Jeff Poppell Reviews

Love him or hate him, Jeff knows his stuff. It seems like a lot of these comments were left by people who were personally burned or wronged by him in one way or another. I do not think it is at all reflective of who he is as a coach or person. Jeff really does care about the swimmers that he coaches and simultaneously cares about the program as a whole. No D1 program can succeed with leniency so he obviously does not provide it in this one. He has made the program and culture extraordinarily better.

Any coaching change is hard, and the switch from the prior coaching staff to his was intense. Jeff cares immensely about the success of individual swimmers and the team as a whole, in and out of the pool. Watching him cheer, jump up and down, and stomp his feet during meets and practice is proof of that. He has high expectations for swimmers, and truly wants all of us to exceed them. His passion for the sport and the team bleeds into his coaching and relationships with the swimmers. I have never felt uncomfortable going to him with an issue, as I know it will be taken seriously and that we will be able to come to a solution together. He is a great coach. He has completely changed the team culture into something unrecognizable from when he first came here. It is an environment of support, sisterhood, and respect. I am so grateful that he chose to come to South Carolina.

Jeff Poppell is an absolute terror. Nearly ended my swimming career after only TWO MONTHS at South Carolina. This man is a dictator above a head coach. He only cares about himself and his ego. You are nothing more than a number on a scoreboard to this man. He creates a hostile, anxiety inducing environment that is impossible to succeed in. He refuses to listen to the needs of his athletes, he coaches one way and one way only. Forces all of his swimmers to go over hours to finish sets. He also has a tendency of pitting people against each other when it comes to travel meets, which arises tension within the team. I saw some of the mentally and physically strongest athletes I know quit due to his actions and immature attitude on the pool deck. In addition, this man absolutely loves drama. He has favorites on the team, and uses them to get information about other swimmers. He innapropriately spreads rumors about his own swimmers because he has nothing better to do. His drama spread throughout the coaching staff and managed to drive out his own hires within one season. The way Jeff Poppell treats his swimmers and coaches makes me sick to my stomach. Save yourself from a definite transfer, and STAY AWAY FROM THIS MAN.

In my knowing of Jeff, he may be the most delusional coach I have ever come across. After experiencing 1 year with Jeff as SC head swim and dive coach, I understand why he has no social media followers. Ask yourself when you ask your club coach about Poppell…. I am sure the response will be anything but positive rather to avoid the question of what is Poppell like? He brings nothing to the table but contributes and creates a low self esteem culture and does nothing to build an athletes confidence up. The last straw was accusing swimmers of going to compliance to report him for NCAA practice violations and he completely created this lie to cut girls, no one went to compliance, he created a false situation and used it against the team. He is the worst. Stay AWAY!!!!!

Jeff is knowledgeable about the technical aspects of swimming, but has many inadequacies on the social side of his job. Jeff’s coaching style consists of negative reinforcement with a never good enough attitude, which works for some swimmers but others may not fair well against criticism levied on themselves throughout practices and duel meets. Professionalism is present while on the recruiting trail, but it seems to disappear once swimmers actually join the team. He has shown over time that he is immature, likes to talk about swimmers in a negative way, and gossips. I do think the team will move in the right direction over time under Jeff’s lead but would not recommend the program due to the high stress environment that is created under Jeff Poppell’s lead.

Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of positive things to say about this Coach. Within just a year of swimming under him, it became blatantly obvious that his image and job title were far more important to him than the mental/physical health of his athletes. He is so confident in himself and his coaching ability that he fails to listen to his swimmers and accommodate for the needs of individual athletes. He only knows one style of coaching and is incapable of incorporating others. He consistently puts his athletes down and pits them against each other in an attempt to “better the team culture”. His actions on and off the pool deck consistently display his immaturity and pride. It has absolutely nothing to do with the mental or physical toughness of the swimmer. I saw some of the strongest athletes begin to hate the sport because of the way Coach Jeff decided to treat the team. He was hired to do one job and that was to be a good coach. He is anything but that.

It’s very simple. You are just a number to this man. I have never loved a school more than South Carolina and I quit to the lack of support that I got when I went to him for help. I think he has a lot of knowledge on the sport but he simply does not portray it in the right way. He has no real record that proves anything impressive at the college level. So I would say that there are better options out there then swimming under Jeff Poppell.

Those that are praising Jeff in these reviews are those whose athletic performances and abilities lived up to his expectations as well as provided him with information he wanted to know about fellow teammates. They play his game. This man loves drama, even at the expense of the student-athletes he is supposed to be guiding. Rather than develop the athletes he arrived to he did whatever he could to drive them to quit or transfer so he could use their spot or scholarship in the transfer portal. This attitude spread throughout his coaching staff, driving out his own hires. The cuts he made at the end of season also made no sense. There’s people still on the team who should have been cut if the reasons he cut people in the first place is true.

I believe Jeff will stop at almost nothing to achieve his goals and get the team where he wants it to be. He can be a little discourgaing in his ways of motivating because he caters to what motivates men even though it doesn't always work for the women. He can be a bit intense but he means well and wants his swimmers to reach his goals. Speaking from eperience, the best way to maintain a relationship with Jeff is to keep it on a professional basis only and leave all the comments he makes on the pool deck, don't carry it with you.

