Lopez, who won a pair of conference titles while the head coach at West Virginia, had an immediate impact on Auburn’s program. In just a very short amount of time, his methodolgy could be seen in training sessions which in turn were reflected during competitions throughout the season as the men and women combined to win 10 dual meets and an invitational. His impact was also seen in recruiting, as Auburn signed some of the top talent both nationally and internationally for the upcoming season. Lopez, who has coached current NCAA Champions Ryan Murphy and Joseph Schooling, spent the two years prior to joining Auburn as the head high performance coach of the Singapore Swimming Association.
Murphy and Schooling were both 2016 Olympians in Rio. Murphy swept the backstroke events, setting an Olympic record in the 100, and won gold as part of the United States' 4x100 medley relay team. Schooling, from Singapore, also won gold, defeating Michael Phelps in the 100 butterfly in an Olympic record time and swam in the semifinals of the 100 freestyle.
Before moving to Singapore, Lopez was the head coach at the Bolles School in Florida. Beginning in 2007, Lopez guided Bolles to some of the best high school times in history. Bolles high school team won 27 straight boys State Championships and 24 straight girls State Championships in Florida's Class 1A. At one point his teams held five out of the 11 independent school National High School Records in yards. In 2012 Bolles set all three of the high school relay records in a single meet. Along with Murphy and Schooling, Caeleb Dressel, a 2016 United States Olympian and the 2016 NCAA champion in the 50 and 100 freestyles, and Bahamian and former Auburn star Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace were some of the standouts to train under him at Bolles.
In total, Lopez coach 12 swimmers that competed in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games - nine high school swimmers and three professional swimmers - resulting a gold medal and six national records broken. His charges represented the United States, Israel, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Singapore, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Trinidad & Tobago, the Netherlands, Antilles, Saint Lucia, Croatia, Columbia, Guatemala, Kenya and the Philippines at many international Senior and Junior competitions.
Lopez served as the head coach at West Virginia from 2004-07, where he was twice named the Big East Men's Coach of the Year (2006 & 2007). During his time in Morgantown the team won its first Big East Men's Team Championship (2007), and saw an improvement from 0 to 18 All-America honors, from 0 to 31 individual and relay conference champions (27 men, 4 women), a pair of Big East Men's Swimmers of the Year and 11 Big East Records.
From 2000-03 Lopez served as an assistant at Northwestern before being promoted to the associate head coach in 2003. While there he helped Northwestern produce seven All-Americans, eight Big Ten champions, a Big Ten Swimmer of the Year and Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Under his guidance, 43 of the school's 56 records were broken in a four-year period.
Lopez began his coaching career as a volunteer at Arizona from 1994-96. From 1996-97 he was the technical director at the Cantabric Swimming Foundation in Santander, Spain, and from 1997-00 he was the head coach at Hillenbrand Aquatics in Tucscon, Ariz.
A member of the Spanish national team from 1984-96, Lopez won a silver medal at the 1993 World Championships and has held European and U.S. Open records as well as 14 records in Spain. He won a bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics in the 200 breaststroke for Spain and was also on the 1992 Olympic team after swimming collegiately at Indiana, where he earned nine All-America honors, and American, where he earned his degree in kinesiology in 1992.
Lopez and his wife, Sandy, have two children; Harley and Cobi.
| Coach Lopez | |
|---|---|
| Hometown | Barcelona, Spain |
| College | American University |
| Family | wife, Sandy daughter, Harley son, Cobi |
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| As of Sept. 14, 2016 | |
| Head Coaching Career | 3 seasons |
| BIG EAST Coach of the Year | 2 (2006 & 2007) |
| BIG EAST Championships | 1 (2007) |
| Olympians | 12 |
| Collegiate Coaching History | |
|---|---|
| 2016-present | Auburn - Associate Head Coach |
| 2004-07 | West Virginia - Head Coach |
| 2003-04 | Northwestern - Associate Head Coach |
| 2000-02 | Northwestern - Assistant Coach |
| 1995-96 | Arizona - Volunteer Coach |
| Career Swimming Highlights | |
|---|---|
| 1988 | Olympic bronze medalist (200m breaststroke) |
| 1992 | Olympian (fourth - 200m breaststroke) |
| 9-time | NCAA All-American in the breaststroke & IM events |
| 1986, '91, '94 | World Championship (LC) participant |
| 1993 | World Championship silver medalist (400 MR) |
| 1984-96 | Spanish National Team |
| Career Coaching Highlights | |
|---|---|
| 2012-14 | USA Senior National Team Coach |
| 2009-04 | USA Junior National Team Coach |
| 2012 | SwimSwam High School & Club Coach of the Year |
| 2011 | Florida Dairy Farmers 1A Coach of the Year |
| 5-time | ASCA Coaching Award for Excellence winner |