In 1999, John moved to
Athens, Georgia to attend graduate school at the University of
Georgia. While at Georgia he worked with the UGA Men’s
& Women’s Swim Team, as well as Athens Bulldogs Swim
Club. During his two years at Georgia he had the opportunity
to help coach several NCAA All-Americans, National Champions, and
Olympians. The Lady Dawgs also won the NCAA Championships
both years John was there. “I owe a lot of my knowledge
and success today in coaching to being able to work with great
coaches like Jack Bauerle & Harvey Humphries” says
John.
In 2001, John was
named an Assistant Coach at Florida State University where he
worked primarily with the distance swimmers, but also the
mid-distance freestylers and IMers. During his tenure at FSU,
John coached several All-ACC performers and had two swimmers
qualify for NCAA’s.
During the summers,
from 2000 to 2004, John worked at two of the most prominent swim
camps in the nation, the first being the Jack Bauerle Bulldog Swim
Camp at the University of Georgia for three years. The second
was the Wolverine Swim Camp at the University of Michigan for five
years. At Michigan, John also had a chance to help out with
Club Wolverine, the club team that trains at the university.
The experience put him in contact with several Olympians and
Olympic/National Team coaches, such as Jon Urbanchek, Jim
Richardson, and Bob Bowman.
In 2004, John was
named the Head Coach of the New Mexico State University
Women’s Swim Team. While in Las Cruces, he had an All
Conference swimmer in every stroke and the team was tops in the
classroom with a GPA of over 3.0.
His next opportunity
brought John to Houston to be the Head Coach of Klein
Aquatics. With KA, John had 8 swimmers qualify for Junior
Nationals, 2 for US Open, and 1 for Olympic Trials. He also
was selected to attend both the National Select Camp and the
Southern Zone Select Camp by USA
Swimming.
In the spring of 2007,
Klein Aquatics dissolved, and John was approached by Fleet Head
Coach Clayton Cagle to join his staff. John accepted his new
role assisting with all the groups from Bronze to
Elite.
Then, in the fall of
that year, the University of Washington Head Coach Whitney Hite, a
colleague from Georgia, asked John to join him in Seattle. He was
given the responsibility of coaching the Distance swimmers, as well
as Recruiting and Compliance. In 2008, the UW women finished
12th in the nation at NCAA’s, the highest finish
in program history. The next year, UW had the best combined
finished in the programs 77 year history when the UW men finished
16th in the nation and the women earned
15th. . The team had 14 All-American’s
in 2009, the most ever for one year. And one of John’s
swimmers, Scott Spansail, won 3rd place in the 1650 at
NCAA Championships. In the classroom, both teams had
GPA’s over 3.4. However, in May of 2009 the University
of Washington decided to eliminate both the Men’s and
Women’s swim teams. This ultimately brought John back
to Houston. “I am extremely excited to be back in Houston.
Hopefully, working with Clayton and Allen, I will be able to
help raise the bar that FLEET has already set so high, and earn new
achievements and more respect within the Gulf, Texas, and
Nationally.”
