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Coaches & Directors

Coaching Staff

Bob Kizer

Head Coach

Bob is entering his fourth year as the Head Coach of New Trier Swim Club. Bob has a long background as an Age Group and Senior coach, including three years as the Senior Coach at NTSC. Bob was a high school All-American swimmer at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Allegheny College in Pennsylvania.

While under Bob’s leadership, New Trier Swim Club has been named a Silver Medal Club by USA Swimming every year, and has achieved Level 2 Recognition in the USA Swimming Club Recognition program. NTSC swimmers have been finalists at Illinois Senior State, Speedo Sectionals as well as Junior & Senior Nationals, and the team had two representatives at the 2008 USA Swimming Olympic Tream Trials.

Bob lives in Chicago and is father to three children who live in Barrington, Illinois.

Rick Peterson

Head Age Group Coach

Rick grew up in Delaware and participated in (and loved) all sports, including swimming. He started coaching swimming with his summer club in his mid-teens. He attended Bucknell University and received his BA in Geography, having coached Bucknell’s Men’s distance swimmers his senior year. The autumn following graduation he came out to Illinois and became a Geography, Civics, and American History teacher for 2 years; one year each at New Trier West and New Trier East. He also assisted New Trier West’s HS Boys and Girls teams from 1977-81, then was Head Boys coach for New Trier HS from 1982-83 through 1983-84. Additionally, from 1977 through 1986 he was co-Head, then Head Coach of New Trier West’s Age Group swim program, then served as co-Head, then Head Coach of New Trier Swim club during the first four years of it’s existence.

In 1986, having married a couple years before, Rick left New Trier to trade full time at the Board of Trade and raise a family. In the summer of 1988 he rejoined the coaching ranks as a summer swim coach with the Old Willow Club in Glenview, where he has coached during summers ever since. In 2001 he rejoined the staff at New Trier swim club as an assistant, eventually becoming Head Age Group coach in the spring of 2007.

Gina Bakakos

Lead Coach, Novice 1 & 2

Gina Bakakos returned to the north shore and NTSC in 2006 as an assistant and lead coach to various groups. Currently, Gina is the lead coach for the Novice 1 and Novice 2 groups. Prior to NTSC, she was the Girls’ Head Coach and Boys’ Asst. coach for six years at Wm. S. Hart High School in Newhall, California. She also has been the Head Coach at Crescenta-Canada Family YMCA in La Crescenta, assistant coach at Canyons Aquatic Club in Valencia, California and at the Glendale Family YMCA in Glendale, California. During her time in southern California, she coached numerous state and league finalists and champions. She also coached at Green Wave Swim Club and NTSC in the early 1980’s and 1990’s with Coach Rick and Coach Dan.

Gina also continues to work at Greeley School in Winnetka with special education students. A former New Trier East and U of Tennessee swimmer, she began her competitive swim career at age 4! She is thrilled to have her daughter, Shannon McCarthy, who swam for the U of Missouri and the U of Cincinnati, working with her as an assistant coach at NTSC.

Gina lives in Wilmette with her husband, Lee, daughter, Shannon and a menagerie of animals!

Brian Brown

Lead Coach, Senior 2

Brian begins his first season as a Full-Time Senior Coach at NTSC after very successful runs as the Head Coach of Champs Swim Club and the Palatine Park District Swim Team, and as Co-Head Coach/Head Senior Coach of Cats Aquatic Team. He has coached all levels of athletes from novice on up. His successes include having coached 5 Olympic Trials qualifiers in addition to multiple Senior National & Junior National qualifiers & finalists, along with countless Sectional, State, and Regional participants and finalists. While with Palatine, the team earned USA Swimming Club Excellence Silver Medal Status in each of his last 2 years.

Brian was an All-State Water Polo player at Lyons Township HS in La Grange, Illinois, and played Division 1 Water Polo at the University of Dayton, being named Team MVP and selected to the NCAA All-Midwest First Team. He has a teaching degree in Physical Education & Driver's Education and taught for 7 years at Northlake Middle School before leaving to coach swimming full-time. He has previously coached high school basketball, baseball, and water polo, and officiates IHSA Water Polo in the Spring.

