Bill Ball
Bill Ball
  • Title:
    Head Swimming Coach
  • Phone:
    (860) 832-3073
  • Email:
    ballb@ccsu.edu

Bio

Since Bill Ball’s arrival in New Britain in the fall of 2002, the Central Connecticut State University women’s swimming and diving team has been a perennial power at the top of the Northeast Conference. The Blue Devils have never placed outside the top four, while collecting five championships and eight runner-up finishes in those 19 years. The Blue Devils have won 111 individual events, 37 team relays, and amassed well over 300 All-Northeast Conference selections, more than double any other program in Northeast Conference Swimming and Diving history. In 2008, the Blue Devils also won the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship, the first in school history.

During the 2007-08 Northeast Conference Championship, Ball led Central to wins in 18 of the 20 events contested and backed that up in 2008-09 with 16 wins, both are the most by one team in any single Northeast Conference Championship.

In addition to the successes in the conference during Ball’s tenure the Blue Devils have made three trips to the NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships, 15 USA Swimming National Championship appearances and competed in two USA Olympic Team trials (Tammie Repass in 2008 and Maddy Garber in 2016). In 2005 Jamie Crowley became the conference's first ever swimmer to final at a FINA World Cup which was held in Long Island, NY.

In 2014-15, the final year of Ball’s four-year stint as a member of the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Committee, he was named Chair, the first such non-administrator to serve as such in over 30 years.

During his tenure at CCSU, Ball's swimmers have also been successful in the classroom. Three of his swimmers have been named Northeast Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year (Taylor Friedmann, 2011-12; Maddy Garber, 2016-18; Jeannette King, 2020-21) and his program has been recognized as a CSCAA Scholar All-America Team for 38 consecutive semesters as of the spring 2022.

He took over as head coach for the program in 2002-03 and the Blue Devils went 4-10 in dual meet action, finished third at the conference championship and was led by senior Tammie Repass who then qualified for her first-ever USA Olympic Team trials while earning an 11th-place national ranking and 51st-place world ranking in the 200 meter butterfly.
 
Ball, who brought a wealth of experience from both the USA Swimming and NCAA levels to New Britain, is the director of the GRIT Aquatic Club.  His club teams have produced several top-16 national age group swimmers in addition to Junior National, Senior National, Olympic Trial and U.S. Open qualifiers and finalists, national team members and a national record holder.  Ball also placed two swimmers on the U.S. Junior Pan-Pacific Team. 
 
Ball began his collegiate coaching career as an assistant with the University of Connecticut swimming program in 1993, helping the Huskies through the most successful period in the school’s swimming history. Upon his arrival in Storrs, UConn won eight team championships, four New England and four ECAC crowns.
 
Ball competed for Southern Connecticut State University, where he received his undergraduate degree. He later earned a Master’s Degree in Secondary Education from the University of Bridgeport. While at Southern Connecticut, he captained the Owls (1987-88, 1988-89) to a pair of successful campaigns. He specialized in the breaststroke events and, at one time, held several pool records throughout New England.  A two-time New England Champion and NCAA Qualifier, Ball was named an NCAA Division II All-American after finishing sixth at the 1987 NCAA Championships.
 
In 1990, the Connecticut native opened the highly-successful and competitive Connecticut Swimming School, designed for high school swimmers. During its three years of operation, many students achieved national time standards and high school All-America status. The former elected member of the Connecticut Swimming Board of Directors and an American Swimming Coaches Association Level 4 certified coach, Ball has been selected to coach elite training camps at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO as well as in the state of Connecticut.
 
A 1999 Enfield (CT) Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, Bill has two sons, both CCSU grads, Billy, and Jason. He presently resides in Ellington, with his partner Cristin Carpisassi and her two sons Tyler, and Aiden.