Once Competitors, Nesty and Poppell Share Common Bond

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Anthony Nesty and Jeff Poppell sat next to each other inside a small conference room at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Tuesday morning, not far from the office of University of Florida Athletic Director Scott Stricklin.

About a half hour earlier, Stricklin informed Nesty and Poppell of his plans to replace longtime Gators swimming coach Gregg Troy, who announced his retirement in late April.

Those plans, Nesty and Poppell discovered, included both of them in leading roles.

Stricklin informed Nesty, a former Gators swimmer and veteran member of Troy's coaching staff, of his new job as head coach of the men's program. Poppell, the former head coach of the women's team at Arkansas and who joined Troy's staff in 2016, learned he is Florida's new women's coach.

Stricklin opted to split the head coaching duties by promoting two men who had the title of associate head coach under Troy.

"I felt like this gave us the best chance to maintain success on the men's side while also accelerating the progress we've made on the women's side,'' Stricklin said. "We spent a lot of time looking at that. You are looking at a large number of athletes on both sides. You want to make sure they have the personalized attention they need and I think splitting the program allows them to do that."

The Nesty-Poppell connection runs much deeper than the UF pools where they have coached together the past couple of seasons. The two have known each other since the mid-1980s when they were prep competitors in Jacksonville.

As they sat in close quarters Tuesday, Poppell's memory flashed back to the first time he encountered Nesty, a native of Trinidad who grew up in the small country of Suriname in northeast South America.

By the time they met, Nesty had already competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and landed at the Bolles School in Jacksonville to finish high school and train under Troy, Bolles' head coach from 1977 until he was lured away by former UF Athletic Director Jeremy Foley in the spring of 1998.

A promising young swimmer at Jacksonville Episcopal, Poppell had youthful optimism the Eagles might finally be able to topple Troy's Bulldogs, whose Labrano Pool has been home to hundreds of Olympians and state champions through the years.

"Then all of a sudden, we'd have our first dual meet, Episcopal versus Bolles, and we're like, 'where did that person come from?' " Poppell recalled. "I remember very specifically swimming the very first dual meet with Anthony at Bolles."

Nesty, who would go on to Olympic fame at the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul by edging American Matt Biondi for gold in the 100-meter butterfly, flashed signs of what was to come on the international stage less than two years later.

They swam the 100-yard fly and 500-yard freestyle. Poppell challenged Nesty stroke for stroke in the 500.

"We're going side by side the entire way, and the last 50 … he beat me coming home,'' Poppell said. "Not many people beat him back in the day."

That was the first of many meetings between the two over years, first as swimmers – Nesty swam for the Gators and Poppell at Georgia – and later as coaches.

The common thread has always been Troy, who hired Poppell as an assistant at Bolles and Florida, and who brought Nesty onto Florida's staff as an assistant men's coach 20 years ago.

Nesty never wanted to leave and is grateful for the opportunity to become head coach at his alma mater. He is already a member of the UF Athletic Hall of Fame and International Swimming Hall of Fame.

"Gainesville is home,'' Nesty said. "I'm very excited for myself and my family and for the athletes. This is a special place. I bleed orange and blue. I don't see myself coaching anywhere else when I finish my coaching career here at UF. My pride and joy is the University of Florida, so I want to continue to do that."

The UF men have claimed six consecutive Southeastern Conference titles and placed fifth at the NCAA Championships in March. The loss of Olympic gold medalist Caeleb Dressel will be felt, but Nesty is confident the program is in good shape and played a crucial role in building it to where it is.

"The good thing is the class coming in is good, the guys here are very talented and we just need to get the best out of them sooner than later,'' he said.

Meanwhile, Poppell has helped revive the women's program with a pair of strong recruiting classes and place back on the scoreboard at the national meet in 2018. The Gators finished seventh in the SEC.

Poppell did a similar rebuilding job at Arkansas but expects bigger results with the Gators considering the program's history and resources.

"Born and raised in Jacksonville, so the Gators have been in my backyard my entire life,'' Poppell said. "It's been a good two years here at Florida with Gregg, trying to reshape and rebuild the women's program, and I think we are obviously moving in the right direction.

"We've got a real strong nucleus. They are rising juniors, incredible leaders and great work ethic. The culture is very, very good and we have a great incoming class of freshmen this fall. I think they will make a great impact on our program."

Both veteran coaches carried on with business-as-usual approaches since the departure of Troy and while Stricklin reviewed the programs and candidates. They spent much of the past six weeks preparing for the major national and international meets on the summer schedule.

With their knowledge of the programs, shared history and similar philosophies, they consider any transition period minimal. The teams greeted the hires with enthusiasm on Tuesday when informed of Stricklin's decision to promote within.

"It's fun to be back together in this dynamic 30-plus years later,'' Poppell said.

"I just think it's a really unique situation,'' Stricklin said. "We've got two guys who have invested on both sides."

The soft-spoken Nesty, dressed in a button-down shirt with a Gator head logo while seated next to Poppell, smiled at the distance traveled since they first crossed paths all those years ago.

They were competitors then. They are teammates now. Their history together is just part of the bridge to what they hope is a successful future together as the leaders of UF's swimming program.

"Even though on paper it's a split program, moving forward we've got to do things together," Nesty said. "We've got to do it well and have to put the Gators first. That's my intention."

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Once Competitors, Nesty and Poppell Share Common Bond

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Caeleb Dressel

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