for 2012
A Parent's Guide to Surviving the Summer Swim Season
Blue Dolphin Coaching Staff
The Blue Dolphins have one of the most experienced and well-qualified coaching staffs in the League. We also have the lowest coach to swimmer ratio with eight professional coaches on staff and several of our older swimmers volunteering to help with the coaching. At each of the practice times, the group assigned to that time is further divided into three or more small groups, each with their own coach.
The head Coach is Becky Deary. She has coached the team since the 1977 season, senior among all of the League coaches by well over 10 years. Becky is a certified Physical Education teacher with her degree from the University of North Florida. Prior to transferring to UNF, she was the outstanding women’s swimmer at Eastern Michigan University, qualifying for AIAW Nationals as a freshman. She held several Michigan State championships and records and has been involved in swimming for almost forty years.
Assisting Becky is her husband, Roger Deary, who has a long and outstanding background in swimming including competing, coaching with BMST in the late 70’s and officiating. He returned to coaching the team in the late 1990’s and works primarily with the older group. He is also maintains our web site, is a certified swimming Referee and Technical Rules Chairman for the League.
Ryan Lockwood returns for his eighth season on our professional staff while Kayleigh Hayes and Susan Messer will be back for their fourth years; Rachel Deary will return for her third year and Matt Guthart for his second season.
Ryan joined the team as a swimmer at the age of nine and competed for ten years. As a teenager, he
was a volunteer assistant and made the transition to coaching only once his league eligibility was
completed. Kayleigh also swam with the team for several years and assisted with our 6 & Under
swimmers for six seasons as a volunteer coach before becoming a paid assistant two summers ago.
Susan is a licensed physical therapist and former swimmer with three swimmers on the team. Rachel completed fourteen years on the team in 2009 and volunteered with the 6 & Under group for the six seasons before assisting Ryan with the 6 & Unders the past season. Matt Guthart joined the staff as a paid assistant last summer as he also completed his RCSL swimming career. Now a student at the University of Florida, he has several years of experience in the League and has also coached a city recreational team at Wolfson in the past.
Katherine Tran will be joining our professional coaching staff this season after completing her RCSL eligibility last season. She has assisted as a volunteer coach with our younger swimmers for the past three years and will be helping with the younger age groups.
Also assisting with the coaching of the younger swimmers will be several of our high school aged swimmers. These swimmers are volunteering their time to give back to our younger swimmers and their efforts help continue our traditions and legacy.