James Koval enters his second season as Head Coach of the Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving programs. His first season with Chatham saw success for the Cougars, with the men’s program matching their highest ever finish at PACs in fifth overall, and junior diver Ali Cowan becoming the first Cougar to win an individual PAC diving championship since Emily Hinson in 2017.
Koval joined the Cougars from close by, after serving as the assistant swim coach at Carnegie Mellon University from 2021-23. During his time with the Tartans, CMU swimmers and divers combined to set 27 new school records, and the men's and women's teams both placed in the top 15 nationally in the same season for the first time in school history in 2023. Koval's roles at CMU included assisting on-deck and with recruiting, curating social media accounts, teaching a P.E. swimming course to CMU students, and organizing fundraising programs for the team.
Prior to his time at Carnegie Mellon, Koval worked for five years at various clubs and high schools in western Pennsylvania, including Seneca Valley Swim Club, the Uniontown Area YMCA, and Laurel Highlands High School, where he helped the Lady Mustangs to a third-place finish at WPIALs in 2020.
Koval attended West Virginia University, his father's alma mater, and competed for four years as a long-distance freestyler. He was named Big 12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2018, and still ranks top-five in WVU school history in the 1000 and 1650 freestyle. Koval graduated from WVU with a bachelors' degree in chemical engineering in 2018, and with a masters' degree in the same in 2020 before deciding to pursue a career in coaching.
Koval is originally from Mount Pleasant, SC, where he began his swimming career in his youth, and also had his first taste of coaching with the local summer swim league. He now lives in Pittsburgh with his girlfriend Victoria and their dog, Sprout.
