As if Keene State College Alumni and swimmer Diana Pimer hasn’t contributed enough to the success of KSC athletics, she’s back for more. Not only is Pimer an assistant on KSC’s swim and dive team, she has recently been hired as the Assistant Sports Information Director. It seems like she has now figuratively and literally rewritten the KSC Swimming record book
Pimer was a decorated swimmer during her time with the Owls. She holds KSC records for the 200 backstroke, 200 individual medley, 400 individual medley and was a member of the KSC record setting 800 freestyle relay team. In addition to the records, Pimer helped lead her team to four straight Little East Conference titles, was the Little East Conference Rookie of the Year as a first-year, LEC Swimmer of the Year as a sophomore and LEC Female Athlete of the year as a senior. Out of the pool, Pimer was an accomplished writer for The Equinox, was the paper’s Social Media Editor, received a third place award from the New Hampshire Press Association for Best Sports Story.
With all of that in the history books and her KSC career in the pool and classroom over, Pimer said that she still wants to contribute to KSC as much as she can.
Photos compiled by Jake Coughlin / Administrative Executive Editor
“I just think that I’m lucky to be here. I think college goes by really fast. Not everyone gets to stay at their college and help people they were once peers with,” Pimer said.
With the quick transition from the coached to the coach, Pimer already had personal relationships with many of the swimmers on the team. First-year interim head coach Chris Woolridge said that having Pimer on his staff and her relationships with the swimmers currently on the team makes his job easier.
“She has [going into] four years of background on some of these guys, and for somebody that’s coming in with very little background [on the current KSC swimmers] it helps to get a little bit of insight or to at least be able to bounce some things off of her because she’s been pretty good with understanding where people are at,” Woolridge said.
Swimmer and former teammate Gabrielle Brzozowski said that having Pimer as a coach has helped her and the other swimmers as well.
“It was a bit of an interesting transition but she’s doing a really awesome job and it’s really cool to see her in a spot where she really knows what she’s talking about and she’s a lot of help and a lot of the girls feel comfortable coming to her and talking about things,” Brzozowski said.
Woolridge said that one thing that makes Pimer an effective coach is her energy. “One of the great things about Diana, she’s always positive, always upbeat, always full of energy, and that’s a big piece of it. Just coming in and being ready to go every day,” Woolridge said.
The swim head coach said that Pimer’s dedication to the program is something that is extremely rare.
“If you just bring in some average person off the street, they’re not necessarily invested in seeing Keene State swimming succeed. They might be in it for more of something for themselves or career or whatever; and that’s not Diana.” Woolridge continued, “I think she’s here because she loves this program and wants to give back to it.”
Making her team better isn’t Pimer’s only responsibility at KSC. She has taken over the position of Assistant Sports Information Director at KSC.
As the new ASID, Pimer is responsible for covering the results of swimming and basketball, nominating athletes of the week, writing meet recaps, updating the Owls athletics website and record books, and more.
KSC Sports information Director Abe Osheyack said that Pimer was the right person for the job, and she has adjusted to the new responsibilities well.
“She’s picked up on that stuff very quickly…I think she’s been doing a fine job,” Osheyack said.
On top of her duties as an employee of KSC, Pimer has combined her love for swimming and writing as a staff writing for Swimming World, a magazine mainly devoted to swimming and diving.
With the increased workload, Woolridge said that Pimer’s dedication to the swim team has not changed.
“I don’t think that that’s made her dedication waiver at all.
She definitely prioritizes doing what she needs to do for the swim team, but then in the same manner, if she needs some time to do something else I’m fine with that because I’m happy to have her,” Woolridge said.
No matter what job she’s doing, though, Pimer said she just wants to give back to the school that has given her so much.
“I just really love Keene State. I’m glad this is where I chose to go, and if I can give back in any way, I want to because Keene State gave me a lot,” Pimer said.
Pimer continued, “I just feel like Keene State is one big happy family…being alongside them in this position is pretty cool and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Jacob can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com