Coaching Staff

Lisl Prater-Lee | Head Coach

Lisl Prater-Lee recently completed her 28th season as the Vassar College head men's and women's swimming and diving coach in 2021-22. Prater-Lee joined Vassar in 1993, and has steadily increased the squad size as the program continues to improve.

Under her guidance, Vassar has produced three All-Americans on the women’s side; the most recent coming in 2019 with Jesse Ecklund's '22 fourth place finish in the 200-backstroke, the highest finish by any female Brewer at the swimming & diving nationals. Prior to Ecklund, the 2015 season saw Julia Cunningham '17 place seventh in the 200 butterfly. Prater-Lee has coached 10 NCAA qualifiers on the women’s side between the swimming and diving programs, while her staff was named the 2020 and the 2005 Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year.

Prater-Lee's Brewers on both the men's and women's sides have experienced immense success during her tenure. This past season, Vassar saw both squads produce solid success at the Liberty League Championships as both teams placed fourth overall. The men's squad was paced by All-League Second Team honoree, Robbie Perot, who not only took second in the 500-freestyle, but was an All-League Honorable Mention with third overall in the 1650-freestyle. Additionally, the 200-free relay team placed third to take home Honorable Menton honors.

Six school records were set by the men's team during the league meet, including individual marks in the 100-free from rookie Ben Glazebnik and in the 50-fly and 100-fly from senior Max White. Vassar also saw an outstanding effort in men's diving as senior Sam Fujikawa took seventh overall in both the 1- and 3-meter events - making the finals on both board. In the classroom, the Brewers continued to excel as 13 from the men's team and 13 from the women's team garnered Liberty League All-Academic honors.

During the 2019-20 season, the Brewers finished fourth at the Liberty League Championships, with Ecklund being named the 2019-20 Swimmer of the Year, which came off the heels of her Rookie of the Year honor at the league meet the year before. Vassar saw four individual league victories - two from Ecklund and one each by Robbie Perot '23 in the 1650-free and Lillian Lowenthal '23 in the 200-butterfly, while the women's squad garnered three relay victories (400-medley, 400-free, 800-free). The Brewers have also excelled in the classroom under Prater-Lee’s tutelage, as the squads combined for 20 Liberty League All-Academic selections during the 2019-20 campaign. Both squads also earned the CSCAA Scholar All-America Team Awards.

After graduating from Oberlin (Ohio) College with bachelor's degrees in Sociology and Sport Psychology, Prater-Lee attended the University of Iowa. She served as graduate assistant coach for the women's program, which competes in the Big 10.

Upon completion of her master's in Sport Psychology, she returned to Oberlin in 1991. She guided the Yoemen for two years before taking the head coaching position at Vassar.

Jake McCormack | Assistant Coach