Men's Head Swimming Coach
Alex Jerden
Purdue alumnus Alex Jerden was promoted to the program's head coach in April 2023, succeeding Dan Ross following Ross' retirement effective in June 2023. Jerden is just the fourth head coach of the program since 1939. He originally joined the Boilermakers as a volunteer in August 2019 and was elevated to a fulltime assistant position in the summer of 2021. Jerden also worked with the Boilermaker Aquatics club team prior to becoming a fulltime assistant at Purdue.
Ross rewarded Jerden after the fulltime assistant position had been vacant during the 2020-21 school year. Jerden continued to serve as a volunteer while the Boilermakers excelled amid the pandemic-impacted 2020-21 season, qualifying four relays and six swimmers total for the NCAA Championships.
Jerden, who graduated from Purdue in 2009, delivered a tremendous impact on the recruiting trail for the Old Gold & Black. He tutored several Boilermakers to record-breaking times and Big Ten Conference medals, setting the stage for transition as he takes over for Purdue's longtime leader in Ross, who served as head coach from 1985-86 to 2022-23 as the second-longest tenured head coach in the history of Purdue Athletics.
"As we evaluated candidates through our search process, it became clear to us that Alex Jerden was the right person to carry on the proud tradition of Purdue Men's Swimming & Diving," Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Mike Bobinski said. "Alex's work as an assistant here at Purdue under Dan Ross and his other coaching experiences have prepared him well for this opportunity. We look forward to helping support Alex's vision for success in every way possible and are excited to see what the future holds for the Boilermakers under his leadership."
Since 2019-20, Purdue has won a swimming medal at each of the last four Big Ten Championships (five total). With a relay medal in 2020, 2021 and 2022, the Boilermakers enjoyed their first three-year streak at the Big Ten meet since 2001-03.
"The opportunity to lead Purdue as head coach is the highest honor of my coaching career and the responsibility I feel to the program, to the alumni and to Purdue is a privilege and joy to have," Jerden says. "Throughout most of my life, the coaches and mentors I've had and worked with in swimming have invested in me beyond measure, for which I am incredibly grateful. And so, accepting this position is an exciting amplification of the role I will have to help people as purposefully and as abundantly as I can. That I get to do this through this sport and at Purdue University with fantastic people around me is a beautiful thing."
On an individual level, Jerden has mentored notable Boilermaker achievements over the last two seasons, including Brady Samuels, who set team records in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke, three freshman records and at the 2023 NCAA Championships became the first Purdue All-American in a backstroke event since the 2005 season. Nick Sherman claimed the silver medal in the 200 IM at the Big Ten meet this season, becoming the Boilermakers' first medalist in the event since 2007. Sherman also eclipsed his own team records in the 200 IM and 200 freestyle.
Additionally, Samuels, Sherman and teammates Ethan Shaw, Idris Muhammad and Coleman Modglin all posted top-5 times in program history during the 2022-23 season. Samuels continued his upward trajectory into the 2024 Olympic year with a 5-for-5 showing of LCM career bests at USA Swimming's Phillips 66 National Championships the final week of June. He finished the summer with Olympic Trials cuts in the 50m and 100m free as well as the 100m fly.
The Boilermakers enjoyed a 1-2-3 finish in the 200-meter breaststroke at the 2023 Indiana Senior State Championships and achieved five cut times for USA Swimming's TYR Pro Championships at the meet. Raymond Whittaker won gold in the 200m breast and Aaron Frollo finished top three in four individual events.
"I couldn't be prouder to pass the baton of head men's swimming & diving coach to Alex Jerden as he becomes only the fourth head coach of our program since 1939," Ross says. "Alex is smart; he's been exposed to and developed fast swimmers. But more importantly, he does it the right way – the Purdue Way. Honest, driven, fair but challenging – he's a perfect fit for the future of this program."