Kyle C Bubolz

Senior Coach

Kyle joined the staff in 2008 as a Senior Coach. As a swimmer, Kyle started his career that lasted through college at the age of 8. Successful on all levels of competition he brings unique experiences and skills to the club. While attending high school in Waukesha, WI Kyle set national age group records, was a 15 time All American, and was high school swimmer of the year. Under Bob Groseth at Northwestern, Kyle was a 19 time All American, and a NCAA champion and record holder. Kyle is excited to bring his experiences to NTSC to help the swimmers compete at the highest levels.

Evan Chastain

Lead Coach, Age Group 1, Developmental 1

Evan Chastain is new to NTSC, recently hailing from Memphis, Tennessee. He began swimming for the Okinawa Dolphins in Japan at age 11, and continued to swim in Tokyo (where he also started coaching in 2003) for the Yokota Stingrays. He coached with the Bartlett Xtreme in Memphis where he lived during college. Evan is passionate about developing young swimmers into future champions.

Jeremy Meserole

Lead Coach, Junior Group

Jeremy comes to New Trier from Janesville , WI , where he started swimming in high school. He was an All-State swimmer and is a former school record holder at Janesville Parker. Jeremy coached a summer-league team for two summers (2001-2002) before becoming a high school coach in 2002. In 2004, Jeremy started the South Central Swim Team in Janesville , where he coached numerous State and Sectional finalists. Under Jeremy’s leadership, the SCST went from a team with no state qualifiers in 2004, to an 8th place finish at the 2008 Short Course Senior Championships.

Jeremy received his BS in Mathematics in 2006. He currently lives in Morton Grove with his wife and two dogs.

Jeremy looks forward to helping all NTSC swimmers reach their goals.

Sarah Erickson

Lead Coach, Senior 1

In her first year as lead coach, Sarah feels right at home with NTSC. She began swimming for the club at age 11 and continued through high school. Sarah spent her first year of college at the George Washington University, before transferring to Northeastern Illinois University, where she is currently working on her bachelor's degree. Also, look for Sarah at your local Starbucks, where she works when not by the pool.

Charles M Grodecki

Lead Coach, Pre-Competitive 1 & 2

Charlie started swimming with the club when he was ten and continued through college. He was a high school and NCAA Division III All-American at New Trier Township High School in Winnetka, Illinois and Denison University in Granville, Ohio. After teaching private swim lessons for several years, Charlie is excited to coach with NTSC!

Diane Yamazaki

Lead Coach, Intro to Comp.

Diane has been with NTSC since spring of 2008 when she started as an assistant coach for the Orange Group. Previous to New Trier, she worked as a swim instructor for preschool-aged kids at a program called Junior Dolphins in California. After graduating from Northwestern University, Diane was thrilled to have the opportunity to continue coaching at NTSC.

This year Diane will be leading the Intro to Competitive group and also working as an assistant coach for the Age Group practices. When she's not at the pool, Diane works as a news producer for WGN-TV Ch.9. She's also training for her first Marathon, so you can likely find her huffing and puffing along the Lakeshore during the weekends.

Mary Bradbury

Assistant Coach, Age Group Program

Mary started with the team in September of 2006 and is very excited to be working with NTSC. Mary started competing at the age of 4 and remains quite passionate about the sport. Representing Moline High School in 1989, she won the Illinois High School state title in the 200 free and placed 2nd in the 100 free. Mary swam on full-ride scholarship at the University of Illinois and was team captain her senior year. She has been coaching and teaching private lessons to children and adults for over 15 years and is also a triathlon coach with Together We Tri.

Mary and her husband Scott are both are very involved in triathlon. In September 2006, Mary represented the U.S. at the World Triathlon Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland and just qualified for World’s again, which will be held in Australia in September of 2009. But her biggest love is her identical twin girls who were born 7/20/07 and her dog Clayton.

