Head coach Keith Kennedy (kkjrswim@yahoo.com) (B.Bus., Business Admin., University of Cincinnati) began his professional coaching career as an assistant coach for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats after competing there for four years as a varsity swimmer and serving as team captain. There he worked with two future Olympians before becoming Head Coach with Seals Swimming in Maine. He was elected to the Board of Directors of Maine Swimming, served as President of the Maine Swim Coaches Association, and was chosen Maine’s Head Zone Coach for the Eastern Zones. Coach Kennedy was voted as Maine Swim Coach of the Year in 1999, and was one of only seven coaches selected nationally by USA Swimming to mentor with the National Team and Head Coach, Jonty Skinner, at the Olympic training Center in Colorado. Coach Kennedy served as an Elected Delegate to the USA Swimming National Convention in 1998 and 1999, and he was selected for four consecutive years to assist head U.S. Olympic coaches Richard Quick and Skip Kenny at the Stanford National Swim Camp in California prior to the 2000 Olympics.

After moving to Ohio in late 2000 to become both Head Coach and Aquatics Director at St. Francis de Sales High School, (See KnightLife article about Coach Kennedy here) and Head Coach of the Greater Toledo Aquatic Club (GTAC), Coach Kennedy was nominated for Senior Ohio Swim Coach of the Year in 2001, and was voted Northwest Ohio Men’s Coach of the Year in 2003, 2010 & 2011 and Ohio State Division I Coach of the Year in 2010. He was selected as a coach to attend the National USA Swim Camp in 2000 and 2001, was the Camps Coordinator of Ohio Swimming, and has earned his license as a Certified Pool Operator. More recently, he was chosen by the US Paralympics of the US Olympic Committee to serve as National Paralympic Team Coach in preparation for the 2004 Paralympic games in Athens, at the 2005 Paralympic World Cup, Manchester, England, and as US coach for the 2006 World Championships, Durban, South Africa. Under his leadership, GTAC has received the USA Swimming Club of Excellence Award in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 only awarded to the top 1% of swimming clubs nationally, and has been selected as one of only a dozen clubs in Ohio to achieve Level Four under the Club Recognition Program.  In April, 2004, two of Coach Kennedy's swimmers, Beth Kolbe and Beth Riggle, were chosen for the 2004 USA Paralympic Team to compete in Athens, Greece, where Beth Riggle achieved a Bronze Medal in the 100 meter breaststroke and a Gold Medal for her part in the 400 meter medley relay. Under his coaching, several swimmers have achieved Junior National, US Open, Senior National and Olympic Trial Cuts. GTAC's Katie Carroll, Susan Johnson and Pat Kennedy competed at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials and Katie, Kylie Gamelier and Ryan McHugh competed at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials. In 2009, Coach Kennedy coached Roman Willets to an Ohio State HS Championship in the 200 free (1:38.69), one of the top times ever swum in Ohio for that event. In 2010, the 400 Free Relay and 200 Medley Relay teams from St Francis won the Ohio State Championship and the team was state runners-up overall. Kennedy was honored as 2010 Ohio State Division I Coach of the Year. In 2011, SFS won all relays and two individual events to be state runners-up also.

Throughout his career, Coach Kennedy has been active in Ohio, Eastern States, and USA Swimming Clinics and participated in the American Swim Coaches Association (ASCA) World Clinics. Under his guidance, swimmers have received greater than $1.5 million in college scholarships, and have achieved World Rankings. As part of his outreach efforts, Coach Kennedy has initiated and been awarded grants for GTAC’s Boys & Girls Club Outreach Program and Catholic Club Outreach Program, been awarded grants for GTAC’s WaterWorks Program (for disabled children), expanded GTAC's Lessons Program, and created GTAC's Water Safety Education Workbook for teachers of primary grades. GTAC also has become the training site for the Toledo Public Schools Special Olympics Swim program and the Josh Project swim lesson program to prevent drowning among urban children. GTAC has been chosen as a Make-A-Splash liaison by USA Swimming. He has also created a junior high swim league and established GTAC's non-competitive swim program. In 2009, he was awarded the National Disability Swimming Service Award by USA Swimming in recognition of his outstanding work with Paralympic swimmers and in promotion of swimming for disabled persons across the country.

