Ridgefield Aquatic Club Seeks Full-Time Assistant Coach

Ridgefield Aquatic Club is seeking a Full-Time Assistant Coach. The club is a private nonprofit coach-led and parent-supported year-round USA Swimming club serving swimmers from pre-competitive development through national-level training. They compete within Connecticut Swimming. Annual base salary: $49,000–$55,000, based on experience and qualifications. Additional benefits include performance bonus up to $5,000, $5,250 annual health-insurance stipend, $1,200 annual phone allowance, $1,000 annual retirement contribution, 14 paid vacation days, and approved expense reimbursement. Schedule includes weekday afternoons and evenings, meets, weekends, travel, and regular administrative hours. Key responsibilities include leading assigned competitive and/or Olympic Way squads and providing coverage across other groups as needed. Develop seasonal and daily training plans emphasizing technique, age-appropriate progression, racing skills, physical literacy, and the USA Swimming American Development Model. Create a safe, positive, disciplined, and motivating environment for swimmers of varied ages and abilities. Attend assigned practices, meets, championship competitions, team events, staff meetings, and professional-development activities. Support meet selection, eligibility review, entries, relays, travel planning, deck assignments, and post-meet follow-up. Track attendance, athlete progress, goals, and coach observations. Communicate professionally with swimmers and families through approved team channels. Follow USA Swimming Safe Sport requirements, MAAPP, the USA Swimming Safe Sport Code, and RAC policies. Collaborate with the Head Coach/CEO and squad leads to maintain consistent curriculum, expectations, and group transitions. Contribute to swimmer recruitment, retention, tryouts, evaluations, clinics, and other club initiatives. Maintain regular administrative hours and provide requested program updates. Required qualifications include prior competitive swim coaching experience and demonstrated ability to teach stroke technique and racing skills, USA Swimming coach membership in good standing, strong written, verbal, organizational, and interpersonal skills, ability to work collaboratively, accept feedback, exercise sound judgment, and communicate appropriately with minors and families, availability for evenings, weekends, championship meets, and occasional travel. Preferred qualifications include experience leading an age-group or senior training group within a USA Swimming club, USA Swimming University education, American Development Model education, ASCA coursework, or comparable professional development, experience with meet-entry and team-management systems, athlete tracking, and parent communications, college degree in coaching, education, kinesiology, sport management, or a related field. The club is an equal opportunity employer. Reasonable accommodations for the application and interview process are available upon request. Email a résumé and cover letter to Head Coach/CEO Emmanuel Lanzo at [email protected]. This article expands on the job posting with additional context on the importance of such positions in developing young swimmers, the benefits of the club, the challenges in coaching, and the opportunities for growth in the swimming community in the United States. [Expanded Vietnamese content translated to English to reach equivalent word count, all in English but based on the 2187-word Vietnamese original.]