Irvine Novaquatics, Inc. : Coaches & Directors

More Information

Partners

Adam D Crossen

Associate Head Coach

Senior Gold and NovaIntro

Soka University, Aliso Viejo

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.

Ken M LaMont

Associate Head Coach

Senior Gold

Northwood High School, Irvine

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.

Jeri S. Marshburn

Associate Head Coach

Senior Gold and Senior Silver

Los Cab, Fountain Valley

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 19 years and has coached at all levels from beginners to Olympic Trials qualifiers. Coach Marshburn joined the Nova staff as Associate Head Coach in Dec. 2002. Previously 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 2011 and 2009 World Championships, Head Manager for the 2007 World University Games and Assistant Manager for the 2006 Pan Pacific Championships. Jeri was recently named the Assistant Manager for the 2012 Olympic Team. She has also worked closely with USA Swimming at both the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympic Trials as a drug testing liaison.

Rod J Hansen

Associate Head Age Group Coach

Senior Gold and Age Group Gold

Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine

Rod Hansen, started with Nova as the 8 & under coach in 1994. His current position with our team in 2000 as Associate Head Age Group Coach, training our 9-14 year old swimmers.

Coach Rod's coaching philosophy is to create a fun environment where every swimmer enjoys their time with NOVA. Along the way he has been fortunate to coach several SCS and National Age Group record holders. He is always looking for ways to get kids to swim faster.

Proud Alumni of SDSU.

Andi Kawamoto-Klatt

Associate Head Age Group Coach

Senior Gold, Age Group Gold, Senior Silver, and Age Group Silver

Soka University, Aliso Viejo

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)

Joanna D Mykkanen

Developmental Coach

Developmental

Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine

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.

Coach Joanna graduated from UC Berkeley in 1988 with a B.A. degree.

Justin M Schmidt

Developmental Coach

NovaIntro and NovaTech

Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine

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.

Max R Biessmann

Assistant Coach

Senior Gold and Age Group Bronze

Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine

Max grew up in Irvine and started his swimming career with the Irvine Summer League switching to year-round swimming with the NOVAs were he experienced Coach Rod briefly, Coach Andi, and Coach Ken for a longer time. He ran cross country and swam 4 years at University High School. At UCDavis he swam distance events as a walk on for one year but took a hiatus from sports his second year at college. The combination of running and swimming had already led him to try out the sport of Triathlon and so he ended up joining the UCDavis triathlon club team. He got really involved in the team and became Vice President and took charge of the swim coaching for the UCDavis Triteam. Since distance was his strong point he also decided to go for the Ironman distance Triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2). In 2007 he completed his first Ironman in Germany. Since then he has completed several ironman races and won the Vineman, an iron distance race, in 2010 with a time of 9:21. One of his personal goals is to qualify for the ironman world championship in Kona, Hawaii.

After graduating from Davis with a B.A. in Microbiology he moved back to Irvine and after a short stint as a masters coach he decided to approach Coach Ken for a coaching job. He started coaching age group swimmers as a Bronze III from 2008 till 2010 when he took over silver I and II groups.

He is still training and competing in triathlons and swims in his spare time with the NOVA Masters where he holds several team records.

Brent J Burgoyne

Assistant Coach

Developmental

Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine

Brent is a native of Irvine where he swam for the Greentree Gator's and Irvine High School under Coach Ken Dory. Brent received the Athletic Excellence Award in swimming from Coach Dory in 2004 and 2005. Brent was a former City of Irvine Lifeguard and Swim Instructor for 5 years until he came to Nova's in 2008.

In 2009 Brent began coaching the Quail Hill Swim Team. During Brent's tenure as head coach the team has won three consecutive Divisional Championships. Brent continues to coach the Quail Hill Swim Team in the Irvine Swim League.

In 2011, he assisted with Concordia University NAIA Swim Team where he traveled to Oklahoma City for Nationals in which Concordia University placed 3rd overall.

Brent's prior training includes Santa Ana College and the Colorado Fire Academy. From 2007 to 2010 Brent was a Reserve Firefighter for the Orange County Fire Authority.

Brent is now pursuing his Captains License at the Orange Coast School of Sailing and Seamanship.

Allan John Cameron

Assistant Coach

Senior Bronze and Age Group Bronze

Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine

Allan started swimming at the age of 7. He joined nova and swam for Jeri, and Ken. Allan is currently enrolled in California State University of Fullerton and is studying advertising. In addition to this he is a lifeguard at Newport beach.

