Girls Varsity Swimming/Diving

Robert A. DeConinck Jr. arrived at Loomis 1998 after 12 years at the Hill School in Pennsylvania, where he coached numerous All-Americans in both swimming and water polo. He also has extensive experience coacing age-group swimming and water polo and served as the head coach of the Zone 1 outh (under-18) Girls Water Polo Team for eight years. Coach DeConinck has served on the camp staffs at the U.S. Naval Academy, Princeton University, Hamilton College, and the University of Massachusetts.

Coach DeConinck is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he was a four-year member of the swimming and water polo teams as well as captain of both sports. He has a master's degree from West Chester University in Pennsylvania.

At Loomis Chaffee, Coach DeConinck’s swim teams have won the Founders League title more than 15 times. His teams have had more than five third-place finishes at the New England Championships, including a championship title in 2007.

He serves as the dorm head in Richmond Hall, where he lives with his wife Ginny, who works as the director of standardized testing. They are also parents of two Loomis Chaffee alumni.

Liz Bucceri started working at Loomis Chaffee in 2012 and has been an assistant coach for the Girls’ Varsity Swim Team before taking over after the retirement of the longtime head coach of the boys team, Fred Seebeck, in 2020. In college, Liz swam for Hamilton College for four years and captained the team during her senior year. Also during her senior year, she competed in five different relay events at the NCAA DIII National Championship and still holds four school records. Liz is also an alum of Loomis Chaffee, graduating in 2007, where she was a four year varsity letter winner in three different sports: cross country, swimming, and water polo. As a Loomis swimmer, she contributed to the girls’ New England Championship team in 2007 and served as captain her senior year while garnering school records in the 200-yard freestyle, the 500-yard free, and the 400-meter free. Outside of the pool, Liz is also a math and science teacher and the dorm head of Palmer Dorm, an upperclassmen girls dorm, where she lives with her dog Clara.