Steve Fletcher
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For the second time in three years, Rider University aquatic director Steve Fletcher was named both the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Swim Coach of the Year and the Rider University Coach of the Year. In addition he was named the ECAC Coach of the Meet for 2004-05 at the ECAC Championships. “For my peers to recognize our team and myself in such a way, I am truly humbled,” said Fletcher upon receiving the awards.
In just five years as the Rider head coach, Fletcher has won one ECAC title with the men (2005), one MAAC title with the men (2004), one MAAC title with the women (2003) and has compiled seven MAAC runner-up finishes. He has come home with six MAAC Diver of the Year awards and five MAAC Most Outstanding Performers.
Thus far 18 of the 24 men’s team records were set during Fletcher’s tenure, while 19 of the women’s records have been set in the last five years.
Fletcher began his coaching career at Rider in 1992 as an assistant coach. For five years he worked with 29-year veteran head coach, Rich Coppola, and during that time the men and women captured one Metropolitan Conference (MET) Championship title and earned four Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) runner-up finishes.
After leaving Rider in 1997, Fletcher served as assistant coach at Rutgers University under accomplished head coach, Chuck Warner, former Pan American Team, World University Games and National Junior Team coach. At Rutgers, Fletcher assisted in the training of Junior and Senior National level athletes as well as Big East Conference Champions while supporting the recruitment efforts that would help Coach Warner and the Scarlet Knights regain their national reputation as a championship program.
After Rutgers, Fletcher became the head coach at Franklin & Marshall and led the Diplomats through a dramatic rise to become a power in both the Centennial Champions and Mid-Atlantic region. During Fletcher’s tenure at F&M, his swimmers claimed four NCAA All-American performances.
Most importantly, Fletcher’s program is highlighted by a coaching philosophy that places a premium on a student-athlete development. Under
Fletcher’s direction at Rider, it is the coaching staff’s goal to push those athletes who exhibit the will to train and desire to compete and continue to improve throughout their four years of collegiate swimming and diving.
A 1992 graduate of Lafayette College where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in government and law, Fletcher was a four year member of the Lafayette men’s swim team. He remains a school record holder at his alma mater and finished his career with performances that contributed to his earning the T. Gordon Yates award as the Leopard’s Most Improved Swimmer and supported Lafayette’s highest men’s team finish in the Patriot League Championships in 1992. Fletcher added a Master degree in Human Services Administration from Rider University in 1995.
