Women's Swimming and Diving
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
- Email:
- steve.iida1@northwestern.edu
Steve Iida joined the Northwestern Athletics coaching staff in the 2021-22 season as a volunteer coach. The following 2022-23 season, Iida was hired as an assistant coach to mentor a wide range of swimmers from 400 IMer’s to sprinters.
Before coming to NU, Iida spent 20 years as the head coach of the Glenview Titan Aquatic Club and the Glenbrook Swim Club. Under his leadership, the club grew from 20 recreational swimmers to over 350 competitive swimmers. During his tenure, Iida’s club program earned three prestigious recognition medals from USA Swimming as one the nation’s highest-performing clubs in the development of athletes ages 18 years and younger; one silver medal (recognized as one of the top 100 clubs in the country) and two bronze medals (top 200).
Over the course of his club career, USA Swimming also recognized Iida’s coaching by selecting him as an assistant coach for the 2013 Duel in the Pool held in Glascow, Scotland. He was selected as a USA National Team Coach four times. Iida was also Illinois Swimming Senior Coach of the year twice.
In his twenty years of club coaching, Iida has placed swimmers on USA Swimming’s Junior National and National teams. His swimmers have achieved an American record, state, and national high school records, as well as Illinois club records. After graduating high school, many of Iida’s swimmers continued to flourish in D1, D2 and D3 college swim teams. One swimmer in particular, Olivia Smoliga, was the fourth swimmer ever to break one minute in the 100-meter backstroke in the 2016 Olympic Trials under Iida’s tutelage, recording the third fastest time during those Trials. Smoliga went on to represent the USA in the 2020 Olympics in Rio, qualifying individually and earning a gold medal in the medley relay.
Iida holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in exercise science and cardiovascular research.