Before embarking on his collegiate coaching career, Jerden spent five seasons with Boilermaker Aquatics. After joining in 2019, Jerden helped grow championship participation to the highest in club history. Altogether, Jerden compiled 13 years of coaching experience ahead of when he was hired fulltime at Purdue, including two seasons as a volunteer assistant with the University of Texas men's team. He shared recruiting duties and worked with all training groups, including All-Americans, American record holders, and NCAA record holders under the guidance of longtime head coach Eddie Reese and assistant Wyatt Collins. While Jerden was in Austin, the Longhorns finished as national runners-up at the 2019 NCAA Championships.
"The culture that Dan Ross worked to cultivate for decades has been a huge source of inspiration and drive for me in my career, and I can't thank Dan enough for his work and letting me be a part of it all," Jerden says. "As is well known on this team – Rule No. 1: Love Your Teammates. If we truly believe that and do the work for each other, a lot of fun is on the horizon! I love this team and I'm brimming with excitement at the thought of all the possibilities that we might be able to realize in the coming years.
"Finally, I would really like to thank Mike Bobinski and Ed Howat for their leadership, guidance, and confidence during my time thus far at Purdue. We are very much on the same page when it comes to cultivating excellence within a program and I'm proud to have the opportunity to work alongside a first-class support staff in group pursuit of that excellence."
At the 2021 Purdue Invitational, Nikola Acin eclipsed a team record in the 50 freestyle that had stood since 2009. The Olympian was part of both of Purdue's medal-winning relays at the 2022 Big Ten Championships and helped Purdue score in the 400 free relay at the NCAA Championships. Keelan Hart and Ryan Hrosik teamed up with Acin, Samuels and Sherman as Purdue qualified for four relays at NCAAs. They were all part of a medal-winning relay at Big Tens as well, including a record-setting time in the 400 free relay.
Altogether, Samuels was part of five program records, headlined by a team benchmark in the 100 butterfly. He not only eclipsed a record that had stood since 2009 but lowered it by 0.51 hundredths of a second as the first Boilermaker to eclipse 46 seconds. He also set freshman records in the 100 free, 100 back and 100 fly – moving into the top two in team history in the freestyle and backstroke.
With Boilermaker Aquatics, he became the head club administrator and head age group coach in May 2019, helping to grow the championship participation to the highest in club history. Altogether, he had 13 years of experience coaching competitive swimming when he was hired fulltime at Purdue.
“Alex knows our swimmers. He has been involved in the planning and implementation of workouts and training,” Ross says. “He’s learned from some of the best in Eddie Reese at Texas and Zach DeWitt at Franklin. Along with Alex’s life experiences, I hired a seasoned coach, not a newbie. Being in charge of recruiting is going to be a huge part of what Alex does and his personality makes him ideal for that role. But most importantly, the guys on our team love him. They wanted him to be their coach.”
Prior to Texas, Jerden spent three seasons in a dual role in Franklin, Indiana, coaching both the Franklin Regional Swim Team and Franklin Community High School. He was a head age group coach at the club and an assistant leading the sprint and breaststroke groups at the high school. In Franklin he learned from DeWitt, a two-time Indiana Coach of the Year. Jerden helped restructure the age group program for long-term growth, worked to implement the GAIN dryland program and was a two-time Indiana Age Group Coach of the Year nominee. Meanwhile, the FCHS teams made an unprecedented rise during his tenure. The girls emerged from a non-scoring team at state to a fourth-place finisher in 2018. The boys went from 13th to second place in the same time frame.
Jerden had the opportunity of swimming for and coaching with the late Dr. Dave Tanner at Bloomington High School North. Tanner is a renowned alumnus of the Indiana University swimming & diving program and served as Jerden’s inspiration to pursue a career in coaching. Jerden worked with Tanner from 2010 through 2014 as the co-head coach at Bloomington North during the 2013-14 school year while also serving as senior coach with the Counsilman Center Indiana Swim Team
“I owe a lot of gratitude to all of the previous coaches I've been able to work with over the years,” Jerden says. “Without their encouragement, leadership and teachings this opportunity would not be possible. Since stepping on deck as a volunteer here at Purdue, Dan Ross and the entire swimming & diving staff have been really good to me. It's been a joy and privilege to watch these men work for the team they want to be. The opportunity to continue to support them toward their pursuits is something I'm both honored and excited about.”
Jerden lives in Lafayette with his wife, Danielle, and their two terriers.
