Sergio Lopez to Step Down as Head Coach at Legendary Bolles Program

Bolles Coach Sergio Lopez-Miro, who has been the head coach of the impressive club/high school combo program since 2007, has informed his team that he will be stepping down from that role to assume a position as the head coach of the Singapore National Team, multiple sources have confirmed to SwimSwam today. His swimmers were told after lunch, with a parents meeting in the evening to share with the rest of the team.

“It’s a little heartbreaking,” Lopez said of leaving Bolles. “I feel like I’ve grown as a person and as a coach at Bolles, and it was a great place for both me and my family.”

Lopez will now become one of four coaches at the Singapore Sports Institution that will advise coaches across all sports. That means Lopez will be impacting multiple sports outside of swimming, though his expertise in aquatics will still be a major asset to the national staff.

He emphasized the importance of his children’s education in his family’s decision – Lopez has two children just heading into their high school years, and made sure they would have strong educational opportunities in Singapore before deciding to take the job.

Representing Spain at the 1988 Summer Olympic Games, Lopez won an individual bronze medal in the 200 breaststroke as an athlete. Since then, he has become one of the world’s most successful coaches at developing talent, which includes producing two of the fastest High School swimmers in history last year: sprinter Caeleb Dressel and butterflier Joseph Schooling. Another former swimmer of his, Ryan Murphy, won two backstroke NCAA Championships in his freshman season at Cal.

Schooling is the Lopez’s connection to Singapore, as he is a Singapore native. This summer, Schooling, who is now a freshman at the University of Texas, earned a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in the 100 fly and was the Asian Champion in the same.

That success earned Schooling $370,000 in reward money from his national federation, before taxes, showing that there is plenty of money to be made in the Singapore federation for successful coaches and athletes. Lopez was also coaching former Olympic finalist Tao Li at Bolles until recently when she returned to Singapore to continue training.

Lopez has developed a wide range of talents; in addition to the individual successes listed above, the Bolles School’s high school team has won 27-straight boys State Championships and 24-straight girls State Championships in Florida’s Class 1A. His teams hold 5 out of the 11 independent school National High School Records in yards, all from the Lopez era. Lopez was also won the Swammy for both the 2012 Club and High School Coach of the Year.

Lopez has been the rumored favorite in Singapore to take over this position after British coach Ian Turner stepped down in August due to health concerns. The Singapore Swimming Association has called a meeting for Friday and invited all national swimmers and all 34 clubs, where they are expected to make the same announcement.

Now there will be a scramble to find his replacement at Bolles: a position so coveted, that seven years ago it led Lopez away from a role as the head coach at West Virginia.

No succession plan has been in place (Bolles is currently without a headmaster as well), but Lopez told parents that he was hoping to stay through December 31st.

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FL FL FL
9 years ago

Has anyone heard if Bolles is going to search for a Coach, or keep it in house? I know there are plenty of top coaches who would JUMP at this amazing opportunity.

Rumor is….they are all over Florida!

coach
9 years ago

Congratulations Sergio! It is unfortunate that there have to be so many negative remarks in an article that should allow people to show their appreciation for all that Sergio has done for the sport.

You are an amazing person and coach, and we hope to have you back on the US deck at some point in your career!

JONI NEIDIGH
9 years ago

Congratulations to Sergio & his family on this amazing opportunity! I believe this was an anticipated loss with the question of when and where NOT because of salary, an issue with the school, or a lack of respect and love for the Bolles family, but a desire to seek further challenge and offer rare opportunities for his family. He has served us well and our children, coaches and parents are better for having known him. With the convenience of technology I have no doubt he would continue to counsel those who reach out. Thanks to his leadership he leaves Bolles with the most excellent staff. In fact, that staff has proven to step up many times when his presence was… Read more »

aswimfan
9 years ago

This is such an excellent opportunity for coach Lopez.
Obviously the singaporeans will pay truckloads of money to coach Lopez, but the living in SG is great and awesome (although I cannot force myself to live there LOL). You have first class city with all first class accommodations, health, transportation, recreational, sports, entertainment and art facilities that you can think of.

Also, anytime you and your family are bored with the Disney-like sanitized Singapore (the main reason I can’t live in SG), you can easily travel to all those amazing destinations within 2-3 hours flight from Singapore, and very cheaply too.

And coach, if you like scuba dive, there is no other place on earth to scuba dive than… Read more »

ice
Reply to  aswimfan
9 years ago

Cleaning up medals will be difficult especially on the womens’ side with the likes of Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Vien Anh around and the retirement of Singapore’s Lynette Lim. But we are on home ground!

Brandi
9 years ago

Wow! Mom was right when she said “ignore the comments.” People really do just make things up! It annoys me that people supposedly close to Bolles like “Mr. Bombay” and “Parent” choose to publicly bash our school while hiding behind a fake name. Surely, you are no friend of ours. As the mom of a “lifer” at Bolles (pre-K through 12) who holds multiple Bulldog swimming school records, I’m grateful to our coaches (past and present) and for the opportunities my daughter has thanks to Sergio AND our fine school. Although our family will miss the Lopez family, we wish them well on their new adventure and we are confident that if Jon gets the opportunity he deserves (or whoever… Read more »

Mr.Bombay
Reply to  Brandi
9 years ago

Can i call you?

Brandi
Reply to  Mr.Bombay
9 years ago

Yes! You’re, mainly, the anonymous poster I was referring to!

Mr. Bombay
Reply to  Brandi
9 years ago

Brandi schmidt calm down girl! Whats your number madam

Brandi
Reply to  Mr. Bombay
9 years ago

Mr. Bombay, I’m sure with all of your connections to Bolles, you can easily get my number. Of course, there’s always whitepages.com. Looking forward to finding out who you are!

SUCKMYBANANA
9 years ago

Coach Sergio is such a legend at Bolles, and I can’t believe he’s leaving. It brings tears to my eyes. Good luck Sergio!!!

SwimmerParent
9 years ago

Having known Coach Sergio for years, I can say that it’s not the money that attracted him the most, but rather the opportunity that the new position offers him and his family.

For better or for worse, whatever the Bolles administration could have done and should have done was try to retain world renowned talents like Coach Sergio. There is no excuse for Bolles, for Florida, or for the US for that matter, for losing not only a superb swim coach, but also an inspirational life coach for our kids and ourselves as parents or friends.

As sad as we are at the moment, we wish the Lopez family the best in Singapore! As Coach Sergio stated at… Read more »

Christian Bahr
9 years ago

Congratulations to Sergio and to Jon! Two great people to work with and learn from.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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