Vavina Lapham is also the Head Coach & Aquatic Director at Salem College. Lapham is a member of American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA), National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association (NISCA), College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) and USA Swimming. Lapham also holds a CPO, Lifeguard and Lifeguard Instructor Certification.
A former competitive swimmer who graduated from South Stokes High School, along with being a surfer and record holder in backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle, Lapham trained under coach Phyllis Steimel at the Rowan Aquatic Center in Salisbury, N.C. She went on to attend Valdosta State and later the University of Georgia.
Lapham is a former coach at Swim Atlanta, recognized traditionally as a USA Swimming Top-5 team, Lapham coached: Masters, Senior AM, Senior I-3 and Advanced Age Group. Under the guidance of USA Swimming Elite Level Coach Landon Harris, she had the honor of working with some of USA Swimming’s most elite coaches & swimmers as an assistant with the Junior National Team. She has coached swimmers that have gone on to swim Division I, across the ACC & SEC.
Coach Lapham was selected by her peers to represent NC Swimming as a member of the travel team coaching staff for 2022! She served as a Coach at the 2022 NC Age Group Select Camp in Greensboro, NC and the 2022 Southern Zone Long Course Age Group Championship in Tupelo, MS. Coach Lapham has been requested to represent NCAA DIII Swimming among her NCAA DI peers Todd Desorbo & Matt Hall as panelist April 2023!