Washington College

James Koval was announced as the head coach of the men's and women's swimming programs in May of 2025.

Before coming to Washington College, Koval served as head coach of the Chatham University men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs from 2023 to 2025, growing the rosters of both programs while increasing their overall competitiveness.  Koval’s time at Chatham produced five individual Presidents Athletic Conference champions, and he was named 2025 PAC Women’s Swim Coach of the Year after the Cougar women nearly doubled their conference championship points total from the year prior. 

Prior to Chatham, Koval served as the assistant swim coach at Carnegie Mellon University from 2021-23. During his time with the Tartans, CMU swimmers and divers combined to set 27 new school records, and 2023 was the first year in program history that both the Tartan men and women each placed in the top 15 at Nationals.  

Before his first collegiate coaching stint at Carnegie Mellon, Koval worked for five years at various clubs and high schools in western Pennsylvania, including Seneca Valley Swim Club, the Uniontown Area YMCA, and Laurel Highlands High School. 

Koval is originally from Charleston, South Carolina, where he began his swimming career in his youth and also had his first taste of coaching with the local summer swim league. He attended West Virginia University, where he specialized in long-distance freestyle, achieving an NCAA B cut in the 1650 freestyle in 2017.  As a senior in 2018, Koval was named the Big 12 Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year for men’s swimming and diving, and as of 2025, he still ranks among the top five performers in WVU school history in both the 1000 and 1650 freestyle. 

Koval graduated from WVU with a bachelors' degree in chemical engineering in 2018, and with a masters' degree in the same in 2020 before deciding to pursue a career in coaching.