| Title: | Head Coach |
| Organization: | CMS |
| Phone: | 909-607-9338 |
| Email: | charles.griffiths@cms.claremont.edu |
| Year: | 12th |
| College: | Denison University |
| Overall Record: | 68-28, .708 |
| SCIAC Record: | 66-9, .880 |
Coach Charlie Griffiths is in his twelfth season. In eleven
years at the helm of the team, Coach Griffiths has established CMS
as one of the premier small-college programs in the Western United
States. SCIAC results include 107 SCIAC individual titles, 86 SCIAC
records broken, 63 SCIAC relay titles, 60 SCIAC meet records set,
43 SCIAC Athlete-of-the-Week Awards, 15 SCIAC team titles, 7 SCIAC
Swimmer-of-the-Year Awards and a 139-11 SCIAC dual meet record.
NCAA results include 39 swimmers earning 96 All-American or
Honorable Mention All-American citations, 9 NCAA Top 15 team
finishes and 5 NCAA individual titles. Overall results include a
155-48 dual meet record, varsity records set 129 times in 29 events
and ASCA Awards for Excellence 10 years. He is ASCA Level V
(highest possible rating) certified.
Coach Griffiths came to CMS from Denison University, where he
served as assistant coach. During his three-year tenure, the school
claimed its first NCAA Division III team title (2001 women), and
snagged four additional runner-up trophies between the men's and
women's teams. He worked with swimmers who produced 81 All-American
performances, 21 national championship swims, 10 NCAA meet records,
and 3 NCAA Swimmer-of-the-Year awards.
Prior to entering collegiate coaching, Griffiths was head swim
coach and assistant aquatic director at the Oshkosh, Wisconsin
YMCA. Under Griffiths the team won its first Wisconsin YMCA State
Senior Meet championship. Additionally, the Oshkosh masters swim
team he coached produced a bevy of USMS All-American awards,
including a USMS national champion and record holder.
As a swimmer at Denison University, Griffiths was one of the most
improved athletes in program history. Among other awards and
honors, he served as team captain his senior year and gathered
seven All-NCAC citations and NCAA cuts in the 100 fly in 1994 and
1995.
A native of Janesville, Wisconsin, Griffiths got his coaching
start as an assistant with his former age group team, the J-Hawk
Aquatic Club. He is also a coaching veteran at the Skip Kenney
Stanford International Swim Camp and the Ohio State Swim Camp.
Griffiths served as Deck Operations Crew Chief for the 2004 U.S.
Olympic Swimming Trials in Long Beach, CA. He is head coach and
director of the US Sports Camps/Nike Swim Camp at Claremont McKenna
College.
In addition to his coaching duties, Griffiths is an Associate
Professor of Physical Education at CMS. In 2009, Coach
Griffiths won the Glen R. Huntoon Award for Superior Teaching at
Claremont McKenna College and was the first athletic department
member to win the award since its inception in 1974.
Griffiths is the chair of the SCIAC swimming coaches committee and
is the NCAA D-III men's representative to the board of directors of
the College Swimming Coaches Association.
Griffiths, his wife, Katherine, and daughter, Charlotte, reside in
Claremont.
