One on One with New Swimming & Diving Head Coach Jeff Poppell
Jeff Poppell is excited to make a difference for South Carolina swimming and diving. Poppell was named South Carolina’s head men’s and women’s swimming and diving coach earlier this month after spending the last three years as the head coach of the women’s team at the University of Florida. As gets his feet wet with his new team, he looks forward to building something in and out of the pool for the Gamecocks.
“It’s going to be the moments and the experiences with the student-athletes,” Poppell said about what he’s looking forward to the most. “Competing is competing, and the meets are always fun in the SEC. At the same time, it’s always going to be the memories and the experiences you share with your student-athletes that I always remember and cherish. So, being able to form those new relationships with these student-athletes the first time and being able to share those experiences is what I’m most looking forward to.
“I need to establish a relationship with the existing team. Over the coming weeks, that’s my primary goal; to get to know them on an individual basis. That relationship is going to be key to the existing team to help our program rise.”
Poppell has been coaching for nearly three decades, including 13 years in the SEC. He was the head women’s swimming and diving coach at Arkansas from 2006-2012 as well as an associate head coach of the combined men’s and women’s program at Florida from 2016-2018 before becoming the women’s head coach from 2018-2021. While at Florida, the Gators finished second in the SEC Championships all three years and finished 17th at the NCAA Championships in 2021 and boasting the most NCAA qualifiers of any team in the nation this season. Even with those successes, the opportunity to lead both of South Carolina’s programs was a great opportunity.
“To be able to help a program or school in general do things that they haven’t done before, that’s what motivates me.”
“When I came and visited a few weeks ago, I had only been to South Carolina one other time, and I only saw the pool. I was absolutely blown away when I came to campus and had the opportunity to walk around the Horseshoe, see the facilities, and meet with the administration here. I was blown away by the commitment to build something great with swimming and diving.
“The beauty just blew me away. For a recruit to step on this campus and to compare it to any other campus they’re looking around the southeast or the west coast, it’s hard not to be impressed with the setting. I saw 650 Lincoln, where the student-athletes live. I would put that up with any student housing situation across the country! It’s hard not to be impressed by that.
“Our (swimming) facility is a little bit older, but obviously there is a strong commitment here to improve those. Everything that we have here is adequate and necessary to build a program. We have a ten lane 50-meter facility. That’s a little unusual. A lot of other schools have eight lanes. It’s a solid offering to build a program.”
Poppell lettered for four years at Georgia, graduating in 1993, and qualified for the NCAA Championships twice, so he understands what it’s like to compete at this level.
“We compete in the best swimming and diving conference in the country. The biggest challenge initially in recruiting is just getting kids to come and take a look,” Poppell said. “Once they get the opportunity to see what I saw, it’s hard to not be impressed by it.
“Recruiting has changed a lot in the last five years. You look at a lot of different (recruiting) bases. The whole country is fair game. With the NCAA transfer portal, that’s another key tool for any coach in any sport. The third area is international.”
With a process in place to build the programs, Poppell looks forward to the challenges ahead and the work required to get the coaches and student-athletes where they want to be.
“I want to give back. I love to make an impact on individuals and help them go places and reach goals that maybe they didn’t think possible,” Poppell said. “At the same time, to be able to help a program or school in general do things that they haven’t done before, that’s what motivates me. I just want to be able to make a difference and make an impact. The relationship with a student-athlete is important to me. That’s always first and foremost; build the relationship and from there, with great communication, try to help them achieve everything they can and want to.
“I’ve had to do this before. You can control what you can control. We’re coming in, and with the student-athletes we already have in the program, we’re trying to help them develop and improve. As those levels improve, the level of our program should improve with that. The second thing that comes with building a program in year one is recruiting. We can recruit those athletes this year that will help us in year two.”
Poppell and his wife, Joanna, have two children, Jack, who attends New York University, and Jenna, who will be a freshman at South Carolina next fall.
