Jonathan Kaplan named assistant men’s and women’s swimming coach.

Aug. 18, 2005

CLEMSON, SC–Jonathan Kaplan was named an assistant men’s and women’s swimming coach as announced by Clemson’s Head Swimming and Diving Coach Chris Ip Thursday afternoon.

Kaplan comes to Clemson from Gainesville, FL, where he was the Head Coach of the North Central Florida YMCA. He also was a graduate assistant swimming coach at Florida State University for the past two years while earning his master’s degree in sports administration.

He has also served as the assistant senior swimming coach for the Area Tallahassee Aquatic Club and was the head swimming coach at Lawton Chiles High School in Tallahassee FL. He was also the Head Swimming Coach for the Venezuelan Open Water Swimming Team.

Kaplan graduated from Florida State in April 2002. He was a member of the Seminole Swimming team from 1998-2002 and served as the team captain his senior season.

“We are extremely excited to bring Jonathan Kaplan on-board to complete our coaching staff, said Clemson Head Swimming and Diving Coach Chris Ip.

“Jonathan brings a wealth of aquatic knowledge to the Tiger program from both the collegiate and club levels. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to observe his growth and development as an athlete into a solid educator. He has the ability to work with large programs but give athletes that special individual attention, and his meticulous eye for details ensures an efficient program. As the Head Coach of North Central Florida YMCA he embraces a holistic coaching style that compliments our program’s philosophy of challenging the mind-body-spirit to develop peak performance of our student athletes.

“Jonathan received both his undergraduate and masters degrees in sport administration/business from Florida State University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude, was a multiple-time ACC Academic Honor Roll member, and a Florida State University Golden Torch Award Winner. His accomplishments academically are closely aligned with the Tiger program’s academic goals. Jonathan has both competed and coached in the ACC and knows the type of student/athletes that we need to attract who can handle the academic and athletic challenges of our conference. With his administrative background one of Jonathan’s responsibilities will be to spearhead our program as the recruiting coordinator.

“Coach Kaplan’s experience has allowed him to work with athletes at the US national, NCAA, and Olympic level of excellence. He has had great international success working with distance athletes so it will be an easy transition for him to begin his coaching responsibilities with our nationally ranked distance freestyle group and 400IM’ers.”