Boys Varsity Swimming/Diving

Grant Gritzmacher arrived at Loomis in 2022 after 18 years as a teacher, swim coach, and dean of students at Westminster School in Simsbury, Connecticut. During his tenure, that program grew into a training ground for elite swimmers, including several All-Americans, New England individual and relay title-winners, New England record-setters, and a Division 2 New England team title in 2019. The success of his teams is rooted in an inclusive and supportive team culture and focused workouts that include inspiring training sets personalized for each individual’s event preferences.

Gritzmacher was a high school All-American and New England Champion in the 100 Butterfly, and he was named the All-America National Champion in diving three years in a row as a student at the Hopkins School in New Haven, Connecticut. His New England diving record, set in 1996, still stands.

He went on to attend the University of Texas, where he was a 3-time Division 1 All American in diving and learned everything he could in the presence of some of the world’s best coaches and fastest swimmers, coaching alongside Olympians at the prestigious Longhorn Swim Camp in Austin, Texas.

After college, Grant spent several years in Colorado competing as a freestyle skier before earning a master’s degree at the University of Connecticut in 2006. While in Colorado, he founded the girls’ swimming team at Aspen High School and served as its head coach. In Connecticut, he spent many years coaching the premier group of the West Hartford Aquatic Team (WHAT) and Farmington Valley YMCA (FVY), both competitive local clubs.

In addition to coaching swimming, Grant serves on the faculty as a science and math teacher and spent two years assistant boys’ water polo coach. In his spare time, he is a professional singer-songwriter with a local band, Firetown Road. Grant lives in Simsbury with his wife, Mary Pat, and children, Nathan and Addie, who attend Loomis.

Ali is, first and foremost, the proud Mom of four Pelican graduates (’16, ’18, ’21, and ’23). She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in American politics from The Catholic University of America, where she also dove for the swim team. After college, Ali started her career as an event/wedding planner, which comes in handy during our admission events! In 2012, Ali and her family moved to the Island and in 2014 she joined the Loomis admission team. That same year, the Murphy family moved into the then brand-new Richmond Hall, where Ali served as beloved dorm head for three years, dorm resident for another four and currently is an affiliate doing duty on Wednesday nights. She now lives a quarter of a mile down the road into a faculty house which is walking distance to one of her favorite places on campus — the Savage/Johnson hockey rink. Some of her favorite memories have been in the “Sav,” whether running the game clock, playing broom ball with colleagues, cheering on the boys and girls teams, or screaming with the fans as Larry the Lobster is slid onto the ice during the boys hockey team’s last home game of the season. Ali is the head varsity diving coach at Loomis, as well as girls thirds lacrosse.