Matt Gilbert is in his second year as head coach of the Barton swimming program, replacing the vacancy of the Cougars’ first and lone head coach of the program Jonathan Reeder.

Competing virtually for the majority of the 2021 season, Gilbert’s Cougars showed exceptional results at the NJCAA Championships with the men placing 4th while the shorthanded women’s squad garnered a 9th place national appearance.

Highlighting the men’s performances and making program history, freshman Johan Cue Carrillo captured a pair of golds in the 50m and 100m breaststroke becoming the program’s first ever multi-event individual National Champion. The men set six program records, and 47 new personal bests, 41 of those performances occurring at the national championship competition in landing inside the program’s top-10 record list.

Dealing with an understaffed women’s squad Gilbert’s two pack of Cougars landed on the podium in five events including a pair of program records along with clocking three new times inside the program’s top-10 list. Sophomore Fanny Courbot led the charge piling up 44 points over her four events, rewriting her own school records with a national runner-up performance in the 100 breaststroke and an eighth place showing in the 200 IM.  

Gilbert arrived to Barton after serving a season as a volunteer coach at the United States Air Force Academy, as well as, the head coach at Pine Creek High School and the Rocky Mountain Rapids Swim Team based out of Colorado Springs, Colorado.

A competitive swimmer for sixteen years under many successful coaches, Gilbert was a member of two NAIA national championship teams at Fresno Pacific University.

Gilbert has been in the coaching ranks since 2017, beginning as an assistant coach for the Full Armour Swim Club in Fountain, Colorado, before taking over the head position at Pine Creek in November of 2017.

The 2019-20 season produced many honors for Gilbert’s teams in being crowned the Western Athletic Conference Champions, the Colorado Springs Boy’s Metro League Champions, the Colorado Springs Boy’s Metro League Swimmer of the Year, the Colorado Springs Boy’s Metro League Diver of the Year, and the Colorado Springs Boy’s Metro League Coach of the Year.

Gilbert and his wife Ramona have two kids a daughter Arya and son Elijah.