Ridgefield Aquatic Club seeks assistant swim coach: $55,000 salary and youth sports development

Ridgefield Aquatic Club (RAC) is hiring a full-time assistant swimming coach. The private, nonprofit club in Ridgefield, Connecticut, competes under Connecticut Swimming and serves athletes from pre-competitive to national level. RAC is coach-led and parent-supported, a structure that emphasizes continuity in athlete development. The club offers a base salary of $49,000 to $55,000, a performance bonus up to $5,000, a $5,250 health-insurance stipend, a $1,200 phone allowance, a $1,000 retirement contribution and 14 paid vacation days. The assistant coach will lead assigned competitive or Olympic Way squads, build daily and seasonal training plans, adopt the USA Swimming American Development Model, and monitor attendance, progress and meet entries. Candidates need previous swim coaching experience and USA Swimming membership, or the ability to meet safety requirements before athlete contact. The club prioritizes applicants who have led an age-group or senior group, hold ASCA credentials, know meet-management systems and hold a related college degree. Safe Sport and MAAPP compliance is mandatory. Head coach and CEO Emmanuel Lanzo will review applications. The job posting may look routine, but the package reveals a strategic approach: youth swimming grows when assistant coaches are paid, protected and developed, not treated as unpaid volunteers. That is a takeaway for Vietnamese clubs that want to build sustainable high-performance pipelines.