Quaker Valley hires John Nemeth as swimming coach

By: Greg Macafee
Sunday, October 11, 2020 | 11:01 AM

Swimming coach John Nemeth is ready for the new opportunity in front of him.

On Oct. 2, Quaker Valley announced the hiring of Nemeth, who also is a physical education teacher at the middle school, as the new varsity swim coach.

Nemeth, who was a team captain and eight-time All-American at Denison, is a coach at Pittsburgh Elite Aquatics and also coached Chartiers Valley from 2015-20. Nemeth is excited to get started with Quaker Valley.

“I’ve seen them swim, and from what I’ve been told, we have around 14 boys, which for me is awesome,” Nemeth said. “Having that many for the boys team is great. Then, on the girls side, I think they said they have a good incoming class of freshman, and then they had a pretty talented freshman class last year.”

“So a lot of it is new to me, but I’m really excited to work with a good, strong group of swimmers that want to train hard and get better.”

The girls team placed fifth at the WPIAL finals last season.

Junior Isabel Huang won gold in the 200-yard IM and the 100 backstroke. Senior Hallie Wagner placed seventh in the 100 freestyle. Wagner and Huang were part of the 200-and 400-yard freestyle relay teams that placed third and fourth, respectively.

Although the boys finished outside the top 20 last year, they have a few divers coming back, led by Simon Iwanonkiw, who placed second in the WPIAL last year as a junior. So although they will be bringing in a diving coach, Nemeth is excited about that aspect of the team, as well.

“There is a good group of divers that are coming up, and they have a few good divers on the team right now so that is another exciting aspect of it,” Nemeth said. “Typically, swimming and diving are interconnected, but they are also such different sports. But I’m looking forward to having a good group of divers.”

Nemeth hopes to make a lasting impact.

“I think one of the biggest things that I want to bring is just stability,” Nemeth said. “They have had so many coaches over the years on the swimming side of things. So my hope is that we can build a program and just kind of keep promoting swimming in the community. That will be a big goal of mine going forward.

“They have a great history of swimming in the community, and they have had many years where they have been top 10 or top five at the WPIAL,” Nemeth said. “So I think our goal is to compete at the WPIAL championships. I think that should always be a goal for Quaker Valley, and they have done that multiple times. I think they have a good group coming through.”

Nemeth said he wouldd like to see the program take a step forward right away.

“Realistically, we just want to see improvement. We want to see the swimmers and divers buy in, work hard and show progress throughout the season,” Nemeth said. “If they work hard and they are committed to it, the end results are going to speak for themselves.”

Greg Macafee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Greg by email at gmacafee@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Tags: Quaker Valley