Coach Don
Coach Don is the Aquatics Director for the city of Westlake. As Aquatics Director, he is responsible for the pools at Westlake Recreation Center and Clague Park. His first job was as a lifeguard at Elyria Country Club. In college, he swam for Cleveland State University. His favorite events while at CSU included the IM and the backstroke.
Coach Don has coached many swim teams, beginning with Elyria Country Club, and currently with Amherst Summer Swim Team in the summer months and Vermilion YMCA Torpedoes during the winter months. Several of the swimmers that he has coached have continued in their swimming careers to compete at the national level.
Coach Don enjoys focusing on the techniques of each of the four swim strokes and the flip turn with the swimmers that he coaches. Technique and mechanics are what he teaches during the Monday, Wednesday and Friday 6:30 AM practices. He spends time watching each of the swimmers during the 6:30 practice to give them tips to help them improve their strokes and flip turns.
Coach Don now enjoys volunteering his time to the Amherst Summer Swim Team by helping out at the swim meets in various ways. He helps make the meets as exciting as possible for the swimmers. His experience and help is greatly appreciated!
Coach Gabbie
This is Coach Gabbie’s fourth year coaching for the Amherst Summer Swim Team. She previously swam with the team for 14 years. In high school, she was a four year varsity swimmer while she was on the team. She works as a lifeguard at the pool and teaches swim lessons during the summer.
She attends Bowling Green State University and is studying Economics during her time there. During the school year, she is also a lifeguard at BGSU and teaches swim lessons there as well.
Her favorite thing about coaching is creating a bond with all the kids on the team and becoming a role model for them to look up to. She also loves watching the kids excel in swimming and seeing all their hard work pay off in their races. She hopes that these kids fall in love with swimming like she did many years ago and continue to stay with the sport as they get older. A piece of advice she has for the swimmers is to simply, “Keep a positive attitude and most importantly have fun!”
Coach Brad Golski is a recent graduate from Amherst Steele High School, where he was a four time varsity letter winner in swimming. Brad’s favorite events are the 200 Individual Medley and the 200 Breaststroke, and has qualified for the OHSAA Swimming Northwest District meet the past three years. Brad has been swimming for the Amherst Summer Swim Team for the past eleven years. He has been a member of Lake Shore Swim Club for the past four years and also swam for the Vermilion Family Y Torpedoes for eight years. Coach Brad is looking forward to watching his swimmers improve their stroke technique and developing a passion for the sport of swimming.
Coach Katie
This is Coach Katie’s thirteenth season as a member of the Amherst Summer Swim Team and her third season as a coach! She recently graduated from Amherst Steele High School, where she swam for four years. Her favorite events through high school were the 100 breaststroke and 50 freestyle. Additionally, in the past Coach Katie has also swam for the West Shore Sea Turtles and Vermilion Torpedoes. This fall she will attend Kent State University to study nursing, with the hopes of one day becoming a pediatric nurse practitioner. Coach Katie is looking forward to another great season and is excited to watch her swimmers improve over the summer! She hopes that along with improving their swimming, her swimmers learn what it means to be part of a team, make new friends, and most importantly, have fun!
Coach Tyler
This is Coach Tyler’s fourth season coaching the Amherst Summer Swim Team. He began his swimming career on the team when he was five years old. Throughout his time as an athlete Coach Tyler swam with teams including the Vermillion Torpedoes and Amherst Steele Swimming and Diving Team, where he served as team captain. Coach Tyler continued his swimming career as a varsity participant and captain on the University of Mount Union’s swimming and diving team.
Coach Tyler studied English Literature during his time at Mount Union, and, this past May, he graduated with his Bachelor of Arts degree. With this, he hopes to pursue a future career in education.
Coach Tyler is excited to share all the things he has learned throughout his time in the pool with another generation of swimmers!
Coach Katlyn
This will be Coach Katlyns second year coaching with the Amherst Summer Swim Team and she is very excited to see how everyone improves throughout the season! Katlyn is a swimmer for Amherst Summer Swim Team and the Amherst High school Swim Team. Katlyn has been swimming for 7 years and has been with the Amherst summer swim team for 6 years. She has qualified for districts in the 200 Medley Relay and 100 Breaststroke, then later broke the relay school record with three of her teammates. She will be a senior in the fall and plans to earn her 4th varsity letter. Her favorite events include the 100 breast stroke and 200 IM. She also participates in track and runs distance. Her words of wisdom are “If you ever feel like giving up just look back at how far you are already” She also wants to remind you to smile through every practice because swimming is supposed to be fun!
