Men	Women
2012	NAIA National Champions	NAIA National Runner-up
2013	NAIA National Champions	NAIA National Champions
2014	NAIA National Champions	NAIA National Champions
2015	NAIA National Champions	NAIA National Champions
2016*	Central Sectional Champions

.