"Mark has not only been a great coach but a great person to me. His knowledge of the sport and sports psychology coupled with his empathy and compassion and just generally being a good person makes him someone that I will never forget and I know many people who think the same."

"I swam for Mark for 4 years. During that time it was clear who his favorites were. He would ignore the rest of the team coaching wise and only focus on 1-2 specific swimmers. He let’s individuals who have exposed very personal information about others, bullied, and caused mental health issues to go unpunished. But, if you are someone who does a minor thing such as speaking up to a wrongdoing, you are painted as the criminal. He can be a little manipulative and express that he cares and is paying attention to those who aren’t his favorites, but it’s clear he doesn’t know how to coach modern day athletes. If you ask for a personal day, even during the off season when you are allowed to leave after the required time, he says he questions you out of compassion, but you always feel guilty and that he’s upset with you. For someone who preaches that he cares about mental health, his actions and words say the complete opposite. Through my 4 years, you could see the decline in caring about coaching. The only good part of the team was his former assistant who took the time to individually coach athletes and the results showed from HER work. As a person, Marks an okay guy, as a coach, his time has passed and there needs to be a new staff. Not to mention, he does not take well to anyone expressing concern, disagreement to how he is coaching, holding him accountable for his words/actions, etc. If I had the option to come here again, I wouldn’t because of him. "

"G.O.A.T. "

"Overall, I enjoyed my experience at Idaho - grateful to have been a part of the team, and I'm happy I went to Idaho. I enjoyed Mark as a coach. I think he was an easy coach to get along with. I felt that Mark believed in me, held me to a high standard (which I appreciated), and pushed me to become a better swimmer. That being said, he does have favorites and it can be very obvious who those athletes are. While I was on the team, he did try to wrangle and control the team culture/dynamics - but that led to intense groups and cliques that were out for each other. There were a lot of teammates vs. teammates, fights, tattling, and uncomfortable team meetings. Ultimately some were held accountable for their actions and others were not... it was a crap shoot to who was reprimanded and who was praised. We had a lot of strong personalities on the team, but it could have been handled better or at least differently. I just have to be honest. "

"I swam for mark sowa for four years. As a coach who is in theory there to guide and support us as women and athletes, I believe he failed us. He believed in and promoted tattle taling over respect. He pinned teammates against each other. He didn’t value teammate privacy and allowed teammates to go through other teammates belongings in their lockers without consent or permission. He believed in favoritism. I am one of many who experienced his demeaning and disrespect words and behaviors and complete disregard for mental health. They said it best in the review below this- if I had a daughter she wouldn’t be swimming for Mark Sowa. "

"Would not trust my daughters to swim for this man, he shouldn’t be running a women’s program. He tries to run his program with control, disregards injuries, disregards safety concerns of swimmers when off the pool deck."

"I swam under Mark for 4 years. I swam my entire life, had many coaches and honestly Mark was pretty mediocre. If you don’t have the exact personality that he likes, he can be pretty cold and distant. He favors the swimmers who have the attitude that he likes and ignores the ones that don’t. He would tear down the swimmers that didn’t fit his “mold” of what a good swimmer was. I have had way better coaches that didn’t need to tear down their swimmers to make them perform."

"One of the best coaches I’ve ever had in a long time however there are times where If I ask for a day off for person reasons I will somehow feel guilty just based off his response. I love his coaching style though and he really makes sure you are getting what you need and staying healthy is top priority for him. "