Pepperdine University Athletics

John Impelman is headed into his 14th season working with the Pepperdine men’s basketball program in 2022-23. He’s held a variety of roles over the years, and currently serves as the director of operations.

He joined the Waves in 2008-09 as the team operations assistant/video coordinator under Tom Asbury. After leaving for a season, he came back as the director of operations for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons. He was promoted to assistant coach in 2013-14 by former head coach Marty Wilson, a position he held for five seasons. He was retained by Lorenzo Romar in 2018 as the director of operations.
 
“John brings a wealth of experience at this university,” said Romar in March 2018. “He’s very, very competent, and we’re fortunate that he wanted to stay on with us.”
 
Said Impelman: “I’m extremely excited to continue on with Coach Romar and the new staff. I’m eager to assist in any way I can to help the program and am confident that my experience at Pepperdine will be an asset moving forward.”
 
During the 2011-12 season, Impelman took on double-duty in addition to his director of operations position and filled in as an assistant coach when a spot opened up midway through the season.
 
In between stints at Pepperdine, Impelman worked as the Director of Operations at Double Pump Inc. in Northridge, California, in 2010-11. Double Pump is widely known as running some of the premier club basketball teams and tournaments in the nation.
 
Impelman graduated from Occidental in May 2008 with a degree in sociology. He was a four-year letterman who was part of squads that won SCIAC titles in 2007 and 2008 and went to three NCAA Division III Tournaments.
 
He has worked at several local camps for many years, including as a coach at Tom Asbury’s and Ben Howland’s camps in 2009 and at the Pacific Coast Basketball Camp from 2003-08. He was a camp counselor for the Double Pump West Coast All-Star Camp in 2009, and helped manage one of the sites of the Double Pump Best of Summer Tournament, a major summer club competition.
 
A native of Huntington Beach, Calif., he attended Ocean View High School. His father, Craig Impelman, was an assistant coach at Pepperdine for two seasons (1979-80 and 1980-81) along with Asbury under Jim Harrick. His great-grandfather is the late UCLA coaching legend John Wooden.
 
Impelman earned a master’s degree in American studies from Pepperdine in 2010.
 
He and his wife Katie have two children, Elizabeth and Carter.