The University of Nevada has hired Neil Harper as the head coach of the women's swimming and diving team, athletics director Doug Knuth announced on Tuesday. A highly regarded coach in collegiate swimming, Harper was the head men's and women's coach for 14 seasons at Florida State, where he posted a .807 winning percentage with the women and won three ACC Coach of the Year honors.

Harper, a two-time Olympian and seven-time All-American, arrives at Nevada after most recently serving as the program director and head coach of the Aiken Augusta Swim League in Augusta, Ga. Harper directed and coached the club's entire program - which consisted of 270 swimmers, 16 coaches and three sites - for the past two years. In the last 12 months, 10 of his swimmers qualified for USA Swimming Junior Nationals.

"We are fortunate to have coach Harper join the Wolf Pack family," Knuth said. "His experience and success at all levels of the sport will enhance our program and put the team in a position to compete for conference championships. His coaching success is matched by the quality of his character, and both are impressive. The future is bright for Wolf Pack swimming and diving."

Harper boasts 22 years of collegiate coaching experience and has been massively successful in the Division I ranks. He boasts a combined .777 winning percentage and 174 career wins in 16 years as a women's head coach. Harper guided both men's and women's programs at Florida State from 1999-2013 after beginning his head coaching career at Ohio State from 1997-99.

"I wanted to wait for the right opportunity before choosing to coach college athletes again," Harper said. "Nevada is the whole package, with a top-tier ranking of the University and with so many nationally ranked academic programs. Nevada has a beautiful campus and an athletics department that is committed to providing all of its teams with the essentials to challenge for the conference championship and build a nationally recognized and ranked program. Doug and the entire administration are excited, supportive and positive about the future of the women's swimming and diving team."

Harper will be inheriting a Wolf Pack team that posted an 8-2 dual record and placed third at the 2015 Mountain West Championships. Nevada will return 13 letter winners for the 2015-16 season, including MW Swimmer of the Year Yawen Li and MW Diver of the Year Krysta Palmer.

"I am excited to meet the team and partner with legendary diving coach Jian Li You to see what we can achieve this year," Harper said. "There is a great group of returning upperclassmen who I know are ready to take this program to the next level. Recruiting will be fun and it is essential to find the right student-athletes who are looking for a challenging education on a beautiful campus while maximizing their opportunity of being part of a program on the rise nationally."

The former Olympian has coached 168 student-athletes - both individual and relay swimmers - to NCAA All-American honors in his coaching career. In his massively successful stint with the Seminoles, Harper's student-athletes tallied 175 All-ACC selections and 98 individual and relay conference titles.

Harper also has extensive international coaching accolades. He coached five of his swimmers at the 2004 Olympics in Greece, as well as the World Championships in Spain and Japan, and the Commonwealth Games. He also coached the South African Olympic team in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

Harper's coaching experience stems from being one of the top swimmers in LSU history. Harper was a four-time SEC champion and seven-time All-American with the Tigers. As the team captain, he led LSU to an SEC championship in 1988 before placing sixth at the NCAA Championships, the highest finish in school history. Harper still has four times that rank in the top 10 in LSU's record books.

Harper, a native of London, represented Great Britain in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. He was a finalist in the 400 medley relay in both Olympic Games in which he participated.

His collegiate coaching career began with his alma mater, LSU, where he served as an assistant coach with the men's and women's teams from 1991-94. In that span, he helped Tiger swimmers tally 21 NCAA All-American honors and seven SEC titles. Harper then moved on to Florida State, where he held the same title from 1994 to 1997.

Harper's head coaching career began with Ohio State in 1997, where he spent two seasons as the Buckeyes head women's coach. Harper posted a 15-12 record in Columbus and helped qualify six student-athletes to the NCAA Championships. His teams at Ohio State also excelled academically, as the team earned NCAA All-Academic selections while posting 20 academic All-Big Ten honors.

Harper returned to Tallahassee in 1999, where he would go on to spend the next 14 seasons as the Seminoles head men's and women's swimming coach. Harper posted a 159-38 (.807) record with the women's team and a 112-45 (.713) with the men's team. His winning percentage and total wins with the Seminole women rank first in program history by a wide margin.

Harper earned ACC Coach of the Year honors in 2004, 2006 and 2007. The Florida State women reached double-digit win totals in nine seasons under Harper, including a program record 17-3 campaign in 2008. In the classroom, his women's team earned NCAA All-Academic Team Honors seven consecutive years with an overall team GPA above 3.2 from 2007-13.

Harper and his wife, Paige, who was also an All-American and SEC champion swimmer at LSU, have two daughters, Katherine and Kelly.