Emily Honng was recently hired in 2022 as Chapman’s part-time assistant swimming and diving coach for the athletic year, where she hopes to incorporate her experience at a Division I College into her coaching career.

The Panther had the opportunity to sit down with Emily Honng to talk to her about her upcoming season with the swim and dive team at Chapman.

Honng is a former University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) swimmer who graduated in December 2020, and she served as a team captain for varsity swim. Honngs’ highlights include a 2019 Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention, as well as swimming in the 200-medley relay on four separate occasions, helping the UCLA swim team reach a third-place finish. 

Honng competed for Bi-County Regional Elite Aquatics (BREA Aquatics) in Walnut, California, where she won 100 Breast and 200 Breast championships at the 2017 SCS Junior Olympics. 

“When I was at BREA Aquatics, we had a very competitive environment,” Honng told The Panther. “My friends and teammates, whom I have known for so long, also committed to (Division I) colleges. I was still in a competitive environment (and) training was pretty similar. College is obviously a step up, but I think something that I have learned, as a coach, there are things you wish you could have done better as a swimmer or building (better) relationships with my coaches.”

Although a competitive environment will always stand there are differences when it comes to working with new teams and coaches. Chapman University has a co-ed team. This means that training is not divided by genders so all athletes train together.

“We had a co-ed team for (the) club, and for UCLA, we just had a women’s team,” Honng said. “So there was a little bit of a difference there. I think an all-girls team is super close and tight-knit, and I really liked that.”

Currently, she continues to coach at BREA Aquatics alongside her employment at Chapman University, where she is the part-time assistant diving coach for the 2023-24 season.

“I wasn't sure how I was going to feel coming to coaching after because I was swimming for so long,” Honng said. “I kind of wanted to give myself a break from the pool, but coaching at BREA Aquatics has opened many new doors for me. It has helped me realize that I do love coaching and teaching in general.”

Speaking with Honng, you would not be able to tell this will be her first-ever season as a college coach. Swimming since the age of six, 15 years of lessons into a Division I collegiate career and continuing to coach swimming for the past two seasons, Honng is no stranger to the sport of swimming.

Although Honng has not had experience at Chapman yet, she states that the swim and dive team’s first official training started just last week. 

Honng is excited to get out there and start putting in the work for the athletes and coaches. She expresses that although she hasn’t seen much of the university's swim and dive team, she has heard many great things. 

“Everyone I have met so far (at Chapman University) has been amazing,” Honng told The Panther. “Juliet Suess does a great job of including everybody. I know we have kind of a younger group with Juliet Suess, Jason Willman and me combined. I think it will be more relatable. The swimmers are going to be able to come and trust us more and talk through things, even outside of the pool, if they need to.”

“Personally for me, I’m looking to challenge myself as a younger coach and strive to become a better leader, building relationships with the swimmers and contributing to a positive and tight team culture,” Honng continued. “I want to use this opportunity to explore potential careers in my future, and I think this is a great stepping stone.”

There is much change within the athletic environment of the swim and dive team. Speaking with Willman and Honng has expanded the fantastic amount of work that the  coaches will be putting into the 2023-24 season.

“Juliet was talking about how there will be different groups: (a) weight training group, the spring group and the longer distance group,” Honng said. “Our three coaches will scatter out and take a group once in a while and then switch it up every week or a few days. Someone who specializes more in a stroke or a more individual medley can benefit more. I think creating those different groups and having enough coaches to coach those different groups will be a game changer this year.”  

Honng’s many years of experience falls perfectly into the college coaching program, and she hopes to bring in some of her philosophies and training ideas into practice this year. 

The Chapman swim and dive team continues to emphasize the importance of building solid and meaningful relationships with the athletes and athletic department. A key factor to the future success of the 2023-24 season is the push towards building a joyful, fun and exciting environment for the students to practice in. 

In the meantime, Honng continues to contribute to the development of swimming and diving. She is a part of Voice in Sport, an advocacy platform where she empowers women in sports and pushes Title IX policies in Pac-12 institutions. Honng also speaks with Olympic athletes regarding their mindset and journey to becoming elite athletes in their sport, while learning their struggles.