Coach Jim

Coach Rusnak began swimming when he was 10 with a small club in Northwest Indiana, and the sport has been an important part of his life ever since.

After swimming on his club and high school teams, Coach Rusnak competed for Wabash College, then a top-10 Division III program. After graduation, he became the head varsity swim coach at Hobart High School in Hobart, Ind., where he coached a number of conference and sectional champions, state finalists and Junior National qualifiers.

In 2001, Coach Rusnak joined the staff at USA Swimming as the editor-in-chief of Splash Magazine and as content director of usaswimming.org. He started the team that developed the USA Swimming Deck Pass app and was later the executive producer of the “Off the Blocks” video series. In addition to his work at USA Swimming, Coach Rusnak also coached a Masters team for eight years at the Downtown YMCA.

He joined PPA in the fall of 2025 as one of the Masters coaches.