University of Nevada - Reno Women's Swimming

Harper as the head coach of the women's swimming and diving team, athletics director Doug Knuth announced on Tuesday. A highly regarded coach in collegiate swimming, Harper was the head men's and women's coach for 14 seasons at Florida State, where he posted a .807 winning percentage with the women and won three ACC Coach of the Year honors. Harper, a two-time Olympian and seven-time All-American, arrives in Nevada after most recently serving as the program director and head coach of the Aiken Augusta Swim League in Augusta, Ga. Harper directed and coached the entire program -- which consisted of 270 swimmers, 16 coaches and three sites -- for the past two years. In the last 12 months, 10 of his swimmers qualified for USA Swimming Junior Nationals. "We are fortunate to have coach Harper join the Wolf Pack family," Knuth said. "His experience and success at all levels of the sport will enhance our program and put the team in a position to compete for conference championships. His coaching success is matched by the quality of his character, and both are impressive.  The future is bright for Wolf Pack swimming and diving." Harper boasts 22 years of collegiate coaching experience and has been massively successful in the Division I ranks. He boasts a combined .777 winning percentage and 174 career wins in 16 years as a women's head coach. Harper guided both men's and women's programs at Florida State from 1999-2013 after beginning his head coaching career at Ohio State from 1997-99. "I wanted to wait for the right opportunity before choosing to coach college athletes again," Harper said. "Nevada is the whole package, with a top-tier ranking of the University and with so many nationally ranked academic programs. Nevada has a beautiful campus and an athletics department that is committed to providing all of its teams with the essentials to challenge for the conference championship and build a nationally recognized and ranked program. Doug and the entire administration are excited, supportive and positive about the future of the women's swimming and diving team." Harper will be inheriting a Wolf Pack team that posted an 8-2 dual record and placed third at the 2015 Mountain West Championships. Nevada will return 13 letterwinners for the 2015-16 season, including MW Swimmer of the Year Yawen Li and MW Diver of the Year Krysta Palmer. "I am excited to meet the team and partner with legendary diving coach Jian Li You to see what we can achieve this year," Harper said. "There is a great group of returning upperclassmen who I know are ready to take this program to the next level. Recruiting will be fun and it is essential to find the right student-athletes who are looking for a challenging education on a beautiful campus while maximizing their opportunity of being part of a program on the rise nationally." The former Olympian has coached 168 student-athletes -- both individual and relay swimmers - to NCAA All-American honors in his coaching career. In his massively successful stint with the Seminoles, Harper's student-athletes tallied 175 All-ACC selections and 98 individual and relay conference titles. Harper also has extensive international coaching accolades. He coached five of his swimmers at the 2004 Olympics in Greece, as well as the World Championships in Spain and Japan, and the Commonwealth Games. He also coached the South African Olympic team in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.     "Nevada is the whole package, with a top-tier ranking of the University and with so many nationally ranked academic programs." Neil Harper, Wolf Pack swimming and diving coach Harper's coaching experience stems from being one of the top swimmers in LSU history. Harper was a four-time SEC champion and seven-time All-American with the Tigers. As the team captain, he led LSU to an SEC championship in 1988 before placing sixth at the NCAA Championships, the highest finish in school history. Harper still has four times that rank in the top 10 in LSU's record books. Harper, a native of London, represented Great Britain in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. He was a finalist in the 400 medley relay in both Olympic Games in which he participated. His collegiate coaching career began with his alma mater, LSU, where he served as an assistant coach with the men's and women's teams from 1991-94. In that span, he helped Tiger swimmers tally 21 NCAA All-American honors and seven SEC titles. Harper then moved on to Florida State, where he held the same title from 1994 to 1997. Harper's head coaching career began with Ohio State in 1997, where he spent two seasons as the Buckeyes head women's coach. Harper posted a 15-12 record in Columbus and helped qualify six student-athletes to the NCAA Championships. His teams at Ohio State also excelled academically, as the team earned NCAA All-Academic selections while posting 20 academic All-Big Ten honors. Harper returned to Tallahassee in 1999, where he would go on to spend the next 14 seasons as the Seminoles head men's and women's swimming coach. Harper posted a 159-38 (.807) record with the women's team and a 112-45 (.713) with the men's team. His winning percentage and total wins with the Seminole women rank first in program history by a wide margin. Harper earned ACC Coach of the Year honors in 2004, 2006 and 2007. The Florida State women reached double-digit win totals in nine seasons under Harper, including a program record 17-3 campaign in 2008. In the classroom, his women's team earned NCAA All-Academic Team Honors seven consecutive years with an overall team GPA above 3.2 from 2007--13. Harper and his wife, Paige, who was also an All-American and SEC champion swimmer at LSU, have two daughters, Katherine and Kelly. Wolf Pack Women's Swimming Home     Email this article   Printer-friendly format Neil Harper is the new head coach of the Wolf Pack swimming and diving program July 14, 2015 RENO, Nev. -- The University of Nevada has hired Neil Harper as the head coach of the women's swimming and diving team, athletics director Doug Knuth announced on Tuesday. A highly regarded coach in collegiate swimming, Harper was the head men's and women's coach for 14 seasons at Florida State, where he posted a .807 winning percentage with the women and won three ACC Coach of the Year honors. Harper, a two-time Olympian and seven-time All-American, arrives in Nevada after most recently serving as the program director and head coach of the Aiken Augusta Swim League in Augusta, Ga. Harper directed and coached the entire program -- which consisted of 270 swimmers, 16 coaches and three sites -- for the past two years. In the last 12 months, 10 of his swimmers qualified for USA Swimming Junior Nationals. "We are fortunate to have coach Harper join the Wolf Pack family," Knuth said. "His experience and success at all levels of the sport will enhance our program and put the team in a position to compete for conference championships. His coaching success is matched by the quality of his character, and both are impressive.  The future is bright for Wolf Pack swimming and diving." Harper boasts 22 years of collegiate coaching experience and has been massively successful in the Division I ranks. He boasts a combined .777 winning percentage and 174 career wins in 16 years as a women's head coach. Harper guided both men's and women's programs at Florida State from 1999-2013 after beginning his head coaching career at Ohio State from 1997-99. "I wanted to wait for the right opportunity before choosing to coach college athletes again," Harper said. "Nevada is the whole package, with a top-tier ranking of the University and with so many nationally ranked academic programs. Nevada has a beautiful campus and an athletics department that is committed to providing all of its teams with the essentials to challenge for the conference championship and build a nationally recognized and ranked program. Doug and the entire administration are excited, supportive and positive about the future of the women's swimming and diving team." Harper will be inheriting a Wolf Pack team that posted an 8-2 dual record and placed third at the 2015 Mountain West Championships. Nevada will return 13 letterwinners for the 2015-16 season, including MW Swimmer of the Year and MW Diver of the Year . "I am excited to meet the team and partner with legendary diving coach to see what we can achieve this year," Harper said. "There is a great group of returning upperclassmen who I know are ready to take this program to the next level. Recruiting will be fun and it is essential to find the right student-athletes who are looking for a challenging education on a beautiful campus while maximizing their opportunity of being part of a program on the rise nationally." The former Olympian has coached 168 student-athletes -- both individual and relay swimmers - to NCAA All-American honors in his coaching career. In his massively successful stint with the Seminoles, Harper's student-athletes tallied 175 All-ACC selections and 98 individual and relay conference titles. Harper also has extensive international coaching accolades. He coached five of his swimmers at the 2004 Olympics in Greece, as well as the World Championships in Spain and Japan, and the Commonwealth Games. He also coached the South African Olympic team in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Harper's coaching experience stems from being one of the top swimmers in LSU history. Harper was a four-time SEC champion and seven-time All-American with the Tigers. As the team captain, he led LSU to an SEC championship in 1988 before placing sixth at the NCAA Championships, the highest finish in school history. Harper still has four times that rank in the top 10 in LSU's record books. Harper, a native of London, represented Great Britain in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. He was a finalist in the 400 medley relay in both Olympic Games in which he participated. His collegiate coaching career began with his alma mater, LSU, where he served as an assistant coach with the men's and women's teams from 1991-94. In that span, he helped Tiger swimmers tally 21 NCAA All-American honors and seven SEC titles. Harper then moved on to Florida State, where he held the same title from 1994 to 1997. Harper's head