JACKSONVILLE – Jon Sakovich, who has headed the Bolles program in an Interim capacity since Sergio Lopez left for a job in Singapore, had his promotion made permanent today at the Bolles Swim Club.
Sakovich first began coaching at Bolles in August 2000, and has coached his fair share of National Age Group Top 16 swimmers, high school All-Americans, Junior National and Senior National qualifiers, as well as Olympic Trials competitors.
Sakovich is a known quantity in Florida, first coaching at Gainesville’s Florida Aquatics before coaching for four years as Clearwater Aquatics’ head age group coach immediately prior to moving to Bolles.
Sakovich began swimming competitively by training in a hotel pool and the ocean as part of the Saipan Swim Club. That training lead Sakovich to swimming for the Northern Marinas Islands at the South Pacific Games, Pan Pacific Games, and the FINA World Championships. He even represented Guam at the 1988 Olympics before enrolling at the University of Florida.
At Florida, he became an All-American and also picked up a bronze medal swimming for the U.S. a the 1995 Pan American Games. He also swam for Team USA at the 1996 Pan Pacific Championships.
That international flavor will do Sakovich well at Bolles, which tends to be internationally heavy in terms of swimmers.
Well-deserved! Congrats to Jon
He was an outstanding distance freestyler for the Gators back in the day and a strong 1500 free guy in early to mid- ’90s. Bet he had more than a little to do with Joseph Schooling’s development among other top Bolles kids.