Nick Rodionoff, longtime head coach of Pepperdine University’s swim and dive team, this week was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Birmingham High School in the San Fernando Valley, where he taught for many years. The high school also named its pool after Rodionoff in 1999.
His 36-year coaching career at Pepperdine, however, will soon end due to the university’s recent decision to eliminate its women’s swim and dive program after next year.
Rodionoff, the only coach in the county to have coached National Championships in both swimming and diving, has also been inducted into the U.S. Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame in Florida and to the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame (the fifth coach in all sports to ever be named from California).
At the start of his coaching career, Rodionoff won 10 Los Angeles City Swimming Championships, 36 League Championships and coached more than 36 high school All Americans.
He coached the UCLA diving team from 1964 to 1974, before becoming head coach of Pepperdine’s men’s diving team that same year and leading them to win 11 Conference Championships. Rodionoff then started the Pepperdine women’s diving team in 1987, which remained undefeated until 1991. In 2000, he also became head coach of Pepperdine women’s swim team, which since has broken 11 of 20 school records and has set more than 75 out of a possible 100 records.
Rodionoff, an Olympic diving coach candidate, is also the recipient of myriad awards honoring his coaching ability, including the 2002 and 2009 Pacific Collegiate Conference Championship Coach of the Year Award and the Fred A. Cady Memorial Coaches Diving Award.