Yuri Suguiyama Position: Assistant Coach Experience: First Year

Yuri Suguiyama, a leading club coach from the Washington, D.C. area who helped mentor Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky, was selected as assistant men's swimming coach at the University of California, it was announced Oct. 3 by head coach David Durden.

Suguiyama, coach of the Nation's Capital Swim Club out of Damascus, Maryland for the past six years, has become renowned around the country for his work with 15-year-old Olympic champion Ledecky, who won the 800-meter freestyle at both the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials and the London Games. In the past year, Ledecky has also broken the National Age Group record in the 400-meter free, as well as four National Age Group records in yards swimming.

Ledecky is not Suguiyama's only impressive swimmer. His swim group has broken 19 Potomac Valley Records, rank nationally at the top of 12 different events, and are on the top 100 lists all-time for 19 different events. Suguiyama was a member of the USA coaching staff for the 2012 Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Honolulu, Hawaii and was a nominee for the 2012 Coach of the Year Award by the American Swim Coaches Association as well.

"It's an honor to join the Cal men's swimming program with an opportunity to contribute to the championship culture Dave Durden has created in Berkeley," said Suguiyama. "I'm excited to begin working with the student-athletes and becoming a member of this great university and its local communities. I want to thank all the families and colleagues who have helped me in my career and made it a very rewarding six years in the D.C. area."

Besides coaching the Nation's Capital Swim Club, where Suguiyama was also a standout competitor, he competed collegiately at the University of North Carolina where he was a first-team NCAA All-American selection as a senior and was named All-ACC for three years. Suguiyama was selected as co-captain his senior year and completed his Tar Heel career holding the school records in the 1000 and 1650-yard freestyles. During his college career, Suguiyama, 30, was named second-team District Three At-Large Academic All-America by the College Sports Information Directors of America while earning degrees in both political science and economics in 2004.

"We approached this opportunity looking for ways to enhance and improve our program," said Durden, commenting on the hiring of Suguiyama to replace former associate head coach Greg Meehan, who was named head women's swimming coach at Stanford in late August." As we moved through the month of September, it became more and more evident that Yuri is the coach to help us do just that. I have watched Yuri's career over the last six years. His intellect, his organization, and the culture he promotes within his environment are the very aspects we value within our Cal swimming family. We happily welcome him to the pool deck, and I look forward to working side by side with such a great coach and great person."