coaching career began with Ohio State in 1997, where he spent two seasons as the Buckeyes head women's coach. Harper posted a 15-12 record in Columbus and helped qualify six student-athletes to the NCAA Championships. His teams at Ohio State also excelled academically, as the team earned NCAA All-Academic selections while posting 20 academic All-Big Ten honors. Harper returned to Tallahassee in 1999, where he would go on to spend the next 14 seasons as the Seminoles head men's and women's swimming coach. Harper posted a 159-38 (.807) record with the women's team and a 112-45 (.713) with the men's team. His winning percentage and total wins with the Seminole women rank first in program history by a wide margin. Harper earned ACC Coach of the Year honors in 2004, 2006 and 2007. The Florida State women reached double-digit win totals in nine seasons under Harper, including a program record 17-3 campaign in 2008. In the classroom, his women's team earned NCAA All-Academic Team Honors seven consecutive years with an overall team GPA above 3.2 from 2007--13. Harper and his wife, Paige, who was also an All-American and SEC champion swimmer at LSU, have two daughters, Katherine and Kelly. "Nevada is the whole package, with a top-tier ranking of the University and with so many nationally ranked academic programs." Neil Harper, Wolf Pack swimming and diving coach

Li You has established Nevada as one of the premier diving schools in the region. Li You has collected five conference diving coach of the year awards in her tenure in Nevada; three with the WAC (2001, 2004, 2012) and two in the Mountain West (2013, 2014). Li You has coached a conference diver of the year in three straight seasons while being named diving coach of the year consecutively. In the 2014 season, Li You coached senior Grace Huang to MW Diver of the Year as Huang earned her second conference diver of the year award. Huang won the 1-meter and platform events and placed runner-up in 3-meter en route to earning the conference's diver of the year accolade. Additionally, junior Krysta Palmer placed third in the 1-meter and 3-meter events as Nevada secured more diving points than any other team. Under Li You's guidance, Huang, Palmer and Stephanie Hansen earned all-conference accolades. Nevada sent four divers to the NCAA Zone E Diving Regional. Huang advanced and went on to earn honorable mention All-America honors at the 2014 NCAA Championships in Minneapolis, Minn., placing 16th in 3-meter, 17th in platform and 21st in 1-meter. Li You coached junior Stephanie Hansen to Mountain West Diver of the Year honors during the 2013 season. Hansen won the 1-meter and platform events while placing second in the 3-meter to secure her title as best diver in the MW. Additionally, Hansen and Huang were named to the MW All-Conference team. Huang qualified to the Zone E Diving Regional, finishing just outside the top-nine despite amassing 495.35 points. In 2012, Li You was named WAC Diving Coach of the Year for the third time after putting together the most formidable lineup in the conference. Sophomore Grace Huang was named WAC Diver of the Year after winning all three diving events. Additionally, Stephanie Hansen placed runner-up on platform. Huang, Hansen and Melyssa Chariton advanced to the Zone E Diving Regionals. The Wolf Pack and Li You had two divers advance to regionals in 2011 while Pack divers claimed three of the top five spots in platform at the WAC Championships. Li You earned the WAC Diving Coach of the Year Award in 2001 and again in 2004. She has coached three WAC Divers of the Year; Christie Bulmer in 2001, Kate Oiness in 2002 and Huang in 2012. In 2004, she coached Kristin Littell to the WAC platform title. In 2006, she helped guide Devon Owen to an appearance in the NCAA Championships where she placed in the top 35 in the 1 and 3-meter events. In 2008, Li You helped senior Candice Minette placed second in the 1-meter at the 2008 NCAA Zone E Championships which earned her a trip to the NCAA Championships where she placed in the top 40 in the 1 and 3-meter events. During her tenure, Li You has worked with both Chinese and American Olympians in multiple Olympics. She tutored the likes of Olympic Gold Medalist Fu Mingxia, Tan Luengdai, Su Suwi, Lon Wei and Americans Becky Ruehl, Mary Ellen Clark, Scott Donie and Dave Pichler. Her divers have been instrumental in the Wolf Pack winning three consecutive Western Athletic Conference titles. She immigrated to the United States in September of 1995, moving to Florida and then to Cincinnati to prepare Becky Ruehl and other U.S. National team members for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. Li You graduated from the Shanghai Sports University in Shanghai, China. As a diver, she was the Chinese National Champion on the one-meter, three-meter and platform for five years between 1976-1980. All that culminated when Li You was named to the 1980 Olympic team. During that span, she was ranked No. 1 in the world on the one-meter board. Li You and her husband David Lawrence have one child, Raymond. Wolf Pack Women's Swimming Home     Email this article   Printer-friendly format Position: Diving Coach