Courtesy: Mercersburg Academy
Mercersburg Academy Director of Athletics Lauren Jacobs has announced that Head Swim Coach Glenn Neufeld will be shifting roles to director of competitive swimming while continuing as assistant director of college counseling for the 2024-2025 school year, after which he will be pursuing opportunities to be closer to his family in New Jersey. Concurrently, Mercersburg will be seeking to hire a new head coach to work with Neufeld and the program for that year and to continue as director after his departure in 2025.
Neufeld has served as the head coach at Mercersburg since 2014. Over the past decade, Mercersburg has reemerged as a powerhouse at the Eastern Interscholastic Swimming and Diving Championships and in prep school swimming. Since his arrival, Mercersburg has consistently placed in the Top 5 at Easterns, winning the girls championship in 2016, the boys title in 2022, and the combined team championship in 2023. This season, Mercersburg placed 2nd in a close team race with Germantown Academy, as the two schools have traded places at the top of the podium since the resumption of Easterns in 2021 following the pandemic.
While at Mercersburg, Neufeld has coached athletes to a multitude of school records, as well as Easterns individual and relay championships. Outside of the school championships, numerous Mercersburg athletes have represented their national teams from countries including the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Mexico, and Bulgaria. The most prominent of that group is Deniel Nankov ’23, the Bulgarian national record holder in the 50- and 100-meter freestyles. Mercersburg swimmers have gone on to compete across all levels of college swimming, with swimmers currently or recently at schools in the Big 10, ACC, Ivy and Patriot leagues, Army, Navy, and Air Force academies, NESCAC schools, and traditional Division III powerhouses.
“Having Coach Neufeld in place to work with a new head coach of swimming presents a remarkable opportunity for our current and future student-athletes,” said Jacobs. “It’s a tangible representation of Mercersburg’s historic and ongoing commitment to the sport of swimming. With Glenn staying for a transition year, everyone knows how committed we are to him as well as to our swimmers and the long-term success of the program.”
Prior to his arrival at Mercersburg, Neufeld was the director of competitive aquatics at the Upper Main Line YMCA in Berwyn, PA, where he won three National Coach of the Year and Coach of the Meet awards and placed numerous athletes on U.S. National teams, including Amy Field, Mark Knepley, Ian Clark, Evan Reed, and 2003 Pan American Games champion Corrie Clark. Other stops in his career include the University of Alabama and The Peddie School.
Mercersburg is currently screening applications for the head swim coach position. According to the job posting, the school prefers an ASCA Level 4 (or equivalent) or higher coach to take over the legendary program—one that began in 1908 and has 24 all-time swimming Olympians among its alumni, including gold medalists Betsy Mitchell ’83, who serves as the athletic director at Caltech, and SwimSwam founder Mel Stewart ’88. The program trains and competes in the state-of-the-art Lloyd Aquatic Center, a 10-lane 50-meter facility for swimming and diving with two bulkheads and space for 1,200 on deck and in the stands.
Mercersburg Academy is a private boarding school in Mercersburg, PA, with 447 students in grades 9-12 from 28 states and 44 countries. The school is one of the United States’ most historic secondary institutions, having opened its doors in 1893.
This would be a great opportunity. Best of luck in the search process.
Dave Salo