Tyson J Wellock
Head Coach
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Coach Tyson Wellock brings a wealth of experience to his first
year with Wave Aquatics. He is an ASCA Level 5 coach, who is on the
USA Swimming International Trip List. He has coached athletes at
all levels, beginning his career as the novice coach in North Pole,
Alaska. Coaching has taken him across the country in pursuit of
learning more and challenging himself as a coach. He has coached in
Alaska, Washington DC, Seattle, Chicago, Boston and Phoenix. He has
coached at Northern Lights Swim Club, Curl-Burke Swim Club,
American University, New Trier Swim Club, The New England
Barracudas and Sun Devil Aquatics. While at SDA, the team earned
USA Swimming’s Gold Medal Club status in addition to a Silver
Medal Club status. The New England Barracudas also were designated
as a Gold Medal Club while he was the Head Senior Coach.
He has coached athletes from the novice level all the way up to
internationally ranked athletes. At SDA he had 3 athletes ranked in
the top 50 in the world in their individual events. He has coached
5 athletes on the USA Swimming National Junior Team and took 4
athletes to the 2008 Olympic Trials where all 4 achieved lifetime
bests and he was proud to have the 9th place finisher in
the 200 breaststroke and the fastest high school male in the
country (50 Free). His teams have finished as high as
5th at US Nationals (07), where he also coached the
18&Under National Champion in the 100 Butterfly.
His athletes have gone on to swim
at Stanford, University of Arizona, Virginia, Utah, Columbia, West
Point, Northwestern, Princeton, Williams, Arizona State, Yale and
many others.
He has also spent a significant
amount of time on the other side of the sport. In 2003-2004 he was
the National Team Coordinator at USA Swimming in Colorado Springs,
CO. In that role he planned and organized training camps for the
USA Swimming National Team Athletes and Coaches, including the 2004
Olympic Team. He was awarded a USA Swimming Coaching Fellowship and
is an alumnus of the ASCA Coaching Fellows Program.
He has spent his career preparing
himself to be a coach that consistently helps athletes achieve at
the National and International level. He consistently challenges
athletes to push what they think their boundaries are. He is a
process oriented coach, who is more focused on how athletes are
swimming rather than how much.
He lives in beautiful West Seattle
with his wife Kimbra. He enjoys backpacking, biking, art, music and
baseball. His two favorite teams are the Seattle Mariners and the
Chicago Cubs, both of which have provided him with years of
frustration and disappointment, yet he remains eternally
optimistic.
Erin A Dunn
Head Age Group Coach
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Erin grew up in southern
California swimming on both high school and club teams. He attended
The Ohio State University graduating with a degree in history and
swam on the men’s team for three years. Erin has coached in
the Seattle area for 12 years with Husky/Swim Seattle before
joining WAVE in the fall of 2007. He also coached for seven years
at Kennedy High School in Burien, WA.
Erin is an ASCA level 3 coach. He
has had several swimmers make National Top 16 cuts along with
Junior National qualifiers, Senior Sectional qualifiers, Zone and
All Star Team qualifiers. This past year, one of his longtime
former swimmers set the collegiate Division III national record in
the 400 IM.
Highlights of Erin’s
Kennedy High School coaching experience included consistently
placing as a team in the top 10 at state, two swimmers earned WIAA
swimmer of the meet at the state meet, multiple state relay
champions, and multiple top 8 swimmers including several first
place finishes. The team also reset many school records during his
time with the team.
Erin always enjoys learning more
about the sport of swimming and coaching. Over the years he has had
the opportunity to attend conferences/clinics across the country
where he has learned many innovative approaches to teaching
swimmers how to move through the water effortlessly and
efficiently.
In addition to coaching, Erin
enjoys hiking, snow skiing, reading, bike rides and of course
spending time with his wife and son.
Steve Fitch
Assistant Coach
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Steve Returns to Wave for his fifth year as
assistant coach. He coaches the Explore groups at
Redmond.
Coach Steve is an ASCA level 2 certified coach
and regularly attends conferences to further his coaching
education. He previously coached in South Carolina with the Mount
Pleasant Swim Club as Head Age Group Coach. He also coaches a
summer league team at Phantom lake in Bellevue.
Coach Steve was a college swimmer at West
Chester University in Pennsylvania and a Professional Triathlete
for 10 years competing internationally.
"As
a coach I hope to ignite the swimmers passion for swimming," "
I keep practices exciting while maintaining an emphasis
on fundamentals and proper technique, I hope to build
endurance through efficiency, speed through skills and a love
for racing."
Steve has three children who share
his love for swimming. When not coaching at wave Coach Steve keeps
busy enjoying the Mountains of the Pacific Northwest skiing, hiking
and camping.
Savannah Rose Bohart
Assistant Coach
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Savannah Bohart has just joined the WAVE Aquatics
coaching team. She is very excited to apart of the staff and to
work with all WAVE Aquatic swimmers. Savannah started out on WAVE
when she was seven years old, and continued swimming year-round for
WAVE until the age of seventeen. When she was fifteen she received
her lifeguard certifications and starting lifeguarding and teaching
swim lessons for both the Juanita Pool and the Peter Kirk Pool in
downtown Kirkland during the summers. This summer she was the coach
for the eight&unders on the Kirkland Orcas, she had a blast and
enjoyed working with all the kids and improving their swimming. Her
philosophy on swimming; you need to have goals set in order to get
to where you want to be. Technique is key for swimming and hard
work at practice always pays off. Being a graduate from
Juanita High School in June 2009, Savannah now attends Bellevue
College. In high school she swam all three years and lettered in
varsity. As the swim captain in her senior year, she helped her
swim team have an undefeated season and then went onto to having
Juanita High School girls win second at State. Outside of the pool
Savannah enjoys spending time with her family and friends, baking,
and studying to get her Associates in Science degree.
