University of Rochester Athletics

Peter Thompson begins his eighth year at the helm of the University of Rochester Swimming & Diving program. During the past seven years he has led the Yellowjackets to an impressive array of accomplishments. These include:

-9 combined Liberty League Championships.
-2 coaching staff of the year awards.
-62 school records in 40 events.
-41 provisional NCAA qualifiers.
-16 CSCAA Honorable Mention Academic All-Americans.
-2 CoSIDA At-Large Academic All-Americans.
-1 All-American Honorable Mention.
-87 UAA All-Academic honorees.

Both teams have enjoyed numerous weeks on the CSCAA top 25 nationally ranked teams, with the women ranked as high as 13th in  2012, and the men 18th. In addition, his women’s teams have been ranked every year by the CSCAA for team GPA, including four times in the top 10 nationally. His men’s team has garnered 5 Academic All-American honors. Included in this group are five Garnish Scholars, one Phi Beta Kappa and three Iota Book Award recipients. Combined the men’s and women’s swimmers have exceeded their personal best times over 1800 times, and now account for close to 60% of Rochester’s all time top ten swimming performances.

Prior to his appointment at Rochester, Thompson spent three years reviving Division I Niagara University’s swimming & diving program. Under his direction both teams combined to set 17 new school records, and claim three individual MAAC titles. During that time Niagara tripled its won-lost record and accounted for their first winning MAAC season in seven years. Both teams were consistently recognized by the CSCAA  for academic excellence, with the men’s team receiving such recognition for the first time in a decade.

For eighteen years Thompson coached in the Philadelphia area at the club, scholastic and collegiate levels. During that time he worked under a two-time US Olympic coach (where Olympian Brendan Hansen was developing), personally coached and developed RSA Olympian Eugene Botes (1995-1999), led 11 teams to league championships, and mentored numerous Junior and Senior National qualifiers, All-Americans, and PA State champions and record holders. Pete was named Suburban Philadelphia Coach of the Year in both 1995 and 1997. He is an ASCA Level IV swimming coach, and has authored a comprehensive technique, training and sport psychology manual for swimmers that he updates yearly.

Pete earned his undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Richmond, and his Masters degree in Counseling and Human Relations from Villanova University. He is a PA State certified School Counselor with ten years of experience, a trainer of trainers in conflict resolution and mediation, and was certified in clinical/sport hypnosis by the Milton Erickson Institute of Philadelphia in 2003. He has taught both graduate (Counselor Education) and undergraduate (Sport Psychology) courses at four universities, has co-authored two K-12 Developmental Guidance curricula, and presented at conferences and in-services to coaches, K-12 educators, and fortune 500 companies throughout his career.  Pete is currently working on his doctorate in Human Development and Motivation at Rochester’s Margaret Warner School of Education.