SJSU Director of Athletics, Jeff Konya, announced Wednesday that women’s swimming and diving coach Sage Hopkins has received a four-year extension. This news comes a week after the university settled a retaliation lawsuit with Hopkins.
Hopkins is currently in his 16th season coaching at SJSU and the new contract will run through the 2025-2026 season.
He expressed his gratitude to Konya and Interim President Stephen Perez for the contract extension.
“The resources that have been recently directed to our program will help establish Spartan swimming and diving as an international destination for student-athletes who are pursuing a world-class education while achieving unbounded levels of athletic success,” Hopkins stated in a press release.
In 2009, Hopkins came forward with sexual harassment claims by female swimmers against former sports medicine director Scott Shaw, who was accused of inappropriate touching. The claims were reviewed in 2010, and the university found Shaw not guilty. Despite the university not taking action, Hopkins re-reported the allegations with a near-300 page document that was submitted in 2019. In 2021, Shaw was found responsible for his abuses more than a decade later.
Hopkins is the first head coach in SJSU history to win more than 100 dual meets, and currently holds a school-record 111 victories. In 2012 and 2013, Hopkins was named Western Athletic Conference (WAC) coach of the year as he led the Spartans to back-to-back conference titles. Also building success in the classroom, the Spartans have received College Swimming Coaches Association of America Scholar All-America awards for 17 consecutive semesters.
The Spartans will compete at the Mountain West Championships in College Station, Texas from February 16-19. When this meet last took place in 2020, SJSU finished 9th out of 10 teams.
Sage is the best!