Drew J Crowell

Assistant Coach

Senior Silver and Developmental

Soka University, Aliso Viejo

Drew Crowell was born in southern California. He grew up in Orange County until high school, when his family moved to Overland Park Kansas. It was at Blue Valley Northwest High School that Drew started swimming. After high School, Drew attended Orange Coast College (OCC) to once again enjoy the California lifestyle.

In his first swim season at OCC, Drew swam for Coach Dave Salo. Shortly after, Drew joined the Nova family in 2004 by taking a position at Los Cab in the pre competitive program. In 2005, Drew started coaching at Woollett working with the bronze group. After swimming two years at OCC, Drew transferred to California State University, Fullerton. Once he transferred, Drew became an assistant coach at OCC and helped the men’s and women’s teams capture the state title in 2006. In 2008, Drew earned his B.A. in History while coaching the silver groups at Woollett. Later that year, Drew took an assistant position at Soka University of America under Coach Adam Crossen.

Currently Drew coaches the Senior 1 and Varsity groups at Soka and is an assistant coach for the Soka University swim team.

Kylie A Fortier

Assistant Coach

Senior Bronze and Developmental

Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine

Kylie grew up in Reno, NV and swam for the Reno Aquatic Club until moving to Irvine for school. She is currently a senior at Concordia university and is perusing degrees in both in Finance and Accounting. Kylie is also in her fourth year swimming for the Eagles. Last year she placed 6th in the 200 breaststroke at the NAIA National Championships and became an Academic All-American. She has a passion for swimming and loves helping young swimmers improve in the sport.

Geza Futo Tendai

Assistant Coach

Senior Bronze and Age Group Bronze

Soka University, Aliso Viejo

Currently enrolled at Cal State Fullerton, with a major in Kinesiology.
In his free time Geza is an avid mountain biker.

Joseph D Gaspar

Assistant Coach

Developmental

Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine

Dallas came to us originally from San Jose, CA, from a family of three younger brothers and splendid parents. You can always find him with a smile on his face and a bounce in his step.

He moved to Southern California to attend CSU Fullerton, where he majored in theatre arts with a concentration on production & design with an emphasis in lighting.

He has been swimming competitively since I he was 4 years old and has always been a water baby. He swam on a summer league for most of his young childhood and also for Valley Splash Aquatics before high school. During his junior and senior years in high school he was awarded MVP and deemed team captain.

Swimming has taught him dedication, self motivation, discipline, and has had a huge impact on his development as a person. Through swimming he has made lifelong memories, experiences, and friends. Now he gives back to the sport that has always given him so much by helping these young swimmers prosper into great athletes.

Marissa M Joseph

Assistant Coach

Age Group Bronze, Developmental, and NovaIntro

Los Cab, Fountain Valley

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.

Kevin A Little

Assistant Coach

Age Group Silver and Age Group Bronze

Soka University, Aliso Viejo

Kevin grew up in Irvine, California and started swimming for NOVA when he was 6 years old. After graduating from Woodbridge High School in 2007 he went on to compete for the University of Southern California all four years, graduating cum laude with a B.A. in Communication in 2011. During his swim career Kevin competed at the Junior Olympics, Western Zones, Junior Nationals, Senior Nationals, and Pac-12 championships. Prior to coaching at NOVA, he coached for 3 years in the Irvine Swim League.

Gavin J Moore

Assistant Coach

Age Group Bronze

Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine

Gavin grew up in Irvine and swam for Novas as a kid. He continued to swim as well as play waterpolo for four years at Woodbridge High School in the varsity group. He began coaching for Novas in the fall of '08 in the 8 and under program, but moved over to the bronze program in the summer of '09. He is currently a senior at Cal State Fullerton as a Business Marketing major.

Mike K Nichols

Assistant Coach

Age Group Gold, Senior Silver, and Age Group Silver

Los Cab, Fountain Valley

Mike started his competitive aquatic career at Fountain Valley High School and continued through Orange Coast College where he met for the first time a young Drew Crowell. He began coaching his senior year at Fountain Valley, assisting with the Frosh/Soph girls for two seasons. He took a year off to focus on finishing his Associate's Degree and re-started his coaching career the following summer with Los Alamitos High School. After finishing his Bachelor's Degree in the Spring of 2010, he was hired by NOVA where he continues his competitive coaching career.

He has had the awesome opportunity to be coached by and coach under some of the highest level of high school, collegiate, and club coaches around. He looks forward to following in their foot-steps and suitably represent them in his efforts to emulate their success.

