Justin Ries
Staff Writer
The swim and dive teams have a new coach. Andrew Brabson, formerly coach at Caltech, was named to the position in June.
Brabson got into swimming at a young age. He also did other sports. Although both of his parents swam collegiately, they wanted to expose him to multiple sports growing up.
“I did everything from basketball, baseball, soccer, swimming, cross country… (I) definitely wanted to pursue college sports,” Brabson said.
Regarding swimming, however, “I think you can see a direct correlation between the work you put in and what you put in at the end, (in competition),” Brabson said.
Brabson said that in swimming, no matter how much work you put in, you may not get the result you want in the end.
When Brabson saw this head coach position opening at La Verne, he said he jumped at it.
He knew he wanted to build a successful program here and he was aware of the University’s other athletics successes.
Before starting at La Verne, Brabson spent eight years as head swim coach at Caltech. While there, his athletes broke 129 records, earned five NCAA All-American honors and claimed five individual Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships.
He was named 2022 SCIAC Men’s Coach of the Year and received the 2025 Associated Students of the California Institute of Technology Staff Appreciation Award while at Caltech.
Before Caltech, Brabson was the head coach at Oberlin College in Ohio for five seasons, where he was named the 2015 NCAC Women’s Coach of the Year.
His career with collegiate swimming began when he swam at Denison University, where he was a two-time NCAA Division III Honorable Mention All-American and team captain.
Having experienced different schools with different priorities has created many challenges when coaching. While at Caltech, Brabson had to balance his swimmers’ school schedule and practice schedule to make sure they had time for both.
“He seems to be a very, very intelligent individual; he has a very clear plan of what practices are going to look like, what the season is going to look like in every single measure,” Gabriel Graceffa, senior biology major and swimmer, said.
Brabson’s experience with both swimming and coaching in Division III has helped form a connection with his swimmers.
Before even being hired on as a head coach at the University of La Verne, many of La Verne’s swimmers had already interacted with Brabson. They always enjoyed talking to him when facing Caltech.
“He was always one of the more personable coaches that we got to interact with,” Graceffa said.
During the first meeting with his players, Brabson laid out an outline of what he wants from his players besides winning. This plan includes getting better and setting the future for future teams.
“Very clear outline of getting better, in past years we haven’t been very competitive, but I think he sees that there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” Graceffa said.
“It seemed like he had a good idea of just what training-wise he wants us to do,” Sara Dawidian, senior creative writing major and swimmer, said.
Since Brabson was hired over the summer, he has just begun bonding with his players. One way that has helped Brabson create trust with his swimmers is swimming collegiately at Division III.
“Knowing that he kind of has the same experience as we do helps us trust him a lot more, and that he knows it is like what we are going through, he’s been there, done that,” Graceffa said.
“It is beneficial to have someone who has been in a space like that and to know, yes we are athletes, but we are also students,” Neve Dagdagan, senior business administration major and swimmer, said.
La Verne heads into the 2026 through 2027 season ready to compete and pave the way for the future of the team.
Justin Ries can be reached at justin.ries@laverne.edu.
Justin Ries is a junior journalism major with a concentration in broadcast journalism, and is a staff writer for the Campus Times.