Leah Kathleen Brown

Assistant Coach, Age Group Program

Leah Brown hails from upstate New York where her competitive swimming career began at the age of 8 (and continued throughout high school). She also worked for many years as a swim instructor, teaching strokes for people in the pool ages 6 months to sixty five years! After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2000, she spent time living in Connecticut, New York and New Zealand before moving to Chicago. Upon graduation from the University of Chicago with her Masters of Social Work in 2005, Leah began working as an elementary / middle school social worker in Norridge, Illinois. She looks forward to coaching with the New Trier Swim Club and is excited to be poolside again!

Teri Conklin

Assistant Coach, Jr/Sr Program

Teri Conklin returns to NTSC this year to assist coaching in the senior program. She began swimming as a 6 year old and went on to become a state champion her senior year at Glenbrook North High School. She continued swimming through college at Duke University where she was captain her senior year and competed in the ACC Championships. After college she coached swimming for eight years until 1990. After taking time off to have a family she has been with the club since 2001. She has also managed to have a twenty-plus year career with UBS! She has two children in the NTSC program and her goal is for every swimmer to post personal best times in their championship meet.

Brittany Holmbeck

Assistant Coach, Age Group Program

Seth Hoff

Assistant Coach, Age Group Program

Seth Hoff began his competitive swimming career at the age of 9 in his hometown of Madison, WI. There he swam and dove in summer-league and AAU programs, competed for Madison West High and also swam on the team at UW-Madison. After some time off to pursue a career in theatre, Seth resumed swimming with the Chicago Smelts, a masters swim team which he also helped coach. He assisted Rick Peterson this past summer at Old Willow Swim Club, teaches and coaches at Lincoln Park Athletic Club in Chicago, and continues to work in the theatre.

Tom Juozaitis

Assitant Coach, Jr/Sr Program

TJ joined NTSC six years ago and works with the Elite group. Prior to joining the Sharks, Tom was an assistant at NASA for five seasons. A Chicago native, and graduate of Notre Dame High School, Tom was a Division I swimmer for Northern Illinois University where he was a school record holder and a team captain his senior year.

Dan Miller

Assistant Coach, Age Group Program

Dan Miller has been with NTSC on and off for the past 18 years. He began swimming at age 8 with the Northbrook Park District and swam through high school at Genbrook North. Coach Teri was one of his coaches while he was in junior high. He teaches 2nd grade at Greeley School in Winnetka and manages the Old Willow Club in the summers. When he is not near water he hangs out with his dogs Splash, & Ripple.

Aly Sander

Assistant Coach, Intro to Comp.

Aly recently graduated from the University of Georgia and despite having some Chicago roots, she has lived in the south her whole life. With that in mind, is very interested to see how she survives her first full-blown Chicago winter...

When it comes to the pool, Aly has been swimming competitively since she was 6 years old and if it weren’t for a high school knee injury, she would still constantly be in the water. In addition to her training, Aly has previously taught private lessons and coached summer league teams and is so excited to be with NTSC!

Merridy Scott

Assistant Coach, Age Group Program

Merridy Scott has been with NTSC for one and a half years. She started swimming when she was 6 years old, in Montreal, Canada. She was a breastroker and freestyler and attended the Olympic Trials in 1976 in addition to the National Championships. She went on to swim in college at Carroll College in Wisconsin where she competed in the small school nationals. She has 4 children, Tanner a junior in high school, Conner a freshmen in high school and two girls who both swim with New Trier, Morgan and Carley. She loves coaching and watching the swimmers develop throughout the season.

Carolyn (Igoe) Young

Assistant Coach, Age Group Program

Carolyn started coaching with New Trier Swim Club in the fall of 2006. She actually began her swimming with the club when she was eight. She continued swimming at New Trier High School and then at DePauw University. Carolyn will be assisting in a few different groups this year. She wishes she could coach more during the year but finds it difficult with her other job. Carolyn teaches kindergarten as well, she just loves being with kids! She and her husband Mike (also a former DePauw swimmer) live in Evanston. Carolyn looks forward to another great season with the team!