Head Coach Frank Keefe
Frank.Keefe@yale.edu

The memories of Yale’s storied swimming past have come back thanks to the efforts of Frank Keefe.  In the 90s, the Yale women have an 84-17 dual-meet record and five Ivy League championships, while the men have gone 88-26 under Keefe's guidance and have captured one EISL championship.

The director of aquatics at Yale for the last 19 years, Keefe led the men’s and women’s programs to respective 10-1 and 5-4 records last year.  Keefe’s overall record at Yale is 292-153 (.656).

 

Keefe, the 1990 and 1992 EISL Coach of the Year, has been involved with the U.S. program for the last 20 years, including the 1984 and 1988 Olympics.  One of the most respected figures in American swimming, he was an assistant U.S. coach in 1984.  He served as the head manager at the 1986 World Championships and the 1988 Olympics.

Keefe, a 1960 graduate of Villanova, took over the Yale men in 1978-79 and the women in 1980-81.  He had already served as U.S. head coach at the 1975 and 1979 Pan American Games, and assistant coach at the 1978 World Championships.

In 1977, Keefe was the head coach of an American team that faced East Germany and the Soviet Union in celebrated international meets.  He has taken American teams to competitions in Japan, West Germany, France, the Netherlands and several other foreign countries.

Keefe, a member of the Villanova and state of Pennsylvania Halls of Fame, coached nine Olympic swimmers before coming to Yale. His proteges included gold medalist Carl Robie and silver medalist Tim McKee.  A native of East Haven, Conn., Keefe also was enshrined in its Hall of Fame.

Keefe and his wife, Kathleen, have four children.


 
Assistant Coach Tim Wise
Timothy.Wise@yale.edu

Wise also is back for his second year after serving as the head coach at Southern Connecticut for the last two years.  He also has been an assistant coach at Texas A&M and Arizona State.  A Wethersfield, Conn., native, Wise is a 1993 graduate of Southern Connecticut where he was a New England Championship finalist three years in a row and set numerous school records.  Wise also has been active in U.S. Swimming, serving as an assistant coach for the Omni Swim Club and the Hamden-North Haven, Conn., Swim Club.

 
Assistant Coach Pam Armold
Pamela.Armold@yale.edu

Pam Armold is in her second year as assistant coach to the men's and women's swim teams after serving as head coach of the Cornell women's program for two years.  She served as an assistant for both the men's and women's team since June 1988, and was named women's head coach when the program restructered in 1996.  Before joining the Cornell staff, Armold was the women's swimming coach at Humboldt State University from 1980-1988.  Armold is a 1977 graduate of the University of Vermont with a BS in physical education.  She earned a masters degree from Ithaca College in 1980.


 

Diving Coach Jim Pyrch

Pyrch, an All-America diver at Southern Connecticut State (1972-76), joined the Yale staff as diving coach in 1982.  Prior to arriving in New Haven, he served as an assistant at Northern Iowa and head coach at Fairfield.  Pyrch also coached the U.S. Diving team at competitions in Lipsig, East Germany, the Soviet Union and China in the summer of 1990.  In 1991, he served as head diving coach for the U.S. at the World Age Group Championships in Sweden.  He also was a coach at the 1993 Olympic Festival.  Presently, he is the head coach of J.P. Divers, where outstanding students Eilleen Richitelli and Grant Girstmachear are under his tutelage.