Nick Rodionoff

Nick was my master teacher, at Birmingham, as a student teacher working on my credential. He convenienced me to take over his age group team and we won a 4A L.A. city swim championship. I also watched his home on broad beach in Malibu when he was out of town. And he was a great beach pic taker. However, it was all about winning for Nick at the expense of his swimmers who he used for his benefit.

Mr. Rodionoff was my biology teacher at Birmingham high during my freshman year. He was an outstanding instructor, who made learning fun. I went onto pursue a career in the medical field, in part because of his influence. My condolences to his family. Jennifer ( Judy) Griffin, graduating class of 1976.

Nick was my coach, mentor, and Spirit-dad for my formative years, and my loyal friend once I grew up, and I know there are thousands of athletes who could say the same. Nick was always extremely humble, and coached his athletes to "have fun while working hard". You can get a sense of this in this short video interview after his Pepperdine dive/swim team swept the Conference championships in 2009, which had never been done before. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKuyLyzfqdM. We were expected...

My thoughts and prayers are with the Rodionoff Family. I had the pleasure of being coached by Nick at Birmingham High School `88-`92. I joined the team after years of competing for a club team. I was burned out, and not sure if I even wanted to continue swimming until Coach reminded me how much I loved to swim and compete. For years he challenged all of us to not only be great competitors, but to be a positive role model for those around us. His words of wisdom, and life lessons will...

So sorry for your loss. He was my coach in `88 at Birmingham. I can´t believe his passing wasn´t announced publicly. There are 1000´s of people whose lives were enriched by knowing him, learning from him. He was one in a million.