Courtesy: LIU Athletics
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Jon Pepaj has joined the LIU men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams as their new head coach.
Pepaj arrives from St. Francis Brooklyn, where he served as an assistant coach for six years.
He previously swam for the Terriers as an undergraduate before joining the staff.
As a swimmer, Pepaj captained his team for all four of his collegiate seasons. He won the Coach’s Award in 2014 and was selected team MVP in 2015.
The Tirane, Albania, native started swimming at age 10. He began to take competitive swimming seriously at 14. He represented Albania in two World Championships (Manchester 2008 and Rome 2009) and one European Championship (Istanbul 2009).
In his time on the St. Francis Brooklyn staff, Pepaj planned workouts, practices, and meets while also being a primary cog in recruiting international and national swimmers. From 2016 through this year, the Terries men’s swimming team racked up six top-three finishes in the NEC Championships.
In 2015, Pepaj starting working for Imagine Swimming, New York City’s top learn-to-swim school.
He worked as Imagine Swimming’s director of competitive development, where he trained staff and teachers and ran the schedules for pool facilities.
In 2016 he also became the head coach for Imagine’s club team, the Manhattan Makos. Papaj oversaw the team’s entire competitive program, hired and supervised the coaching staff and coached a team of 130 swimmers.
Congrats Jon!