UW-La Crosse Narrows List of Finalists

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse has named four finalists to be interviewed for the vacant head coaching position of the women’s and men’s swimming & diving program, according to the campus search and screen committee.

The four finalists are Ann Jopke, head swimming coach at George C. Marshall High School in Falls Church, Virginia; Charles King, assistant women’s and men’s swimming & diving coach at the University of Utah; Mark Morehouse, head boys’ swimming & diving coach and assistant girls’ swimming & diving coach at Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins, Colorado; and Eric Wojta, swim team coach at the La Crosse (Wis.) Family YMCA and teacher at Onalaska High School.

Jopke has served as the head swimming coach at George C. Marshall High School in Falls Church, Virginia, since November 2010.  During her tenure, she has led the boys’ team to a third-place finish at the Virginia Liberty District Championships and a 10th place finish at the AAA Virginia State Championship, where the team sent nine qualifiers.  Jopke currently teaches physical education at Hollin Meadows Elementary School in Alexandria, Virginia, a position she has held since August 2010.  She has also worked with the Curl Burke Swim Club (Alexandria, Va.) since 2006 and was the head swimming coach of the Northern Virginia Swim League (Fairfax, Va.) from 2006-08 and again in 2011.

Jopke earned her bachelor’s (2004) and master’s (2010) degrees from UW-L.  As a swimmer, she was a member of three Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) championship teams for the Eagles, and she later served as an assistant swimming coach at UW-L from 2008-10.  She was a graduate assistant in UW-L’s Exercise Sport Science Department from 2008-10 and a physical education teacher at Groveton Elementary School (Alexandria, Va.) from 2005-08.

King has been the assistant swimming & diving coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Utah since 2008.  He has also been Utah’s Director of Camps and co-teaches Coaching Swimming.  With King as their assistant coach, nine Utah student-athletes have set school records, four student-athletes have achieved a USA Olympic Trials Standard, one earned a Swiss Olympic Trial Standard and one a Canadian Olympic Trial Standard. 

He worked at the U.S. Olympic Training Camp in Palo Alto, California in 2004 and 2008 and was the assistant director of the Stanford Swim Camp from 2002-08.  King was the head women’s and men’s swimming coach at Millikin University (Decatur, Ill.) in 2007-08 and the graduate assistant swimming coach at St. Cloud State University (St. Cloud, Minn.) in 2005-07.  He was the head women’s swimming coach at Augsburg College (Minneapolis, Minn.) in 2003-05.

Earning his undergraduate (2000) and master’s (2007) degrees from St. Cloud State University, King was co-head coach of the Monticello (Minn.) Swim Club from 1999-2004.  He was the assistant swimming coach at Monticello (Minn.) High School in 2000-03 and the head swimming coach at Apollo High School (St. Cloud, Minn.) in 1998-2000.

Morehouse has been the head boys’ swimming & diving coach at Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins, Colorado, since 2008.  His team finished second at the 2009 Colorado 4A State Championships and won the 2010 and 2011 conference meet.  Morehouse was named the 2009 4A Colorado Coach of the Year and Northern Conference Coach of the Year as well as being selected the 2010 Denver Post 4A Coach of the Year.  He has coached one state champion, three National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association (NISCA) All-Americas and nine Academic All-Americas.

Along with serving as the head boys’ swimming & diving coach at Fossil Ridge, Morehouse has been the assistant girls’ swimming & diving coach since 2010.  The team won the 2011 and 2012 conference title and 2012 state championship.  He coached one relay and three individual state champions in 2012.  The team also had six NISCA All-Americas and 15 Academic All-Americas.  Morehouse is a science teacher at Fossil Ridge, a position he has held since 2008.

He earned his bachelor’s (1998) and master’s (2007) degrees from UW-L and was a member of the Eagles’ swimming & diving squad.  Morehouse was a graduate assistant coach at UW-L from 2006-07.  He was the head swimming & diving coach and science teacher at Northridge High School (Greeley, Colo.) from 2000-06 and 2007-08.  Morehouse was the co-head coach and team president of the Greeley (Colo.) Swim Club in 2005-06; head swimming coach at International Sport Specialists in Ogden, Utah, in 2002-04; and aquatics director at Bishops Bay Country Club in Middleton, Wisconsin, in 1996-98.
   
Wojta has been the coach of senior group of the La Crosse (Wis.) Family YMCA swim team for 18 years, serving from 1994-2000 and since 2001.  He has coached over 40 YMCA state champions, multiple YMCA, Junior and Senior national qualifiers as well as one Olympic Trials finalists.  Several swimmers from the program have competed at the NCAA Division I, II and III levels.  Wojta was a graduate assistant swimming & diving coach at UW-L in 2000-01. 

He has been the lead coach/teacher in physical improvement at Onalaska (Wis.) High School since 1998, where he has also taught mathematics since 1995.  He served as an assistant coach at the University of Georgia Bauerle Bulldog Swim Camp from 2007-09 and at the University of Michigan Wolverine Swim Camp in 1995.

Wojta earned his bachelor’s (1994) and master’s (2009) degrees from UW-L, and competed for the Eagles while an undergraduate.  He was the head girls’ track coach at Onalaska H.S. from 2003-05.

Jopke will be on campus Thursday, April 4; Morehouse Wednesday, April 11; Wojta Thursday, April 12; and King Tuesday, April 17.