Accardy Quits After 24 Seasons at Northridge

Pete Accardy, the swimming and diving coach at Cal State Northridge for the past 24 seasons, resigned from his position Thursday.

Accardy, who coached Northridge teams to 13 NCAA Division II national titles, said it was time to do something else with his life.

“I’ve been coaching for 34 years, and for 24 at Northridge, and I think it’s time to move on,” Accardy said. “There comes a time when you have to call it quits, and that time is now.”

Accardy, 52, said that he does not have any definite plans other than moving from West Hills to Del Mar with his wife Barbara.

“I’d like to step back and take a look at my life,” he said. “Some people get so involved with their jobs that they’re not able to do that until it’s too late. But I’m fortunate. I made some investments over the years which have done well and put me in a position to retire.”

Accardy, who has owned thoroughbred race horses since 1980, said he is intrigued by the prospect of becoming a trainer, although the long hours are not much different than those he worked as a coach .

“I’m not sure I want to do that again,” he said.

A 1958 graduate of Reseda High, Accardy leaves behind an impressive list of accomplishments at Northridge, his alma mater.

CSUN won nine NCAA Division II men’s titles and placed fourth or higher during 18 of its 21 years at that level. The program stepped up to the Division I ranks in the fall of 1990.

The women’s team won four Division II titles and finished third or higher 10 times in 11 seasons under Accardy.

In 1982, Northridge won Division II titles in both the men’s and women’s competition, making Accardy the first coach at any NCAA level to win national championships in the same season in two sports.

Those titles--along with the school’s first Division II men’s title in 1975--are his most fond coaching memories.

“Nineteen eighty-two was a thrill because that had never been done before,” Accardy said. “And 1975 was memorable because it was our first title.”

Accardy coached more than 300 Division II All-Americans at Northridge and compiled dual-meet records of 286-62 on the men’s side and 139-28 on the women’s side.

When Northridge moved to Division I, Accardy devised a five-year plan for the Matadors to work their way to the top.

But a shortfall in the predicted amount of scholarship money brought about by budget cuts hampered his efforts.

“It was frustrating. But that’s not one of the big reasons behind my decision,” he said. “We had a lot of kids who wanted to come here, but couldn’t because we didn’t have the money. . . . We actually had more scholarship money at the Division II level than we did when we were Division I.”

Northridge finished second in both the men’s and women’s competitions in the Pacific Collegiate Swimming Conference championships this year.

“My goal when I came here was to establish a quality program which was nationally recognized,” Accardy said. “And I think we did that.”

Accardy coached at the Burbank Swim Academy from 1964-70, and was head of his own club team from 1959-63.

He does not expect to be involved in the search for his replacement.

“I might offer some opinions on the finalists,” he said. “But other that that, it will all be handled by a search committee.”