Nick Rodionoff
By Seth Rubinroit / Special to The Malibu Times
For nearly half a century, Pepperdine University’s women’s swimming and diving coach Nick Rodionoff has helped athletes reach their fullest potential in the pool. As a result, Rodionoff has been inducted into the United States Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame, named the Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference Coach (PCSC) of the Year twice and won the prestigious Fred A. Clady Memorial Coaches Diving Award.
Most importantly, Rodionoff has earned the love and respect of his athletes. “I decided to go to Pepperdine because of Nick and Carrie [Rodionoff],” sophomore Madison Krall said. “They have been wonderful.”
You have coached at Pepperdine for the last 10 years. How has the program changed in the last decade?
The program has improved every year. In the PCSC, we have placed in the top three for six out of the last nine years. The main progress we have made is building a reputation that has drawn student-athletes from all over the country to come to Pepperdine, turning down full scholarships from other schools to be able to attend school and compete here.
Your wife, Carrie, is the team’s administrative assistant. What is it like to work so closely with your wife?
Carrie and I met at Rita Curtis Swim School in the San Fernando Valley. I was coaching, she was teaching swimming. She started coaching with me then and has continued to coach and work with me ever since. I do not know how to turn on a computer. For many reasons, I would be lost without her.
In 1987, you helped establish the Pepperdine women’s swimming and diving team. How did you feel when Pepperdine announced they were discontinuing the team due to the economic crisis?
I was stunned. I had been given absolutely no warning, and the announcement was totally unexpected.
Since then, enough outside assistance was obtained to give the women’s swimming and diving program one last season. However, before then, Pepperdine officials did not tell the girls that the season would be canceled until the Friday before Spring Break, leaving the girls little time to try to transfer. How do you feel Pepperdine handled the situation?
I think it could have been handled very differently. I am grateful that Pepperdine later decided to give the girls a final season, allowing them to adequately explore all of their options.
What are your goals for the upcoming season?
My total concern is for the welfare of the student-athletes who have come, and are coming, to Pepperdine. I am investigating every possibility for them to continue their careers. Many of them had planned to come to Pepperdine for years. My goal is to serve them, individually and as a team, as they make decisions about their future.
What do you plan to do after the team’s final season?
I would like to keep coaching. I am keeping my options open.
You are the only coach in the country to have coached national champions in both swimming and diving. How did you develop your expertise in each of these sports?
I had great training from Dr. Carl Tribe at Occidental College. The basic principles of human movement and physical training are similar for all sports. I participated in both of those sports, and was able to apply the principles to myself, and then throughout the years to my various athletes.
For 33 years, you were the head coach for the boys’ and girls’ swimming and diving teams at Birmingham High School in the San Fernando Valley. Since then, the Birmingham pool was named in your honor, and you were inducted into the Birmingham High School Hall of Fame and the National High School Hall of Fame. How was it different coaching high school and college students?
It is just a different starting point. At the high school level, I was basically starting from the ground up, having to develop the athlete, whereas at the university level, the athletes are, for the most part, already very accomplished athletes. At Pepperdine, the challenge comes in the discipline and balance to continue to achieve and improve both in the pool and in the classroom. The competition for both is intense.
What advice do you have for aspiring swimmers and divers?
“Do not do it if you do not like it.” Swimming and diving, when done from true self-motivation, can become a way of life. Many former student-athletes are still training and competing. The joy and discipline are part of their lives, part of who they are and part of the success that they achieve in life.
You are also a renowned photographer and artist who specializes in images of Malibu. What inspires you to do this?
It is just a great change of pace. There is no stress involved, and it helps me to appreciate the wonderful place in which we live.