Among the many distinctions that swimmers trained by Coach Kennedy have achieved are the following:   

U.S. Pan-American Gold Medalist

Gold Medalist and Bronze Medalist, 2004 Paralympic Games

Two 2004 USA Paralympic Team Members (Beth Kolbe and Beth Riggle) 

Top 24, U.S. Olympic Trials                              Top 16, NCAA Championships (Div I & III)

Speedo Sectional Champions                            Speedo Sectional Meet Records

FINA World Rankings                                       Maine HS State Champions

Top 16, US Senior Nationals                             Maine HS Swimmers of the Year

USA Swimming National Top-16                       Finalists, US Junior Nationals

US Paralympic National Champions and International Paralympic World Ranking (1st)

US Paralympic American Records                US Paralympic National Team Members

USA Swimming Academic All-Americans         Maine LSC Team State Champions

Ohio State Senior Champions                          Maine State Age-Group Records

Finalists, US Open Championships                 Ohio Swimming LSC Team Champions

Ohio HS State Champions                              Ohio Swimming Age-Group Champions

St Francis de Sales Varsity Records              St Francis de Sales Freshman Records

Northwest Ohio HS Team Champions (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010)

Ohio High School Team State Runners-Up (2010, 2011)

Chris Pierson (cpierson@sev.org) has served as a swim instructor at the Doc Councilman Natatorium at Indiana University while pursuing a degree in Meteorology. He received the award for Swim Instructor of the Year in 2002, and achieved the highest distinction in the swim lessons program offered each year at IU. Coach Chris brings a great deal of knowledge, talent and enthusiasm to GTAC's age group program. On several occasions, he has been selected as an Ohio Zone coach for the Midwest Zone and as a Team Manager for the Ohio/Lake Erie Quad team. In 2011, Coach Chris was honored as the Ohio Age Group Coach of the Year. In addition to earning state and national rankings, and many first place finishes in area meets, Coach Chris' swimmers have achieved the following:

Ohio Northwest Regional Champions     Central Zone Champions      Ohio JO Champions     

Ohio JO High Point Winners          Ohio JO Age Group Team Champions 

Quad Team Finalists                  Sectional Qualifiers                 Ohio LSC Records

USA National Age Group Top-16 Times               USA National Age Group Records

USA National #1 Rankings

Coach Brigid Burke (nager34@hotmail.com) has been coaching swimming since 1993.  She has coached beginners, intermediate,and advanced swimmers for YMCA and USA swim clubs in Illinois, Pennsylvania, andFrance, as well as a summer league in Virginia. She has coached YMCA districtand state champions and national qualifiers; Junior Olympic state champions andtop ten swimmers; Zone qualifiers and champions, Junior National qualifiers; anOlympic Trial qualifier; and a USMS national champion.  She has been invited to coach atseveral elite USA swimming camps. Her main goal in coaching swimmers is to helpthem improve their technique and aid them to develop more self-confidence so theycan get faster times.  She alsohopes to teach swimmers that swimming can be a life-long sport that alwayskeeps a person healthy in spirit and mind. 

Dave Eisenstein (swmr1650@aol.com) B.Bus., University of Toledo, B.Bus. (Accounting) Lourdes College.

Coach Dave serves as coach to GTAC's pre-senior swimmers as well as an assistant to the senior team. Coach Dave is a lifetime swimmer and most recently competed for the University of Toledo Rockets where he specialized in middle and long distance freestyle and placed in the top 8 at MAC Championships. He holds a Michigan State Masters Record in the 200 free (1:46.36). Dave has served assistant coach for club teams in Northbrook, Illinois, as the head coach of the St Ursula Academy swim team and the Head Water Polo Coach for the St Francis de Sales Aqua-Knights, who were 2010 Ohio State Runners-up with several members achieving All-Ohio honors. Coach Dave is a Registered Operations Manager for a local financial services company. Swimmers under his direction have achieved the following:

Ohio State HS Top 16 Finalists     Speedo Sectional Qualifiers      Ohio Senior Champions                US Open Qualifiers                 Central Zone Champions       Ohio Record Holders                       USA Swimming National Record Holders

 Liz Hinkleman  (Elizabeth.Hinkleman@utoledo.edu) B. Pharm., Pharmacy Administration, University of Toledo.  

Coach Liz, who is the Head Coach of the UT Rockets swim team, brings a great deal of varied coaching experience to the senior group. After competing for four years as a varsity member of the UT Rockets, serving two of those as team Captain, Liz moved to Chicago where she was assistant swim coach at Lewis University and the Academy Bullets, a strong USA swim club which has produced many great national swimmers, most recently Mary Decenza. Raised in Munster, Indiana, Liz swam throughout age-group and high school, also helping to teach swim lessons and coach during that time. While at UT, she was a three time MAC Champion in the 200 Free Relay, set several conference and school records, and was a member of the All-MAC team. She is currently working toward her Masters in Business Administration at UT.

Under Coach Liz's training, the UT Women took 2nd in the MAC Championships and achieved several Senior National and Olympic Trial cut times. Her swimmers also qualified for NCAA's, and Laura Lindsay scored 13th at the 2011 NCAA Championships in the 100 yard breaststroke.

We are delighted to have Coach Liz on our GTAC staff.

