LSU Adds Former Clemson Head Coach Christopher Ip as Assistant Coach

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana, August 22. THE LSU Swimming and Diving program has hired former Clemson Head Swimming and Diving Coach Christopher Ip to become the team's new assistant coach.

“I cannot be more excited to add Chris to our coaching staff,” Swimming Coach Dave Geyer said. “His experience as a head coach will certainly add a great deal of wisdom and knowledge to our staff, and we look forward to the future with him. Chris's coaching philosophy focuses on the development of a student athlete as a whole and lines up ideally with our vision and mission for the program.”

Ip served as the head coach at Clemson for 10 seasons and produced 16 NCAA All-American and Honorable Mention All-American performers, 24 ACC Champions and 35 All-ACC swimmers. Seventeen out of 24 of the men's and women's records for each team were broken during his tenure. Fourteen of his athletes became Olympic trial participants, domestically and internationally.

“We are thrilled to add Chris Ip to our coaching staff,” Diving Coach Doug Shaffer said. “His coaching expertise and versatility will certainly enhance our program on all levels.”

In addition to in the pool excellence, Ip's teams consistently boasted high academic marks and did extensive work in the community. His men and women's teams averaged a cumulative GPA of 3.0 in 29 separate semesters of classes. Three of Ip's athletes went on to earn the prestigious NCAA Post-graduate scholarship.

“I am extremely excited and honored that Dave and Doug have given me the opportunity to work with this prestigious group of LSU swimmers and divers,” Ip said. “I look forward to blending my coaching experiences from the past with the coaching staffs' philosophy and move this program up in the SEC and in the national rankings.”

Ip served as the President and Coach of the Clemson Tiger Aquatic Camps, Inc. from 2005-2011.

Ip also has considerable international coaching experience. He served as head coach of the Jamaican National Swim Team for the 1994 World Games in Rome, Italy. He also coached the same team at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Columbia that same year. In the spring of 1997 he was a member of the Venezuelan coaching staff for the FINA Short Course World Championships at Gothenburg, Sweden.

Many of his athletes have gone on to success at the Olympic level. He had a total of 10 athletes represent their respective countries in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Ga. and the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

Prior to arriving at Clemson, Ip coached at Indian River Community College in Fort Pierce, Fla. for 13 seasons. Incredibly, the Swarthmore, Penn. native won the national championship in both men's and women's competition all 13 years he served as head coach at Indian River Community College, presently the most for any coach in NJCAA history.

Ip has been honored as the National Coach of the Year at the junior college level for men's swimming 10 times, including seven years in a row between 1992-98. He has been named the women's National Coach of the Year four times and was named the National Coach of the Year in both the men's and women's swimming programs in 1998 and 2002.

Before his career at Indian River, Ip served as the Head Men's and Women's Swimming Coach at the University of Delaware. He led the men's program to conference championships in each of his last two years (1988 and 1989). The Delaware women's program won the East Coast Conference title in 1989. Overall, his swimmers combined to win 42 individual East Coast Conference championship titles in his five years leading the program. Twelve of his swimmers were USS Senior National qualifiers.

Ip began his college coaching career as the men's assistant coach at East Stroudsburg State in 1978, followed by two years as the assistant women's coach at Springfield College before heading to Brown University in Rhode Island. The women's program won the Ivy League Championship in 1984, his only season with the program.

In terms of administration, Ip has served two terms as NJCAA Swim Coaches Association President, and served in the Florida Swimming Association. He held the rank of assistant professor for 10 years.

He was named a Distinguished All-America swimmer twice. Ip earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from East Stroudsburg State in 1978 and a Master of Science degree in exercise physiology from Springfield College in 1984. Ip is married to Dr. Loreto Jackson who is the Director of Student-Athlete Performance at Clemson. They reside in Clemson with their two yellow labs, River and Newt.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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