Saugus picks swim coaches

Prep swim: School hires pair of familiar names to lead the program

Saugus High swimming has filled its vacated head coaching position with familiar faces.

Jim Klipfel and Krista Botton are returning as co-head coaches after a seven season absence, according to Saugus athletic director Jeff Hallman.

The duo coached the Saugus girls to a Foothill League title in 2004 and stepped down after the 2008 season.

“They are both experienced,” Hallman said. “They’ve run our program. It’s definitely great that they are on- campus teachers as well.”

Klipfel, a longtime social studies teacher at Saugus, has been with the swim program in some capacity since the early 90s, he said, taking over as head coach around the end of that decade.

He was impressed with Botton’s work as an assistant coach at Canyon High and recruited her to be his assistant in the early 2000s.

She later became cohead coach and now teaches science at Saugus and leads the sports medicine program.

“That’s probably one of the legacies I was most proud of in my time here,” Klipfel said of helping bring Botton to Saugus swimming.

Both coaches stepped away in ‘08 to spend time with their then-young families, Hallman said.

But after former head coach Vicky Donnelly resigned in August, they decided to step back in.

“They enjoy working together,” Hallman said. “They kind of came as a package deal, and we’re happy to have them.”

Klipfel and Botton will each coach both the boys and girls, Hallman said.