Dave C Salo
General Manager
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David Salo served as the Novaquatics Head Coach from the fall of
1990 until May of 2006 when he assumed the General Manager
position. Dave began his coaching career at the University of
Southern California where he served as Assistant Men’s Coach
under legendary Head Coach, Peter Daland. Dave rejoined the USC
Trojan’s as the Head Coach of the Women and Men’s
collegiate team in May of 2006. Dave replaced Mark Shubert, former
Olympic Head Coach and now National Team Head Coach and General
Manager of USA Swimming.
Salo served as assistant coach for the USA Women’s team in
the 1999 Pan American Games as well as the 2000 Olympic Games and
was appointed by USA Swimming to Head the Men’s Team at the
Goodwill Games in 2001.
Salo is a graduate of Long Beach State (B.A. and M.A.) and the
University of Southern California (Ph.D.)
---------------------Northwood Coaches-------------------
Ken M LaMont
Associate Head Coach
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Ken was born
and raised in Southern California to an already involved swimming
family. When he was old enough to walk he was old enough to swim
and joined his father’s swim team in El Monte.
By the early 1980’s, Ken’s team moved to the San
Gabriel Valley where Ken continued his club swimming career. During
those years Ken began coaching at a local country club during the
summers. It was also during these years that Ken participated in a
sectional All-Star meet where he met for the first time a young
Dave Salo. Soon after, Ken began college at USC where he once again
met up with Coach Salo, who was hired on as an assistant coach
during Ken’s years there.
He continued to swim into his junior year when the decision was
made to retire as an athlete and concentrate on graduation. He
continued to coach during the summers and upon graduation accepted
a sales job with a major food cooperation. It was also during this
time, after establishing a lasting relationship with Coach Salo in
college, that Ken sought a position with the new head coach of the
Irvine Novaquatics. With the growing success of the program Ken
left his corporate world to focus full time on his coaching career.
He has helped in the achievement of many regional championships and
enjoys the direction of the program. He continues to focus full
time on his coaching while also accepting a coaching job with a
near by high school.
Alex F Nieto
Coach
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Kaitlin E Lyons
Assistant Coach
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---------------------Los Cab Coaches----------------------
Jeri S. Marshburn
Associate Head Coach
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Jeri Marshburn is a Southern
California native and swam from the time that she was and 8 and
under competitor through college. With success as a nationally
ranked age-grouper an Nationals qualifier in the 200 fly and
distance free, Jeri attended Cal State Long Beach and graduated in
1980 with a B.S. degree in Health Science. She is married to Jeff
and has 3 kids, Kasey, Tucker and Piper.
Jeri has been coaching for over 17 years and
has coached at all levels from beginners to Olympic Trials
qualifiers. She was the head age-group coach for the Corona Swim
Team, Senior Coach at Socal and Head Coach for Brea Aquatics.
Jeri has also been involved in the "dry" side of swimming.
She has been active on the LSC board for the past 10 years and is
currently the General Chairman for Southern California
Swimming. Jeri is National Team Manager for USA
Swimming having served most recently as the Head Women's Manager
for the 2009 World Championships, Head Manager for the 2007 World
University Games and Assistant Manager for the 2006 Pan Pacific
Championships. She has also worked closely with
USA Swimming at both the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympic Trials as a
drug testing liaison.
Ken A Grey
Associate Head Age Group Coach
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Ken has been enjoying his time with the Novaquatics ever since his arrival in 2005. Ken started out as a swimmer from the age of 5 in Puerto Rico. One of his famous teammates was Jesse Vasallo and his family. He went on to swim in high school (San Antonio- Winston Churchill) and was the Texas State Champion in the 100 Fly his senior year. After a successful college career at the University of Kansas, Ken decided that coaching was going to be his thing and started out as a graduate assistant at KU. From there Ken went on to coach in Wichita for the Y Neptunes (86). Having family in California (Mission Viejo) Ken decided to go home and was offered a position with the Mission Viejo Nadadores (88-96) where he served as the Head Age Group Coach, and then Senior Assistant. From Mission, Ken then served as Head Age Group coach for Conejo Simi Aquatics (96-97) and then The Woodlands Swim Team in Texas (97-99). Once again, Ken decided to come back to California and coached with the Buenaventura Swim Club (99-05) first as Head Age Group coach, then as the Head Coach. Kens true love in swimming is working at the age group level and Ken joined the Novaquatics swim club last year.
