Dan France took over as the Grizzlies' head women's swimming coach in March of 2011.
At the conclusion of the 2012-13 season, France was named RMAC Women's Coach of the Year as he guided the ASU women to a third place finish at the RMAC Championships. That same season, Kelsey Baggs was named RMAC Freshman of the Year. In 2014-15, France coached another RMAC Freshman of the Year in Alexis Divelbiss. That season France and Divelbiss reached the NCAA Division II Championships. At the meet, Divelbiss garnered All-American status by swimming to a school record in the 200 IM. It marked the first All-American student-athlete for France as head coach for Adams State.Â
Before taking the helm of the Adams State swim programs, France served as an assistant coach and aquatics manager at Colorado Mesa University since 2008. At Colorado Mesa, France worked primarily with the backstrokers, flyers and individual medley swimmers.
While with the Mavericks, France recruited more than 100 athletes to Colorado Mesa and helped swimmers to numerous school and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) achievements. More than 500 school records fell while France was on the Mavericks' staff, a time during which the squad also produced six RMAC champions, two all-time RMAC records, 30 NCAA Division II provisional qualifying marks and 126 RMAC finalists.
Before arriving in Grand Junction, Colo., France occupied the role of head coach at Eastmoor Swim & Tennis in Denver and at Grandview High School in Aurora, Colo. He also gained prior college experience as an assistant at Metro State College from 2005-07 and as an assistant at Colorado College from 2004-05.
As a collegiate athlete, France attended St. Cloud State University (Minn.) for one year (1999-2000) before transferring to Metro State following a shoulder injury. In 2 and 1/2 years with the Roadrunners, he became a NCAA D-II national qualifier. He also set school records in the 50 and 100 backstroke at Metro State, and was a member of school record setting 200 and 400 medley relay teams. His 100 backstroke record still stands, but his swimming career was unfortunately cut short in 2003 due to persistent shoulder problems.
France was born in Beaufort, S.C., and was given the opportunity to travel the globe due to his father's military career, training and competing in Hong Kong, the Phillipines and Okinawa. He attended Air Academy High School and swam for the Colorado Springs Swim Team. He became a Colorado age group champion, four-time Junior Nationals qualifier, High School All-American and 3-time Colorado High School state runner-up, and helped lead Air Academy to the 1999 Colorado 4A State Championship as a senior.
