NCAA Champion Emma Durham (Emma Sticklen), will join the Pepperdine coaching staff for the upcoming season as an assistant coach. Durham most recently spent the last season with the UPenn women.
“I am incredibly excited and honored to be joining Pepperdine University as assistant coach,” said Durham. “The tight-knit community and Christian values at the heart of the university make it a truly special place. Coach Dan and I have a shared vision for this program, and the opportunity to make a real impact both in and out of the pool is what excites me most!”
Durham spent this past season with the UPenn women, helping coach the team to a 2nd place finish at the 2026 Ivy League Championships. That was their highest in program history. The team sent two swimmers to the 2026 NCAA Championships as Sydney Bergstrom scored five points and Anna Moehn one point to help the team finish t-37th overall.
Originally from Katy, Texas, Durham spent her collegiate career with the Texas women. She was a 23-time All-American during her time with the Longhorns and was highlighted three NCAA titles as she went back to back to back in the 200 butterfly. She graduated from Texas in 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology and Exercise Science and spent her fifth year with the program, earning a master’s degree in Communication and Media Studies in 2025.
Durham will make the move from Pennsylvania to California and join the Pepperdine women that finished 6th out of 10 teams at the 2026 MPSF Championships. The team set 13 school records this past season.
She joins the staff led by Dan Marella who was elevated to head coach in March after serving as interim head coach since December 2025.
Emma is a student of the sport, and we need people like her in it. She did a great job at Penn last year.
A GREAT place to Coach. So happy for Emma and the Waves.
I wonder if Pepperdine has housing available for coaches and teachers bc I cannot imagine renting in Malibu is affordable…
Her husband is working in PE, I think they are chilling
high school or middle school PE?
Private Equity aloha ok!
I can’t get over the fact that all of our commenters think that every house in California is the $14 million mansions that they sell on reality television. And yet…40 million people live in California.
Her husband’s office is near LAX, so I imagine they’ll live somewhere in between. Santa Monica or Brentwood or somewhere…lots and lots of nice apartments for $2000-$3,000 a month. For two adults working full time jobs, one in D1 NCAA athletics the other in PE, and with wages scaling in California (they don’t pay you the same amount of money to live in College Station as they do to live in Los Angeles), $3000 a month on rent is well within a normal budget.
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They gonna hate on this one too? They hated last year
I was thinking the same thing.
Care to elaborate?
People hated her getting hired at Penn because she had “no experience”
Pepperdine has no idea how lethal their coaching staff just became. Forget the waves, we’re lookin at a tsunami.