St. Thomas University swim coach overcomes near-death experience, builds national powerhouse

Almost exactly six years ago, Caesar Asadi came within a couple of inches of losing his life in a horrific car crash.

Asadi, a Pennsylvania native, was a 20-year-old student at Miami’s Barry University when his life changed forever. On Oct. 24, 2017, Asadi, driving on the right lane of I-95, was struck by a landscape truck that was blindly trying to merge into his space.

The truck sliced Asadi’s car in half, vertically, “like scissors on paper,” Asadi said.

When firefighters pulled Asadi out of what was left of his car, they were amazed.

“They said the edge of the truck missed my head by inches,” Asaid said. “They said, ‘You’re a lucky dude.’”

It didn’t feel that way at the time.

The injuries were so harsh — seven severely herniated disks as well as a concussion — that Asadi forever lost his chance to fulfill his dream and compete for a spot on the elite Navy SEALs team.

“I was two months away from entering basic training,” Asadi said. “From there, I would have gone into [Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL/training], which is one of the toughest military regimens in the world.”

Instead, Asadi went from walking/jogging 20-plus miles a day with a 75-to-125-pound backpack … to barely being able to walk.

Asadi did a lot of his physical therapy in a pool, and his background as a high school swimmer helped.

In fact, it also gave him a new direction. A year after his accident, Asadi began his career as a swim coach.

Asadi, who has mostly recovered from the accident and can run but still deals with back pain, is now in his third season as the men’s and women’s swim coach at St. Thomas University. The STU men are ranked second in the country in the NAIA after finishing as national runner-up last season. The STU women are ranked fourth after finishing sixth last season.

“Caesar has done a fantastic job putting together a great team in the infancy of the program,” said STU athletics director Bill Rychel of the swim program, which has been around since the fall of 2020. “He has brought accountability, setting the standard for what it takes to be a swimmer at St. Thomas.”

Asadi is from Coatesville, located 39 miles west of Philadelphia. Born four years after the 9/11 attack, Asadi dealt with merciless racism as a youth.

Because his father was born in Iran, Asadi was nicknamed “Al-Qaeda” by his own seventh-grade baseball coach.

“Kids would ask me where I hid the bomb,” said Asadi, who is a Christian. “My mother was born in the Philippines, so I got anti-Asian racism, too.

“It made me really angry. I had a lot of resentment.”

After his parents split up, Asadi found out his father had served in Iran’s army. That inspired Asadi to join the Navy SEALs, but, when that dream died with the crash, Asadi went on to Plan B.

His first big coaching job was at Hialeah Mater Lakes, where he twice led the boys to third place at the state Class 2A meet.

When the STU job opened up, Asadi, 26, dove in, even though the Bobcats program was in disarray at the time after the initial coach quit.

“When I first arrived at [STU] in January of 2021, we only had two women and seven men on the swim team,” Asadi said. “Within one year, we had 40 women and 35 men on the team.”

In March of 2022, STU produced its first individual swimming national champion as Inigo Marina won the 200-yard men’s breaststroke.

Then, in March of 2023, Taylor Fitzgerald won the 100 backstroke to become the first female national champion in STU history, regardless of sport.

Fast forward to the 2023-2024 season, and the Bobcats are national contenders in the pool and scholars in the classroom. Of STU’s 40 students in the Honors College, nine of them are swimmers. Eight of those nine are women, including two who have 4.0 grade-point averages: Izzy Gifford (International Business major) and Anaya Robinson (Biology).

“At some point, they will hang up the cap and goggles,” Asadi said of his swimmers. “The mission of our program is to develop better human beings.”

Going forward, the Bobcats face some issues.

For starters, they have no divers, which means they give up points at every major meet. Asadi said finding a diving coach is a priority for next season.

In addition, the Bobcats don’t have an on-campus pool. Instead, they train at Miami Dade College North Campus. Depending on traffic, it takes the STU swim team anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes to make the drive.

“Our No. 1 challenge is getting our athletes to the pool for practice,” Asadi said. “There have been some discussions about building an on-campus facility, but until they hand me a shovel and tell me to start digging, I’m going to keep working with what I have.”

An on-campus pool would help recruiting as the Bobcats chase Keiser, which has won five consecutive men’s national titles and two straight on the women’s side.

Rychel said the chances are “really good” that an on-campus pool will be built.

“It’s on the table, and it’s not a pipe dream that is 15 years down the road,” Rychel said. “It’s important to our administration. It’s important to our swimming program, and it’s a need for students and our Miami Gardens community.”

Building that pool would be huge news for Asadi and his staff at STU, which includes two full-time assistant coaches: Alexander Arrieta; who is the men’s recruiting coordinator and works with mid-distance and butterfly swimmers; and Alexandra Perez, the women’s recruiting coordinator who works with distance and freestyle swimmers.

Perez, a 23-year-old who swam for Miami Palmetto High, was one of those two holdovers on the STU women’s team when Asadi took over.

The previous coach, Perez said, did the bare minimum. Asadi came in, and there was an immediate change.

“[Asadi] is a caring coach,” Perez said. “He talks, but there’s always action behind his words.

“I expect the program to continue to grow and win a national championship within the next couple of years.”