Head Swim Coach and Program Director

 

Coach Paul Murphy is a nationally recognized swim coach and sports executive whose 45plus year career has shaped athletes from neighborhood age group swimmers to NCAA National Champions and Olympians. A 100 breaststroke finalist at the University of Missouri–St. Louis and a two event All American at South Carolina State College (100 and 200 breaststroke), he brings elite competitive experience, exacting technical standards, and calm, inclusive leadership to every program he serves.

 

Murphy’s roots in St. Louis swimming run deep: he developed as an athlete with Hazelwood Swim Club and Sugar Creek Swim Club, and he was a standout multisport competitor—an avid baseball player and a recordsetting water polo goalie at Berkeley High School in Berkeley, Missouri. Those early experiences forged his competitive instincts and lifelong commitment to athlete development.

 

Among the few coaches holding both ASCA Senior Level 5 and ASCA Age Group Level 4 certifications, and a certified Masters Coach, Murphy has guided athletes to the sport’s highest honors. His swimmers include NCAA National Champions, U.S. American record holders, worldranked competitors, Para swimming record holders, USA National Team and National Junior Team members, NCSA medalists, and more than 70 athletes who qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials post high school. 

 

Murphy’s championship coaching résumé spans Olympic Trials, Nationals, Junior Nationals, Zones, Sectionals, and USA Swimming camps, and includes work with the USA Resident Team under Jonty Skinner in the mid1990s. He has coached at Lindenwood University and served as an assistant coach at Centre College and Augustana College (Illinois), and he has led programs as CEO, general manager, and administrator—building sustainable, athletecentered organizations and mentoring generations of coaches.

 

A founding member of the World Swimming Coaches Association and the International Swimming Coaches Association, and a current ambassador with the American Swimming Coaches Association, Murphy has also served on multiple boards advancing coach education and athlete advocacy. A former Rotary member who loves to travel, he is widely respected as an exceptional stroke technician, motivator, trainer, and strategist—combining technical precision, individualized progression, and inclusive culture to produce recordsetting athletes and lasting program excellence.

 

Murphy’s legacy is measured not only in medals and records but in the careers he has launched, the coaches he has mentored, and the communities he has strengthened through service, leadership, and an unwavering belief in the potential of every swimmer.