NOV 21, 2024 | SPORTS | By Grant Loui
Swim season is in full swing. Nearly two months into their 2024-2025 season, the Colorado College men’s swim and dive team has won three of their four meets, while the women’s program has won two of three.
At the ship’s helm is new head coach Jen Buffin, who has been a part of Colorado College’s swimming staff since 2022 and has helped lead the Tigers to multiple records and produce many All-American athletes.
For Buffin, she’s found that her team’s strength comes from their community and camaraderie. As a lifelong swimmer, it has served a critical role in her career.
“My coaching philosophy is not just about swimming laps,” said Buffin. “It’s really about building a community, recognizing the work we are doing and understanding why we show up every day.”
With stints as a Philippines National Team coach in the Southeast Asian Games, the 2015 World Championships and the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, Buffin boasts a long list of coaching successes before CC. She also coached at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and Oregon State University, leading the teams to multiple top conference finishes and two conference championships. She also has coaching experience with neighbors Air Force Academy, New Mexico State and her alma mater, San José State University.
Buffin grew up in a military family, bouncing between places. Her constant was swimming; regardless of where her family was, she could swim and find a community there.
“I loved being part of the swimming community. Growing up in a military family, we moved around a lot,” Buffin said. “Being a swimmer allowed me to build a community everywhere I went.”
When she got to San Jose State for college, Buffin had to decide if she would continue swimming or explore other interests. She eventually decided to forgo swimming, focusing on her major, environmental science, and the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) program.
“My interest was in the environment,” she said.
She graduated from San José State in 2002 with a bachelor’s in environmental science. Despite focusing on her degree, her love for swimming continued to find her in college. When friends on the team told her there was a new head coach, Buffin found her way back into swimming.
Buffin no longer had eligibility to swim in college but was offered a coaching position. She’d coached a summer league team in school but hadn’t considered it as her profession or future career. Buffin took the job and, by chance, as she described it, found her footing in collegiate coaching.
She coached at San Jose State until her boss moved to his new job at the University of Hawai’i, and Buffin chose to go with him. Buffin became the associate head men’s and women’s swimming and diving coach and led the team to two conference titles in her 10 years with the Rainbow Wahine and Rainbow Warriors.
While in the Mānoa Valley, Buffin’s coaching philosophy took shape. She worked with diverse groups of athletes, including international student-athletes. The experience led her to the Philippine National Team and the chance to work with Jasmine Alkhaldi, who was the top athlete in the Philippines at the time.
Buffin traveled with Alkhaldi and coached her in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympic Games. At the 2015 Southeast Asian Games, Alkhaldi set four national records and won three bronze medals.
After the run with the Philippines and leaving the University of Hawaii, Buffin’s next stop was Oregon State. She coached there for three years until the women’s swimming and diving program was dropped following the 2018-2019 season.
After Oregon State conceded the program, Buffin struggled to choose the next path. She didn’t feel ready to find a new team; like at San Jose, she felt ready to pursue other interests.
“It was a very emotional time for me, and so, you know, I didn’t want to just jump into the next job,” Buffin said.
She took time off and got her master’s from Georgia Southern University in kinesiology with an emphasis on coaching, according to CC Tiger Athletics, something she “wanted to do but didn’t have the time [for].”
After she got her master’s, she moved around and volunteered at New Mexico State and Air Force as a swimming coach. While volunteer roles, her time at New Mexico State and Air Force helped her find the joy in coaching again.
When the position for assistant coach opened at CC in 2022, Buffin applied. Under Goodman James’ wing, Buffin grew as a coach.
“You know, it’s really an honor to take over a program that has been so successful,” Buffin said. “It’s also a challenge to keep it at that level and then still continue to move it forward… and make sure that we continue to build on that legacy and to make it better.”
Now, as head coach, Buffin wants to “continue to be competitive” while “continuing to build a family.” Community is the thread that permeates the team, and Buffin is a large reason for that. However, she knows nothing is perfect, especially with new leadership.
“I never tell anyone our culture is perfect because when you have 50 different people, you are going to have 50 different experiences,” said Buffin.
At the beginning of the year, according to Buffin, when the team met, they expressed that “they didn’t want to feel like an exclusive club,” they wanted to be welcoming and engaging because they are more than just swimmers; they are students like everyone else.