Jack Bauerle (born February 7, 1952) is the former head coach of the University of Georgia (UGA) men's and women's swimming teams. At the end of his coaching career, Bauerle finished his 42nd year as a head coach for the UGA women's team and his 35th year as men's head coach. Bauerle began coaching the women's team in 1979 and later became head coach for the men's team as well in 1983. He has three children, John, Magill, and Duke, who have followed in Jack's footsteps.
Swim career
Bauerle began swimming in the Philadelphia area at the Germantown YMCA, the Manor Lu Swim Club, and the Philadelphia Aquatic Club. As a senior in 1970, he was a co-captain of the La Salle College High School team and also swam on four teams that won the Philadelphia Catholic League Championships. In 2010 Bauerle was inducted into the La Salle College High School Alumni Hall of Fame.
As a varsity swimmer at UGA from 1971–72 to 1974–75, Bauerle swam for head coach Pete Scholle and set UGA records in the 200-yard butterfly, 1,000- and 1,650-yard freestyle events, and served as the team captain of the 1973–74 and 1974–75 squads.
Career accomplishments
2020 Summer Olympics
Bauerle was one of the coaches for the 2020 US Olympic Swim Team leading up to and at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, which were held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Georgia Bulldogs contingent consisting of seven swimmers, Javier Acevedo, Hali Flickinger, Natalie Hinds, Chase Kalisz, Jay Litherland, Allison Schmitt, and Olivia Smoliga, representing two different countries, United States and Canada, for which Bauerle served as the head coach, was the largest group of NCAA swimmers from a single college or university in the United States to compete at the 2020 Olympic Games. His swimmers, that is, past and present swimmers he coached as Bulldogs, won five Olympic medals in just one day of competition, including Chase Kalisz who won not only the first Olympic medal in swimming, a gold medal, but the first Olympic medal in any sport at the 2020 Olympic Games for the United States. Bauerle's achievements as a coach and the accomplishments of his swimmers at the year's Olympic Games earned him a nomination from the USA Swimming Foundation for their 2021 Golden Goggle Award for "Coach of the Year".
Before 2021
As of the end of the 2013–2014 season, Bauerle's teams have won six NCAA Women's national championships, and eleven SEC Women's championships and have finished second nationally seven times and in the top five 22 times. As of the end of the 2012–2013 season, he has coached 152 All-American women swimmers (including 690 First-Team and 375 Honorable Mention certificates), 92 All-American men swimmers (including 126 First-Team and 387 Honorable Mention certificates), and three Olympic gold medalists. In 2000 he was an Olympic swim coach; in 2003 and 2005, he was head coach for the Women's USA World Championship Team. Bauerle has been named NCAA coach of the year five times and SEC coach of the year 12 times. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Georgia in 1975.
On September 8, 2006, USA Swimming announced that Bauerle would be the head coach of the United States women's swimming team at the 2008 Summer Olympics. “Jack Bauerle is the consummate team coach. What he has done at the University of Georgia represents the pinnacle of team swimming, which is what the U.S. Olympic Team is all about. He brings a fun approach to the sport, and that will be key to producing Olympic success for our women's team.”
USA Swimming's Mark Schubert used those words when he announced that Bauerle had been chosen as the head coach of the United States women's swimming team for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. For Bauerle, who has done it all at the collegiate level, the Olympic appointment became the crowning moment of his career.
Bauerle worked tirelessly on behalf of Team USA for months, and the hard work paid off in Beijing. Under Bauerle's watch, the United States women earned a total of 14 medals (two golds, seven silvers, five bronze), the most of any nation. Two of his pupils, ex-Lady Bulldog Kara Lynn Joyce and 2008-09 freshman Allison Schmitt, were included in the medals haul as Joyce won two silvers and Schmitt secured a bronze. Bauerle's handiwork was on display as 12 athletes and coaches from his Georgia program joined him in Beijing.