Alan Cardwell
Assistant Coach
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This is Alan’s first year with Wave, but
he is no stranger to swimming or coaching. Alan grew up swimming
for many different swim teams as he was in a military family that
moved about the country. Alan finished his swimming career at the
University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of
Oregon.
Alan’s coaching background spans 16 years
where he coached little ones on summer league teams to national
level swimmers on club teams. His coaching stops include Starlit in
Fairfax, VA, Tualitin Hills, OR, and Mecklenburg Aquatic Club,
NC.
Alan coaches primarily at Juanita working with
Challenge 2, Achieve 2, and Excel 1.
Dave Leonard
Assistant Coach
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Dave returns to Wave Aquatics after a 9-year hiatus. He
formerly coached at Wave in 1998 and 1999. Currently,
he coaches the High School group and the Juanita Silver
group. Dave brings with him 26 years of success in coaching
athletes of all ages and levels.
Dave is originally from South
Burlington , Vermont , though the sport of swimming has taken him
all over the country. Recently, as the Head Coach of
the Emmaus Aquatic Club and Emmaus High School boys and girls swim
teams, his Senior group had six swimmers qualified for Senior
Nationals in 7 events, earned 14 high school All American Awards,
and the won the Pennsylvania girls state championship (for large
schools). At the same time among his Age Groupers, he had
three 8th grade boys drop time in one year from 54.7 to
48.0 in 100 free, 1:13.5 to 1:03.9 in 100 breast, 2:18.0 to 2:10.4
in 200 Fly. Before Emmaus, he was the Head Coach and Program
Director of the Glens Falls YMCA Gators, a strong program with a
50-year tradition in New York State . In one year there,
Dave’s swimmers set 11 new club records, had their highest
Men’s finish in team history at the Spring YMCA National
Championships and their second highest Combined Team’s finish
at the Summer Long Course Y Nationals Championships.
From 2000 to 2006 he was the Head Coach at the Bellevue
Eastside Swim Team. While there, the team doubled in size,
added space at two other pools, established the team’s first
website, broke 72 Club Records, and hosted the YMCA Regional
Championships twice at the King County Aquatic Center . Dave
was also the head coach for Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving
at St. Michael's College (NCAA Division II) from 1991-1998. While
at St. Michael's, he earned the distinction of winning more meets
and placing his teams higher at their New England Collegiate
Championships than any other men's or women's coach at the
time. In individual performances, his swimmers broke 35
different school records, averaging 12 new records per year over
his seven-year tenure.
As a swimmer himself, Dave started swimming at the Lake
Champlain Swim Club in Vermont , and along the way he also swam for
DeAnza Cupertino Aquatics and Ladera Oaks Swim Club in California .
In high school, he swam for Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire
, and in college he swam for St. Lawrence University in upstate New
York . Although he has his bachelors in English (with a minor
in philosophy), he has been studying undergraduate Biology for the
past two years and hopes to pursue an advanced degree. Dave
loves kayaking, road-biking, hiking, camping, and exploring with
his wife Jessica. He avidly reads historical fiction, and
follows professional baseball, football and ice hockey.
The three things that best sum up his coaching philosophy
are: that swimming should be goal driven, that athletes should be
prepared as much for tomorrow as for today, and that swimming
practice should be fun.
Robby Rutledge
Assitant Coach
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Robby has been swimming most of this life but
did not get into completive swimming until high school. He
swam for three
of his four years in high school. After his high school seasons he
would spend the rest of the year swim for a club in Tacoma and
teaching swimming lessons for the YMCA. “Swimming is the only
sport that I really love doing”. Robby has coached athletes
of all ages. Robby is
currently a sophomore at the University of Washington, majoring in
accounting and economics.
Aaron Hughes
Assistant Coach
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Aaron is excited to re-enter the world of competitive
swimming. For the past four years, Aaron has been coaching
High School and club water polo down in Tacoma. As the
assistant coach of the Curtis High School boy’s team, he has
seen his team finish 3rd, 2nd twice, and 1st at the Washington
State Championship tournament. In his first head coaching
position last year, Aaron coached the Mount Tahoma High School
girl’s team to their first appearance at the State
Championship tournament in the team's 35 year existence. As a
club water polo coach, he has qualified and sent multiple squads to
the Junior Olympics National Championship
tournament.
Although the bulk of Aaron's coaching experience has
been
in water polo, he also has great experience and knowledge in the
sport of swimming. Aaron posted NAG top-16 times in the
Breaststroke and Freestyle as an age-group swimmer in Juneau,
Alaska. After moving to University Place, Washington and
taking a few years hiatus from the sport, Aaron swam in High
School, finishing as high as second in the Washington 4A
championships. Most recently, Aaron competed for the
University of Puget Sound's swim team for 3 years, where he enjoyed
finishing with First Team All-Conference honors all three years,
and was a member of a 200 yd Freestyle relay team which broke the
school and Northwest Conference record.
