Bridgeport, Conn.– University of Bridgeport Interim Director of Athletics Anthony Vitti announced today that Sean Raffile has joined the Department of Athletics staff as the head coach of the Purple Knights’ men’s and women’s swimming programs. Raffile comes to the University of Bridgeport from Pace University in Pleasantville, New York where he has served as the Setters’ head men’s and women’s swimming coach for the for the past three seasons. While at Pace, he coached 10 Northeast-10 Conference champions including the league’s 2014 Women’s Swimmer of the Year.
Said Vitti, “We are delighted to have Coach Raffile join the UB Athletics family. He brings a great deal of knowledge and experience to our swimming programs, and I think all of his quality attributes will help to keep us at a high level of excellence both on the conference and national levels.”
Prior to his time at Pace, Sean served as assistant swimming coach at the United States Merchant Marine Academy from September 2009 through September 2011. Before his stint at USMMA, Raffile garnered Division I head coaching experience at Western Illinois University (2008-2009) and Wagner College (2005-2008).
At Western Illinois in 2009, he was named The Summit League’s Women’s Coach of the Year, as he guided the Westerwinds to a second-place finish at the conference championship.
In three seasons as head coach at Wagner College, his teams posted nearly a .600 winning percentage in dual meets. Before coaching at Wagner College, Raffile served as a volunteer assistant swimming coach at the University of Georgia during the 2004-05 season under Jack Bauerle, the head coach for the 2008 USA Olympic women’s team.
Prior to Georgia, he had assistant coaching experience at West Chester University (Pa.) and the Germantown Academy Aquatic Club. Sean had the good fortune of coaching with legendary head coach Richard Shoulberg, an assistant coach for the 1988, 1992 and 2000 USA Olympic women’s teams.
Raffile started his coaching career as an Age Group Coach with the SONOCO Swim Club. As a student-athlete at Southern Connecticut State University, he was a six-time NCAA All-American, an Academic All-American, and completed a bachelor’s of science degree in exercise science in 2003. He is currently finishing a master’s degree in kinesiology from Georgia.
He is an active member of the American Swim Coaches Association and the College Swim Coaches Association of America plus the National Strength and Conditioning Association. He is also a certified strength and conditioning specialist, first aid certified and a certified pool operator.
This is an unedited press release courtesy of Bridgeport Swimming and Diving.
Needless to say, I am excited about this new adventure. I realize that there will be critics along the way. I am very fortunate that I have inherited a strong team but the prospect of actually getting to land a couple of those great recruits and grow the program with outstanding resources was a big draw for me to the position. Remember, its difficult to get athletes to that DI/DII NCAA level without those thoroughbred racers and you don’t get them without proper financial resources. There is no debate, Brad Flood knows how to get kids to swim fast and I commend him on where he took this start-up program. I am pretty confident the UB program will continue to… Read more »
Don’t know the old coach, or the new coach, I’m just a guy who’s been at the DII Championships the past 7 years and was always impressed with the way this school’s swimmers performed, individually and as a whole. They’ve consistently been one of the few teams, both women & men, that seemed to consistently outperform their seed times, not a common occurance at this meet.
The point of my post was directed towards the university, not the new coach. I’m just surprised a university that was 5th (Men) & 8th (Women)…had to go back & check…at the 2014 meet could not attract a coach with at least some experience coaching swimmers to, and at, the NCAA Championships. Nothing more,… Read more »
Congrats to U/B and Coach Raffile. Sean has the intelligence and moral fiber to move this team in even a greater direction.
Looks like Bridgeport decided to select a coach with morals and ethics. They have made upgrade on all levels professionally on deck and off deck. Smartest move Bridgeport made removing the old coach and getting an immediate upgrade.
From reading this article it seems the new coach has never even qualified a swimmer for the NCAA Championships at his numerous other positions.
This just doesn’t make sense why a university that has always placed near the top of the team placings at NCAA Championships, in both teams/genders, would hire someone to take over, that has no experience training, qualifying & placing swimmers at the NCAA Championships? This school has had numerous NCAA Champions in recent years, I would have thought a coach with experience consistent with those accomplishments would have been hired?
Hope it works out for them, they were always a fun team to watch at the NCAA meet.