Current Illinois assistant swimming coach Kyle Patnode found himself in the pool and taking swim lessons from a young age. After his dad watched a session from the bleachers, he noticed the instructor plugged his nose while diving into the pool. The next day, Patnode joined a swim team, and the rest is history.

"My dad didn't want me to learn lessons from somebody who didn't know how to swim," Patnode said.

After swimming for the local YMCA team through high school, Patnode competed at Iowa from 2013-17. As a senior, he was named a team captain and received the Jim Marshall Award in 2017, presented annually to a male senior who contributes to the Hawkeyes to the best of his athletic ability.

Once done competing, coaching was not an immediate draw, as he wanted to be a strength coach. Serving as a volunteer assistant coach at his alma mater and at Ohio State, Patnode worked heavily in strength and conditioning, serving as a weights intern with the Buckeyes. He felt a hole in his life, and after being invited down on deck with the coaches during a dual meet, he found what he was missing.

"I was missing something," Patnode said. "I was like, 'Ope, there's the hole. I filled it.' The competition, the family, the appreciation for it, the hard work, the grind: All of that stuff is what made me come back to it."

Patnode has also worked at Oakland University, where he helped the men's and women's teams win conference championships both years, and most recently, South Carolina, which is where he met current Illini head coach Jeana Kempe.

They connected after Kempe was working with the mid-distance women and Patnode was focused on the strength side of swimming, and they instantly "really hit it off."

"We kind of found that we're two peas in a pod, essentially, when it comes to being coaches on deck and being part of a team," Patnode said. "It's just always been really natural and really easy to figure each other out but also grow together and do this whole thing."

An Illinois native, Patnode said the idea to join Kempe in Champaign was "always an idea," but once the opportunity arose for the pair to reunite on the Illini coaching staff, it was too good to turn down.

"She nudged me pretty quick, and it was always pretty favorable to end up here with her," Patnode said. "Things in collegiate coaching move really fast, so when you know something, you have to act on it quickly. I was at a really interesting point in the career where I could have gone a couple of different directions. This was one of them, and it's one that I'm loving so far."

Both Patnode and Kempe grew up in Illinois, something both coaches believe will be beneficial in the recruiting world. The Illini are one of five schools in Illinois with Division I swim teams and one of four with a diving team, and Patnode believes keeping Illinois kids in-state will take the program to new levels.

With just under 50% of the current roster hailing from Illinois, Patnode says a point of emphasis moving forward will be in-state recruiting.

"It's almost everything at this point," Patnode said. "I think for a long time, this program struggled keeping kids in-house or keeping kids from the backyard, in the backyard. That's kind of the impression that I got over the summer. But in that same exact breath, I think there's been a lot of club coaches, a lot of parents, a lot of kids that have all been really, really excited, really, really encouraging about the new direction, about the program, about the change. 

"It's been validating, it's been rewarding, it's been exciting, and I think it gives you a pretty solid amount of hope for what's to come. If we can keep a lot of these kids in-house, we're going to be a really good team."

Patnode brings a "family" culture to Champaign, which he has seen embraced by the entire team and coaching staff, both on the pool deck and behind the scenes. As Illinois begins a new era in swimming and diving, Patnode is ready to blaze a new identity in the Big Ten and NCAA.

"This is a new team, a new Illinois. An Illinois that you haven't seen in a long time, Patnode said. "It's one that you should be excited for, one that you can watch grow, and one that you want to be a part of moving forward. Fans have a lot to look forward to, and the rise is only going to get higher the further we go. 

"The sky's the limit, and we're just going to keep tackling it."