Bio

Charlie Griffiths is in his 23rd season as the Head Coach of the CMS Swimming and Diving program in 2023-24. In 22 years at the helm of the team, Griffiths has established CMS as one of the premier small-college programs in the Western United States.

SCIAC results include:
29 SCIAC team championships
356 SCIAC individual and relay titles
157 SCIAC records broken
15 SCIAC Swimmer/Diver-of-the-Year Awards
292-16 SCIAC dual meet record

NCAA results include:
115 swimmers/divers earning over 250 CSCAA All-America awards
28 NCAA top 25 finishes
10 NCAA top 10 finishes
Varsity records set 268 times
347-98 dual meet record
7 NCAA D-III Champions in 9 events

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 twice earned the team’s Most Improved Award. He served as team captain his senior year and gathered seven All-NCAC citations and NCAA cuts in the 100 yard butterfly 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 Stanford 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 won the SCIAC’s initial “Men’s Coach of the Year” award in 2015, as well as 2023 and was “Women’s Coach of the Year” in both 2017 and 2020.

Griffiths chaired the SCIAC swimming coaches committee for nine years and served for five years as the NCAA D-III men’s representative to the board of directors of the College Swimming Coaches Association. He is ASCA Level V (highest possible rating) certified.

Griffiths, his wife, Katherine, and daughter, Charlotte, reside in Claremont.