Ken has enjoyed coaching several top age groupers including 2 National Record Holders as well as several in the top 10 in the nation. Ken once served on the SCS Zone Staff for 8 consecutive years- 3 as an age group assistant, and 5 as the Head Coach. Ken was also the 1st winning Head Coach of the current SCS Swim festival.
Born in Venezuela, Ken has lived in such places as France and Puerto Rico. Ken is fluent in Spanish and enjoys surfing and cooking.
Diana E Salazar
Assistant Coach
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---------Woollett Aquatic Center Coaches----------------------
Rod J Hansen
Head Age Group Coach
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Rod Hansen, a native Californian, started
with Nova as the 8 & under coach in 1994. His current position
with our team is Associate Head Age Group Coach, training our 9-12
year old swimmers. During the high school swim season you can find
Rod as Head Coach for the Northwood High School boys and girls
teams.
Coach Rod graduated from San Diego State
University in 1990 with his B.S. degree then in 1993 received his
masters also from SDSU.
Joanna D Mykkanen
Head Development Coach
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Joanna grew up in Northen California where she swam competitively
for 10 years. She has 8 years of head coaching experience and 15
years experience as a swim instructor. Joanna is a current NOVA masters
swimmer and the mother of three NOVA age group swimmers. Her family
has roots with NOVA back to the team inception in
1979.
Justin M Schmidt
Head Development Coach
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Justin is a native of Irvine, CA where he grew up with three
brothers and two sisters. He graduated from Irvine High School and
after a year of community college, Justin transferred to Biola
University and earned a B.A. degree in the education field. He
spent one year working in the public school system as a substitute
teacher and two years running youth programs for junior and senior
high school students. Justin also worked with kids as an assistant
martial arts instructor and camp counselor.
Justin joined Novaquatics in 2003 as part of the swim school
teaching staff. He began working with the Development Program in
September of 2004 and became Head Development Coach in September of
2005.
In his free time Justin enjoys woodworking, building custom
furniture and cabinets.
Drew J Crowell
Assistant Coach
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Marissa M Joseph
Assistant Coach
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Marissa was
born in
Newport
Beach
,
California
into a very
athletic family. Her
parents were accomplished Ironman triathletes and her older
siblings were on the swim team which she joined by age 4. She continued her
competitive swimming and by age 14 she was in Dave Salo’s
senior group. She
became nationally ranked in distance freestyle and individual
medley events.
She was a pre-competitive
coach for the
Nova
Swim
School
in 2005 and in
2006 was hired as an 8 and under coach for the Nova Swim Team. She brings 16 plus years of
swimming experience to the Novaquatics.
---------------------Soka University Coaches---------------------
Adam D Crossen
Associate Head Coach
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Since 1995, Adam Crossen’s experience includes working
with Olympic Coaches Mark Schubert, Dave Marsh, Teri McKeever and
most recently Dave Salo. Crossen swam for the Hall of Fame legend,
Mark Schubert, at the University of Southern California, then
followed that up with a stint at Auburn University, working with
perennial Coach of the year Dave Marsh, while completing his
Master’s Degree in Exercise Physiology. Crossen later went on
to serve as Assistant Coach at Cal Berkeley under ASCA Coach of the
Year, Teri McKeever, where he saw the rise of USA Swimming
phenomenon, Natalie Coughlin. During the year
of 2006 at the University of Southern California, Crossen
served as Coach Salo’s right hand man, responsible for NCAA
Compliance, recruiting coordination, strength an conditioning
programming and on-deck coaching. USC came away from Salo’s
first season with three individual NCAA Championships (Rebecca Soni
- 200 breaststroke; Larsen Jensen - 500 & 1650 freestyle).