Mark "Howie" Howard (mark.howard2@utoledo.edu) B.A. University of Arizona. 

Mark Howard is in his third season as the assistant coach for the University of Toledo and his second with GTAC. Howard enters his 14th year as a swimming coach at the collegiate and club levels. Prior to joining the Toledo staff, he served as the assistant coach at Bowling Green State University for four years, where he helped coach several Bowling Green record-holders and all-time top performers. Recruiting and training plan implementation are strong suits that Howard further instills into the high expectations of the UT swimming and diving program.

Before joining the BGSU staff, Howard worked at De Anza Cupertino Aquatics in California in addition to gaining some coaching experience in Australia. A native of Dallas, Texas, his first coaching stint was with the City of Plano Swimmers (COPS). His network of mentors throughout his coaching career include Olympic coaches Frank Bush, Rick DeMont, Eddie Reese, Kris Kubik and Pierre LaFontaine, as well as "BBQ" Bill Thompson and Gordy Smith, two swimmers under renowned Olympic coach George Haines.

Howard's effective coaching stems from his own experience as an exceptional swimmer. A 1997 graduate of the University of Arizona, he was a Pac-10 finalist for the Wildcats swimming program. Prior to attending Arizona, he was National High School Champion at Plano Senior High School in Texas, where he set state records in the 200 IM and the 200 and 400-meter medley relays. He was also a Senior National Qualifier and National Age Group Champion in high school.

Coach Howie will assist with Pre-Senior Training at GTAC.

Taryn Kirk (tazzkirk@gmail.com)  B.A., University of Toledo

Tayrn is an Olympic Trials swimmer born and raised in South Africa. She began swimming at age 9 and was recruited to swim for the University of Toledo after high school.
During her four years at UT, Taryn was the 200 yd. fly and 100 yd. back record holder for the Rockets, and achieved 1st team All-Mac in her junior year. She was a coach at Sylvania Tsunami for 4 years and at Northview High School for 2 years. She and her husband have two small children, Anna and Oliver, and Taryn is currently employed as a private swim lesson instructor at Wildwood Athletic Club. We are delighted to welcome Taryn to GTAC!

Kristen Latscha (awlatscha09@yahoo.com) competed for GTAC ever since she was a young swimmer, and went on to be one of our strongest senior swimmers. She earned multiple JO and Zone cuts, specializing in distance freestyle and backstroke. She was a four year varsity swimmer at Anthony Wayne High School. She is now a student at the University of Toledo and helps Coach Chris coach the Gold group as well as assisting with the younger swimmers. We are delighted to welcome Coach Kristen to our team.

Jonelle Semancik (jsemancik@bgcs.k12.oh.us) B.Ed., M.Ed., BGSU, Early Child Development, Reading

Coach Jonelle was a competitive swimmer for twelve years. Her favorite events were the 100 breaststroke and 400 IM. She was All District her Junior and Senior year in the 100 breaststroke and 200 IM. She has also completed four triathlons. Jonelle has been coaching since high school. She started her coaching career at Bowling Green Swim Club. She then worked as a swim instructor at the YMCA in Perrysburg for four years. She currently coaches in the summer for the Fallen Timbers Family Recreation Center in Waterville.

We are delighted to welcome Coach Jonelle to GTAC!

Rich Szczepinski (esquirerich@yahoo.com)  B.A., Hiram College, J.D., University of Toledo.

Coach Rich is entering his 7th season as a coach at the Greater Toledo Aquatic Club.  He is also the Head Coach for The Saint Ursula Academy Arrows Swimming and Water Polo teams.  He has previously coached with the Findlay Area Swim Team while Director of the Findlay YMCA aquatic program and served as Assistant Coach for Coach Kennedy at Toledo St. Francis de Sales from 2002-2004 during law school. He is now an attorney practicing in Toledo and is excited to continue working with GTAC.  Coach Rich enjoys pursuing his own athletic goals when not coaching and is currently a top amateur triathlete.  He has competed in races all over the United States and has qualified to the National Championships. Coach Rich is excited to help everyone achieve their goals.

While at GTAC, his swimmers have acheived the following:
 
Ohio State HS Top 16 Finalists         Ohio Northwest District Champions                                       Saint Ursula Academy Record Holders    Speedo Sectional Qualifiers         US Open Qualifiers         Central Zone Qualifiers                     Ohio Junior Olympic Qualifiers   

Liz Willis (elizabeth.willis@rockets.utoledo.edu) hails from Saline, Michigan, and has been swimming competitively for over 13 years, including as a member of the UT Women's team. Currently she is a junior at UT, majoring in Special Education. Liz has extensive experience in swim instruction in Ann Arbor, and looks forward to becoming a Kindergarten Special Education teacher. We are delighted to welcome Liz to our staff!