Nike Swim Camp at Transylvania University

Doolin’s most recent season guiding the Pioneers saw new milestones across the board for Transylvania swimming and diving. Against the umbrella of a pandemic, Doolin’s Pioneers carried out a successfully executed 2020-21 season with their best collective finishes at a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships, with the women’s swimming and diving team repeating as the conference’s runners-up while the men’s swimming and diving team earned its first ever top-3 finish in conference.

Under Doolin, the Pioneers produced multiple individual conference champions in 2021 as newcomer Mackie Redford swept the 3-meter and 1-meter dive conference championships while Sami Monarch picked up her first conference championship, winning the women’s 50-meter freestyle crown. The Pioneers scooped up 39 different All-HCAC First, Second, and Third team awards at the conference championships. The season ended with Redford earning CSCAA First and Second Team All-American honors.

In 2019-20, Doolin directed the Transylvania women’s swimming and diving team to its first runner-up placing at the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships, while fielding two individual conference champions.

Doolin and his coaching staff were recognized in 2020 as he received HCAC Coach of the Year Honors for women’s swimming and diving. Doolin also guided the Transylvania men’s swimming and diving team to a fourth-place finish at last year’s conference championships as the Pioneers continued their ascent as one of the top teams in the region and a conference championship contender.

Doolin’s ability to develop and maximize talent was on display in 2020 as senior Mattie Fogle defended her HCAC title in the women’s 1650 yard freestyle while junior Drew Dodds captured the conference crown in the men’s 100 yard breaststroke championship event. Doolin also reaped rewards in the reinstallation of a diving program at Transy last year as three Pioneer women’s divers all finished in the top-10 at the conference championships with two of the three earning runner-up and third place honors in the women’s 3-meter dive, pushing the Pioneers to their team second-place finish at conference.

The Pioneers displayed growth in all facets in 2019-20 under Doolin as the women’s swimming and diving team captured their 10th consecutive CSCAA Scholar All-America Honors, winning the award for both the fall and spring sessions.

In his second season as the head coach of the Pioneers, Doolin guided the Pioneer women’s swimming and diving team to six head-to-head victories over opponents while spurring the Pioneers to a combined win in conference competition versus Anderson in 2018-19. A promising season culminated in junior Sarah Haerle repeating as the women’s 200 breaststroke conference champion at the 2019 HCAC Championships in Terre Haute while Fogle delivered her first individual championship in the women’s 1650 freestyle event.

Doolin also displayed his fostering of the men’s program with Dodds eclipsing a new program record in the men’s 200 breaststroke, setting a new record time of 2:06.99 in the prelims. The 2019 HCAC Championships were a watershed week for the Pioneers, who recorded a slew of top-4 finishes under Doolin to signify the latest steps in the ascent of the program.

Before coming to Transylvania in 2018, Doolin coached at nearby Tates Creek High School in Lexington where he completed a decorated seven-year career.

Doolin enjoyed a budding first year at Transylvania that included the successes of multiple underclassmen, including Haerle, who captured the HCAC Championship in the women’s 200-yard breaststroke and the women’s 100-yard breaststroke, and earning All-HCAC First Team honors. Eight other Pioneers in addition received All-HCAC postseason recognition during Doolin’s first season with the Pioneers.

Under Doolin’s guidance, the Pioneers women’s swim team placed third at the inaugural HCAC Championship in 2018 and posted the highest GPA of all Division III women’s swim teams in the country last season.

While with Tates Creek, Doolin also coached the Lexington Dolphins swim team, a Lexington-based nonprofit club for swimmers aged 6-18 sanctioned by USA Swimming. Past swimmers with the Dolphins have gone on to compete at regional and national levels, including USA Junior Nationals, USA Nationals, and U.S. Olympic Trials. Doolin has served in a coaching capacity with the Dolphins since 1999.

Doolin’s resume illustrates a pattern of developing swimmers to their highest potential, a blueprint he aspires to replicate at Transylvania. “Each swimmer is an individual, and I’m going to give every individual what they need to succeed, and that will be different for everybody,” Doolin describes as one of his core philosophies. “I consider myself a swimmer’s coach and I want to get the best out of each of them.”

Swimmers who have trained under Doolin have competed at the 2000, 2008, and 2012 US Olympic trials.

Prior to his tenure with Tates Creek High School, Doolin was the head swimming coach at Lexington’s Paul Laurence Dunbar High School from 2002-2007.

As a high school swimming coach, Doolin’s efforts have earned him the Kentucky Swimming Coach of the Year award in 2001, the Kentucky State High School Girls Coach of the Year award in 2017, the Region 8 Girls Coach of the Year in 2017 and 2016, the Region 8 Boys Coach of the Year in 2016, and the State High School Boys Coach of the Year in 2005. Since 2001, Doolin has won seven Kentucky regional coach of the year awards.

Doolin’s wide range of involvement with swimming in the state of Kentucky entails serving on the Kentucky Swimming Board of Directors since 2001. As part of the board, Doolin has worked in an assortment of roles, including program operations, coaches’ representative, program development, and as a Senior Vice-Chair from 2010 until 2016. At the conclusion of his tenure as Vice-Chair, Doolin transitioned into another tour of duty as a coaches’ representative.

Doolin holds memberships with USA Swimming, the American Swimming Coaches Association, and the National Interscholastic Swim Coach Association.

During Koukis’s time at Transylvania, 30 different individual and relay records have been rewritten along with 20 Conference Champions, 1 National Qualifier, and 1 NCAA Diving All-American. Koukis and the Pioneers reached new marks in the 2019-20 season when the Pioneer women’s swimming and diving team finished as the runner-up at the 2019-20 HCAC Swimming and Diving Championships; the Transylvania coaching staff was chosen as the Coaching Staff of the Year for HCAC women’s swimming and diving, the second that Koukis has been apart of.

Following the 2017-2018 season, the women’s swimming and diving team had the highest GPA in the country for Division III women’s swim and dive programs.

In her first season with Transylvania in 2012-13, Koukis served as the volunteer assistant before assuming the responsibilities of Recruiting Coordinator and Assistant Coach for the 2013-14 season.

During the 2013-2014 season, the Pioneers coaching staff was awarded the OAC Women’s coaching staff of the year award. In 2014-15, she took the reins as the full-time assistant for the Pioneers, the same season in which the Pioneers’ first female swimmer qualified for NCAA Division III Nationals for the first time in program history.

She then took over the program as Head Coach during the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 season, two seasons where the Pioneers excelled both in the classroom and in the pool. In her first season as Head Coach (2015-2016), both the Men’s and Women’s teams received the CSCAA Academic All-America Award for maintaining above a 3.0 team GPA.

Koukis graduated with her bachelor’s degree from Wittenberg University, in Springfield, Ohio where she majored in biology and was a four-year letter winner for the Tigers. While at Wittenberg, she became the school record holder in the 100 and 200 butterfly, and in her senior year she was named women’s team captain and was an NCAA National Qualifier/All-American as a member of the 200 medley relay.

Koukis graduated from Wittenberg University in 2012 with a bachelor degree in Biology. While at Wittenberg, she was a 4 year member of the swim and dive team, where she held 2 school records (100 and 200 butterfly), and was a member of the 200 Medley Relay that placed 12th at the 2012 NCAA National Championship meet. In her senior year she was named women’s team captain and was an NCAA National Qualifier/All-American as a member of the 200 medley relay.

A Peachtree City, Georgia native, Koukis and her husband reside in Lexington with their two daughters.