Jim Dailey enters his 27th season as head coach of the Lafayette swimming program. Dailey served as the interim coach during the 1993-94 campaign, after which he became the Leopards' 12th head coach in program history. In 2006, Dailey was named Patriot League Women's Swimming Coach of the Year.
A 1989 graduate of the State University of New York at Cortland, Dailey was a two-time qualifier for the NCAA Division III Nationals, advancing in the 200 fly and 400 IM.
Since taking over at Lafayette, Dailey has guided 35 of his Leopards to Patriot League event champions, four of his men were on the Patriot League All-Decade team, a 1992 Olympian for Hong Kong Andrew Rutherfurd, 2016 Olympic Trial swimmer Greg Grewal, two NCAA Post Graduate Scholarship recipients and several other nominees, and has graduated roughly 350 alumni.
Displaying a constant commitment to academics and athletics, his women's program has been named to the CSCAA Academic All American list 51 of the last 52 semesters, while the men have made the list 50 times during that period. The women's and men's team GPA's of the spring '18 semester were 3.55 and 3.43 respectively. The mne's team GPA was 8th in the CSCAA Academic All American rankings. His swimmers routinely win or are finalists for league and school scholar-athlete awards.
Coach Dailey is heavily involved in the Boy Scouts of America serving on council leadership staffs, serving as Scoutmaster, Assistant Scoutmaster and Crew Advisor. His nineteen year old twin sons, James and Alex are Eagle scouts with palms. James is currently a sophomore at Lafayette and Alex is a sophomore at Northampton Community College. His wife, Brenda is a certified Athletic Trainer.
Coach Dailey graduated from the State University of New York College at Cortland with a BS in Environmental Science with a concentration in Geology in 1989. He earned his M.Ed. in secondary education at Lehigh University in 1994. He and his family live in Bethlehem Township.
