GRANVILLE, Ohio (December 7, 2021) – Denison's University Head Swimming Coach Gregg Parini and Head Diving Coach Russ Bertram have both been selected by the Collegiate Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) for its list of 100 greatest collegiate coaches.

The announcement was made as a part of the CSCAA's Centennial Celebration. Just over 500 coaches were nominated. A blue ribbon committee of 58 voters selected from 263 finalists, each focusing on a particular sport (swimming or diving) and Division. Founded in 1922, the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA), is the nation's first organization of college coaches. The mission of the CSCAA is to advance the sport of swimming and diving with coaches at the epicenter of leadership, advocacy, and professional development.

Coach Parini:
Now in his 35th season as the Head Swimming Coach at Denison, Gregg Parini has built one of the most successful programs in the history of Division III athletics, highlighted by six NCAA Division III national championships, 16 national runner-up finishes and a streak of 64 consecutive top-10 national finishes across both genders.

Parini has been named the NCAA Division III Men's Swimming Coach of the Year six times (1994, 1996, 2006, 2011, 2012, and 2016) and has been voted North Coast Athletic Conference Men's Coach of the Year 10 times. On the women's side, Parini has been named the Division III Women's Swimming Coach of the Year four times (1990, 1996, 1998, and 2001) and is also a nine-time NCAC Women's Coach of the Year. He has coached the national swimmer of the year on the men's side three times and has coached one national swimmer of the year on the women's side.

Before coming to Denison in 1987, Parini began his coaching career in 1984 as a volunteer assistant women's coach at Michigan State University where he earned his master's in counseling psychology. Since then, he has held coaching positions for the Upper Arlington Swim Club, Mount Union, and East Lansing High School.  He was also the National Coaching Advisor for the Isle of Mauritius.

Parini is currently a member of the College Swimming Coaches Association of America, the American Swimming Coaches Association, United States Swimming and the National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association.

Parini currently holds the rank of Professor in the Department of Health, Exercise and Sport Studies (HESS) at Denison, where he teaches classes in exercise physiology. In 2007, he was awarded the Charles A. Brickman Teaching Excellence Award, which is given annually to one Denison faculty member who has demonstrated a vibrant interest in the learning process, as well as an understanding of teaching as a continuously evolving art form. Parini was described by his colleagues as someone who embraces the teaching and mentoring of students, not just as a profession, but as a calling. In May of 2011, Parini was the recipient of the National Collegiate and Scholastic Trophy, which is the highest award given by the Collegiate Swimming Coaches Association of America. 

Coach Bertram:
Russ Bertram, meanwhile, is in his ninth year as the Head Diving Coach at Denison. He is a three-time NCAA Division III Men's Coach of the Year and is an eight-time NCAC Coach of the Year. He has coached three individuals to national championship performances.

Bertram won consecutive men's national coach of the year awards in 2014 and 2015 by sending 21 divers to the NCAA Regional competition over a three-year span. He was named national coach of the year for a third time in 2017, and he has now captured each of the last four NCAC Women's Diving Coach of the Year awards.

Bertram came to Denison with over 20-years of experience as a diving coach, judge, and administrator. Prior to Denison, Bertram spent seven years as the Aquatics Director at the University of Arizona. In 2010, he received the prestigious Phil Boggs Award from USA Diving for a lifetime commitment to the sport.

A deep-rooted member of the diving community, Bertram spent one year as the head men's and women's diving coach at Florida State University (1998-99) and was the head diving coach for the Mission Viejo Nadadores dive club from 1999-2002. While coaching in Mission Viejo, Bertram led the club to consecutive national team titles and 13 individual titles.

From 2002-05 Bertram was the national events director for United States Diving, Inc. based out of Indianapolis, Indiana. Prior to that, he served five months as the United States Olympic team administrator, where he handled logistical preparation and planning of U.S. Olympic athletes from the Olympic Trials through the conclusion of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

In addition to his coaching and administrative roles, Bertram is also an accomplished diving judge. In 2009 and again in 2010, he served as the head referee for the NCAA Division I National Championship. He was also a judge at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials.

Bertram got his start in coaching in 1989 at Ohio State when he served as a graduate assistant diving coach for a Buckeye team that included six Olympians and 10 U.S. National Champions.

Denison Men's Swimming & Diving:
Most recently doing so in 2019, the Denison men's swimming & diving team has won five NCAA Division III National Championships since 2011, and are currently riding a streak of 14 consecutive top-three team finishes at nationals. At the conference level, the Big Red have won 12 NCAC Championships and have enjoyed a streak of 11 consecutive NCAC titles from 2009-2019.

From 1988 through 2010, Denison's men had logged 20 top-five national team finishes, but the breakthrough occurred in 2011 when the Big Red shocked the swimming & diving world by snapping Kenyon College's 31-year streak of national championships, a streak that Parini helped start as a collegiate swimmer in 1979. Denison ended the streak by rallying from 36 points down on the final day to win by one point, marking the closest finish in the history of NCAA swimming, at any level.

Since 1996, 12 Denison male swimmers have gone on to win 35 individual event national championships and 16 relay national titles.

Denison Women's Swimming & Diving:
On the women's side, the Big Red have put together 12 consecutive top-four team finishes at nationals dating back to 2008, and have 28 individual event national champions and 22 relay national titles in program history.

In 2001, Denison women's swimming & diving captured the college's first-ever NCAA Division III national championship in Buffalo, New York, unseating the defending champion by 16 points.
 
Official CSCAA Release