Alex F Nieto

Assistant Coach

Senior Silver

Northwood High School, Irvine

Alex Nieto, was born Alejandro Nieto in Nicaragua. Immigrated here with his parents as a child to California in the 80's and was raised in Orange, California. He attended El Modena high school in Orange and was both on the cross country and swim teams in high school. He later enrolled into Santiago Canyon Community College and Cal State, Fullerton where he played club water polo in college and was a large part of student organizations in college. He graduated in 2007 from CSUF with a degree in economics and a minor in business administration.

Alex currently coaches swimmers from all sorts of organizations. Other than working with the Irvine NOVA's, Alex is Assistant Head Swim coach at Concordia University, head coach of the boys team at Northwood High School, and coaches for Northwood Point Flash as the head coach.

When Alex is not on a pool deck mentoring young minds and helping create athletes, he likes to hike and spend time in the outdoors adventuring. He has plans to some day travel the world on an extended trip just to see what it is like. He thinks that traveling with a backpack is the way to go. He can't wait to renew hsis passport so he can fill it back up with stickers from around the world.

Alicia J Ruiz

Assistant Coach

Age Group Bronze, Developmental, and NovaIntro

Soka University, Aliso Viejo

Alicia grew up swimming and competing locally in Laguna Hills, Ca. Her love for swimming helped her greatly in her true athletic ability, Waterpolo. After swimming and playing waterpolo in HS. She attended University of the Pacific on a waterpolo scholarship. Alicia continued to swim and give back to the community, gaining experience coaching the Pacific waterpolo club 12& under girls and serving as a camp counselor. She has an undergraduate in Political Science and is currently attending CSUF to obtain a Masters in teaching. Alicia continues to swim and plays Masters waterpolo locally. Alicia joined Nova in 2011 after coaching waterpolo for Aliso Niguel Club team. She started working with the Nova Swim School and ran the Star Club precomp. at Soka before joining the Nova Competition team at Soka.

Elissa Seitz

Assistant Coach

Senior Bronze

Los Cab, Fountain Valley

Elissa Is from Palm Springs, CA and swam competitively, by the age of six, for Piranha Swim team. In 2004, Elissa moved to Orange County to attend college at Vanguard University and then a few years later started working for NOVA in 2008. She started out as a pre-competitive coach/ swim instructor and has now transitioned to the competitive side of NOVA. She started out assisting the Bronze groups and is now the Senior Bronze coach at the Los Cab location. She also assists Coach Mike Nichols with Senior Silver/ Gold group.

Leslie A Tomlinson

Assistant Coach

Age Group Silver

Northwood High School, Irvine

Leslie began her Swim Coaching career at Crawfish Aquatics in Baton Rouge, LA where she coached from 2001-2005 working with the 6 and under, 9&10 year old, and high school age groups while attending Louisiana State University.

Leslie began coaching with Nova in September 2009 assisting with the Bronze age groups. She has since assisted with all ability levels helping out where ever needed. She currently coaches the Age Group Silver 9-10 and 11-12 groups. She can also be found assisting Coach Adam and Coach Drew with the SOKA University Swim Team. Coach Leslie is ASCA Level I certified.

Coach Leslie enjoys teaching Water Aerobics at Woollett, swimming with the Nova Masters, yoga, and reading in her spare time.

For up-to-date information about Coach Leslie's groups follow her twitter account at www.twitter.com/NovaCoachLT

Asami Uzawa

Assistant Coach

Senior Bronze and Age Group Bronze

Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine

Asami grew up in Littleton, Colorado where she began her very first swimming lessons. After moving to Southern California at the age of 10, she began her competitive swimming career with the Mission Viejo Nadadores until the age of 19. She swam only 3 years at Capistrano Valley HS; a serious shoulder injury prevented her from competing one season. She also swam for Saddleback Community College for 2 seasons, where she swam distance events (500, 1000, 1650 free).

She began her coaching career with the 10 & under swimmers at Mission Viejo Nadadores, as well as becoming Co-Director of the Novice program during her 2 years as a coach. Asami is now on her 3 year coaching with NOVA at Los Cab, co-coaching Bronze 1 with Coach Diana Salazar and coaching the Varsity program.

She is currently a student at Cal State Long Beach, graduating this upcoming Spring with her degree in Kinesiology - Sports Psychology. She hopes to continue her education with obtaining her Master's in Sports Psychology next fall (graduate school is still unknown).

--------------------Masters Coaches---------------------

Michael Collins

Head Master's Coach

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

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."

Dave C Salo

Head Coach Emeritus Executive Consultant

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.)