Honestly I don’t really understand some of these reviews. Is Jeff tough? Yes, absolutely. But he’s also incredibly understanding and kind. Most of the people who got cut or didn’t like him we’re not good for the team culture and didn’t really want to be there. All expected for a team with a new head coach and in a period of transition. It seems like some people have forgotten that Jeff’s job is to be a great coach which he does exceptionally well while also shaping the future and lives of his swimmers with care and compassion. Could ask of more from a coach.

A great coach but struggles to understand the best way to motivate females

I loved the sport before this man became my coach, and my only year swimming under him… I never hated it more. Creates an extremely intense, anxiety-inducing environment. Could not care less about you as a person. Only wants to win and will do whatever it takes. Couldn’t recommend less

Ended my swimming career 2 weeks after he started coaching. It wasn’t necessarily because of him, but when I decided to be done he did not care at all. If anything, he was happy to get scholarship money for a better swimmer. He isn’t the worst, but isn’t the best. He definitely picked favorites from what I saw

Jeff is the quintessential coattail rider. THE ONLY REASON this guy is a D1 coach is because he suckled from Greg Troy's teats long enough. He has a proven coaching record of running every program he's been the head coach of, into the ground. Despite what others review as up and up potential, let's not forget South Carolina women BEAT UF women at NCAA's 2 out of his 5 years as head coach of Florida women. He does not care about you as an athlete, he is 100% concerned about his own ego and reputation. I'm not sure he's ever had an original thought, simply copy and paste everything from Gregg Troy. While Troy's methodologies worked well in the early 2000's he was asked to leave college coaching for a reason. Jeff will soon join him as his coaching style and philosophy have no place in modern training. I would avoid swimming for this coach at all costs. He is a proven loser and USC swimming will simply be another feather in his hat of failures.

Jeff was pretty brutal but mostly because he wanted the team to improve.

Great culture! Tight knit team!

Failed at improving team culture, forced athletes to go over NCAA practice hour limits. Very dedicated to the sport and improving the team, but made the environment very intense to get better instead of motivating the team in a positive way.

Jeff is a great person who cares deeply about his swimmers, coaches and team. Will be brutally honest and hide his frustration towards you until he blows the lid. But extremely knowledgeable and respected.

Very mixed feelings about Jeff. Liking his coaching style will depend on what type of swimmer you are. He likes to pit swimmers against each other when it comes to deciding who will travel to meets, which created a very uncomfortable and hostile environment in my opinion. But this is a common style for some swim coaches, so maybe in the long run it will pay off. But it was not good for the team environment, it made everything feel like a competition and added even more stress to a sport that is already pretty stressful to begin with. Priortizes academics over swimming, and as another review said you can tell that from the GPA drop. Minimal recovery practices which made training very exhausting in season. Randomly cut a bunch of people at the end of the season because they were "bad for the team culture" but didn't cut people that were even worse for the team culture. With all that being said he provides very valuable feedback on your strokes, and is very knowledgeable about the sport of swimming. You can tell he really wants his team to succeed, the path he is taking to get there is just a little questionable. Constantly told us how bad we were, but honestly we partially deserved it- this was most likely his way of motivating us and we were ranked at the bottom of the conference. But it was definitely a bit harsh to have your head coach talk trash to your face.

Not a nice man. He came into the program claiming he wanted to change the team culture, but then lets people who are “bad for the culture” get away with whatever because they are fast or bootlickers. He also believes that athletics are far more important than academics, if the steep drop in the team GPA wasn’t an indicator. Hates when people get work in their field of study for college because it means less time for practice. Also got constant talks about how slow of a team we were and that we aren’t working hard enough. Florida was brought up so many times during every conversation that people would count how often he’d say Florida. I think the record was 18 times for 1 speech.

Jeff came into the program at UofSC in my final year. From rumors I heard Before he came, I was terrified for what my last year would look like. But he was an amazing coach. He was incredibly intense, and sometimes excruciatingly honest, but he was only that way because he cares about the swimmers under him. It felt like he really cared about his swimmers, even out of the pool, which is rare at that level. He was handed a bad team (both from a skills & culture perspective) team, and did a really good job of starting to turn the culture around. Could not recommend him more.

Swam under this coach and did not have a good experience. He cares little for the mental and emotional health of the swimmers. Constantly favored specific swimmers who did not preform as well as others. When it came time to make a change to the program for the better, he did not follow through his promise to remove swimmers that were not helping the team succeed. His punishments for swimmers who broke rules set in place by the program was lackluster, or no punishment at all. He did little to change the culture of the program and I would say that it has gotten worse since he has been hired. Overall the objective fact is that lots of promises were made to help better the program and most, if not all, we’re not delivered despite what others may come on here and say.

Jeff is an extremely knowledgeable and caring coach. He also gives off major cool dad vibes. He has worked to change the program and team culture from the inside out, ensuring that everyone on the team truly wants to be there and believes in the program which makes for a great practice environment. He invests in his athletes and will prepare you for life in and out of the pool. He’s tough, but is also easy to meet with and truly cares about us and our success in life. This program is definitely on the up and up with him on all aspects.

Let’s just say I was a a swimmer here under a different coach and after a year of having him I had to step away from the sport due to my lack of motivation and mental health

Jeff is a very knowledgeable coach and passionate mentor. He cares about his swimmers and the paths that they take both inside and outside of the pool. He is very organized and prioritizes creating a team environment that is conducive to positivity and consistent hard work.