July 3, 2017
THE FLATS – Bill Koppelman has been promoted to associate head coach for men’s and women’s swimming, Georgia Tech head swimming & diving coach Courtney Shealy Hart announced. He served the last five years as an assistant coach having joined the Yellow Jackets’ staff in July 2012, after serving in the same capacity for six years at Texas Christian University (TCU).
Koppelman’s new role will expand his coaching, recruiting and administrative responsibilities with both the men’s and women’s swimming teams. He has served as the recruiting coordinator and also works with the middle distance swimmers for both the men’s and women’s rosters.
“Bill has done a tremendous job with our student-athletes, and he has been a vital part of our staff in building our program over the last five years.” stated Coach Hart. “Bill shares the same vision and goals as myself and the rest of our staff, as we continue to build our program to compete at the highest level. He is hard-working and dedicated to helping our student-athletes be the best they can be in the water, in the classroom and in the community.”
Koppelman has guided a Tech swimmer to the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships all five years that he has been on The Flats with Nico van Duijn (2013, 2014 and 2015), Alex Kimpel (2016) and Rodrigo Correia (2017).
Since coming to The Flats in the summer of 2012, a number of middle distance performers have set school records and career marks each season, while both the men’s and women’s team have consistently increased its points total at the ACC Swimming & Diving Championships each year.
This past season, Alex Goerzen set the school record in both the 100 and 200 back events, while Kimpel set a new program record in the 200 breast event in 2015-16. He also worked with Rodrigo Correia who went on to set records in the 200 free and 100 back this past year.
On the women’s side, Laura Branton broke two school records in both the 100 and 200 fly events in 2016-17, while he has also worked with current Tech swimmer Florina Ilie who set a Tech record in the 100 breast even in 2015-16.
As a team in 2016-17, the Yellow Jackets women’s team set 17 new school records at the 2017 ACC Swimming & Diving Championships, while the men’s team set nine school records and totaled 46 NCAA ‘B’ qualifying marks at the conference championship meet.
As the recruiting coordinator, Koppelman has helped bring in a number of strong recruiting classes over the last six years, including current record holders Iris Wang, Maddie Paschal, Chiara Ruiu, Laura Branton, Kira de Bruyn, Morgan Lyons, Emily Ilgenfritz, Rodrigo Correia, Colt Williamson, Goerzen, Moises Loschi, van Duijn, Youssef Hammoud, Mats Westregren, Noah Harasz and Ben Southern among others.
While at TCU, the Horned Frogs skyrocketed in the national rankings, and their recruiting classes consistently gained recognition from around the country. Koppelman was an integral part of TCU’s climb to the top of the Mountain West Conference in 2009-10 when the men’s team stormed through its schedule to an 8-0 overall record and 5-0 record in the league. It was the first MWC team crown for TCU.
Though he worked predominately with the men’s program, Koppelman also tutored TCU’s breaststroke and butterfly swimmers and saw all of those women’s school records fall under his guidance, along with 14 of 19 men’s swimming records.
Koppelman, who has been involved with coaching since before he graduated college, helped two-time Olympian Edgar Crespo claim the 2010 Mountain West Conference title in the 100 breaststroke and Sabine Rasch win the 100 freestyle conference crown in 2011.
Koppelman joined the TCU staff in the fall of 2006 after spending the previous year as head coach of Cyprus High School in Magna, Utah, as well as serving as head coach of the Pirate Swim Club, a USA Swimming Club team.
Prior to his stint at Cyprus High School, Koppelman worked as a graduate assistant with the University of Utah swim team and was a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Wyoming as an undergraduate.
During his time at Utah, Koppelman worked with 11 U.S. National swimmers, one Canadian National finalist, 17 All-Mountain West Conference swimmers and two NCAA qualifiers.
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