The 2007-08 season is Peggy Carl's 18th at Occidental.

"I think our success is mostly attributable to the work ethic that our swimmers and divers have," Carl says. "...and certainly it's the fruit of some good, solid recruiting."

Carl has coached numerous All-Americans and All-Conference athletes, including 10-time All-American Ed Bedford '92 in the freestyle and butterfly, and more recently, Dennis McMillan '06 and Dickson Fai '08. McMillan is a many-time NCAA qualifier in the distance freestyles as well conference champion in the 200 Freestyle in 2004. Fai '08 earned All-American honors in two events as a freshman and was named Male Athlete of the Year at the 2005 SCIAC Championships, in which he won three events. Fai was able to return to the NCAA meet and repeat his All-American performance in the 100 Backstroke in 2006.

A native of Minneapolis, MN., Carl got her coaching start in 1983 at Carleton College, where her swimmers went to the NCAA Championships in each of her seven years at the helm. She is also a veteran of the Wolverine Swim Camps at the University of Michigan. Carl spent the summer of 1996 as the Chief Logistician for Swimming at the Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta and in 2004 served as an Assistant Field of Play Marshall for the USA Swimming Olympic Team Trials in Long Beach, CA.

She arrived at Occidental in 1990 and quickly infused her trademark brand of leadership. "Very simply, our program is built on respect-for each other, for teammates, for opponents, and for the sport," Carl says. "If an athlete can learn what that word really means, everything else falls into place."

As a physical education major at Whittier College, Carl swam distance events and made the All-SCIAC team in each of the three years she competed. She took part in the national championships in 1977 and 1978.  In the 800 Freestyle Relay, she helped set a school record that has stood for 27 years.

A member of the American Swim Coaches Association and a three-time winner of the group's Certificate of Excellence, Carl also belongs to the College Swimming Coaches Association of America.

Third-year Assistant Swimming Coach, Adam Wright has infused a fresh perspective to the decks of Tiger Swimming this past year. Coach Wright is a 2001 graduate of the California State Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo. After a two-year stint at the College of The Canyons, Wright spent his last seasons of eligibility specializing in the backstroke and individual medley events for the Mustangs.

Adam has collegiate coaching experience both as a graduate assistant at Cal Poly and as an assistant at College of The Canyons. His coaching experience also extends to the age group ranks where he coached programs with the City of Santa Clarita and age group swimming at Canyons Aquatic Club.

Currently, Adam teaches and spends time coaching the swimming teams at Burbank High School, where he has been fortunate enough to be able to coach plenty of Foothill League Champions and CIF Division I and II qualifiers.

A former Italian National Champion and member of the Italian National Team for six years, Cristina Perovich, has greatly benefitted from her experience in training with diving legend, three time Olympic champion, Klaus Dibiasi. She graduated from the Superior Institute of Physical Education of Milan, Italy with a degree in Physical Education and completed her thesis in Sports Medicine.  She has worked extensively in the gymnastics and dive community in Italy and here in the U.S. and served as Head Coach of the Royal Aquatic Diving team when it merged with the RBAC. Additionally, Perovich was recently named the Head Coach of Rosebowl Diving.

When asked about the addition of Perovich to the coaching staff Head Swim Coach Peggy Carl said, “Cristina’s reputation precedes her.  I’m really excited to have a person of Cristina’s caliber taking over as Oxy’s Diving Coach.” She went on, “She’ll do a great job keeping the excellent standard that Oxy Diving is known for.” 

Katie Williams '03 will be with the Tigers staff for the third straight year.  Katie's specialty is to work starts and turns with the swimmers on a regular basis.  A Dean's List honoree, Katie graduated cum laude from Occidental in 2003 with a degree in mathematics.  During this time, she was the backbone of the Tiger freestyle corps.  She holds the distinction of having anchored every Occidental All-SCIAC relay during her four-year career. At one point, she held team records in the 200 and 500 freestyles and is still on the record books as a member of the 400 and 800 Freestyle Relays as well as the 200 and 400 Medley Relays.

Prior to her return to Occidental, Coach Williams spent a year coaching at Cupertino Hills Swim Club as well as a year volunteering at Club Natacíon Soriano in Soria, Spain. Currently, she is teaching mathematics at Glendale High School.