Prior to USC, Crossen spent 3 years assisting Coach Salo with the
Irvine Novaquatics and Soka University and was integral in working
with a team that saw 25 athletes compete at the 2004 Olympic
Trials, while placing 4 members on the USA Olympic Team. Crossen
was also instrumental in helping Salo inaugurate the Soka
University Varsity Swimming Team. Coach Crossen brings energy and
leadership which will be instrumental in the further development
and continued growth of the Novaquatics.
Andi Kawamoto-Klatt
Head Age Group Coach
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Andi has been on the coaching staff of the
Irvine Novaquatics since 1990 and is currently the Associate Head
Age Group Coach.
Andi’s background stems from the study of
psychology, for which she has a Bachelor’s (UC Irvine) and a
Master’s (Pepperdine). She has worked as a Child Development
Instructor for the Irvine Unified School District (6 years), spent
4 years working with the Neuropsychological Concussion testing team
for the Mighty Ducks Hockey team and has been a certified Pilates
instructor since 2001 (Body Arts and Science International)
--------------------Masters Coaches---------------------
Michael Collins
Head Master's Coach
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Michael Collins has been the Nova Masters Head Head Coach since November
2000. Before that he coached at UCLA for four years and the Davis
Aquatic Masters for 8 years. He has an extensive background in coaching
swimmers and triathletes of all ages and abilities.
Additionally, Collins travels around the country to coach swimming,
triathlon, and running clinics. Although his main background was in
swimming, he has taken many of the concepts used in swimming -
technique, drills, and interval training and applied them to running and
cycling as well.
Collins continues to compete in triathlons, running events, swimming
events (both in the pool and open water), and road & mountain cycling.
In triathlons he race from sprint to half Ironman distance. He often
wins his age group and finishes as one of the top overall amateurs as
well. He was the 2002 World Aquathlon amateur champion in Cancun (2.5K
Run - 1K Swim - 2.5K Run).
In addition to coaching and racing, Collins is a well known author. His
articles have appeared in SWIM magazine, Swimming Technique, TRIATHLETE
magazine, Triathlon Today, American Swimming, and many other national
publications
--------------------Swim School Instructors--------------------
Ginny Ferguson
pre-comp/swim school Co-ordinator
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Ginny Ferguson started her 10 years of competitive swimming in the Philippines and Thailand. Once moving back to the States, she swam for Jim Montrella (U.S. assistant Olympic coach), and later, in college, She competed nationally in Asia and the U.S.
During and after earning a BA in Recreation Administration at CSULB, she worked as a swim teacher and aquatics/program director for the Recreation Department and YMCA.
After training as an infant swim instructor under Dutch Olympic and Marathon Swim champion, Greta Anderson, Ginny became interested in developing even more effective methods of teaching infants and children. This eventually led to the founding of Watersafe Swim School in 1977 which is now located in Seal Beach, Orange, and Orange Park Acres. It is also associated with the Nova Swim School in Irvine. Having successfully taught very young babies to be self-reliant, competent swimmers, the school's unique method has received world-wide attention and notoriety.
Ginny's two daughters also teach and contribute to the management, fun, and success of the school. Shannon and Karen began their own lessons before the age of 3 weeks and grew up swimming competitively. They have benefited from swimming with Nova since 1998.
"I feel very privileged to be part of the Nova staff in my role of helping to 'build tomorrow's champions'. I value the team's ever-positive environment and emphasis on quality. The association with Nova's accomplished coaches, it's enthusiastic swimmers, and the appreciative parents gives me new inspiration. This fuels my passion to teach swimming, learn more, and promote the sport. When graduates from my swim programs join Nova, I take pride in knowing that I have influenced them to choose the best team and the most caring and professional set of coaches around."
