Bio

Juliet Suess enters their second year at the helm of the Chapman swimming & diving programs in 2023-24 on the heel of a successful first season. In their first season, Suess led the SCIAC Coaching Staff of the Year for women's swimming & diving.

Suess didn't take long to make an impact as the Panthers started the season with an upset of Pomona-Pitzer in the women's dual meet. Chapman went on to go 7-1 in SCIAC duals and 9-1 overall before a fourth place finish at the SCIAC Championships. The Panthers also had their best finish in program history in SCIAC men's swimming & diving with a fourth-place finish.

Under Suess's leadership, the Panthers saw dozens of record-breaking swiims in the first season. Cole Kershner won the first SCIAC title in Suess's tenure - winning the 50 free at the SCIAC Championships after finishing 16th the year before. Reid Omilian also advanced to the NCAA Division III Championships and became Chapman's first diving All-American when he earned a spot on the Second Team for the three-meter board.

Suess officially became the Head Coach of the men's and women's swimming & diving teams on August 1, 2022. With a backgrounf and focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Suess and the Panthers made a way to the way they refer to each team. To promote a more inclusie atmosphere, the Panthers began to refer to the two teams as the High Tops and Low Tops, dropping the women's and men's monikers. 

They had a successful career on the Occidental College swim team before moving on to coach at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, helping the Stags and Athenas to multiple SCIAC championships.

At Occidental, Suess was a team captain and five-time All-SCIAC swimmer. As a freshman in 2011, they won the 200 freestyle title at the SCIAC Championships. They were All-SCIAC in the 200 free in 2013 and a member of three All-SCIAC relays in the course of their career. They also broke multiple school records.

As a Fullbright Scholar, Suess spent nine months in Germany upon graduating from Occidental. They returned to the United States and began their coaching career at Oxy as an assistant coach for the 2015-16 season. They helped the men's and women's team break 10 combined school records that year while also taking on a recruiting role.

In the fall of 2016, Suess moved to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps as the Recruiting Coordinator and Assistant Coach. While at CMS, they recruited several SCIAC champions and an eventual NCAA Division III champion as well as multiple swimmers that became All-Americans. They were a part of two SCIAC Team Championships for the Athenas and three for the Stags.

After the 2017-18 season, Suess accepted a job as an English and Communications teacher at Harvard-Westlake but continued to coach at CMS and eventually earned their Master's from the Claremont Graduate School in English. They moved to The Buckley School in 2021 as an English teacher and Head Swim Coach.

Suess received the Jean Freeman Scholarship in 2018 to attend the College Swim Coaches Association of America's annual convention and Coach Academy – given annually to just six assistant coaches across the nation and all divisions of collegiate swimming.