ASCA Announces Age-Group Coach of the Year Finalists in Four Divisions
The American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) and Fitter & Faster Swim Camps have announced the Top-Five Age Group Coach of the Year Finalists for small, medium, large and extra-large teams. The finalists will be introduced and honored during the opening session of the 2026 ASCA World Clinic on September 9 at the Rosen Centre Resort in Orlando, Florida. The national winner of each division will then be revealed live on stage. For more information on the ASCA World Clinic, go to www.ascaworldclinic.com.
The results were compiled by USA Swimming’s data staff and ASCA staff using data from the SWIMS database. The results include swimmers ages 10-14 with qualifying time standards from the 2025 Long Course season and 2025-26 Short Course season. Coaches of record were collected for swimmers who achieved these times to populate the 2026 Top Age Group Coach lists.
Congratulations to the following outstanding coaches (in alphabetical order):
| Small Teams (up to 75 athletes) | |
| John Chen | Xtreme Swim Club |
| Oleksandr Filimonov | BeFirst Swim Team |
| Nazarii Kosylo | SwimRight Team |
| Kevin Pan | Dragon Swim Team |
| Jim Skirboll | Racer X Aquatics |
| Medium Teams (76-175 Athletes) | |
| Michael Brooks | York YMCA |
| Cristian Davalos | Stamford Sailfish Aquatic Club |
| Olga Espinosa | St Croix Swim Club |
| Don Heidary | Orinda Aquatics |
| Lou Williams | Germantown Academy Aquatic Club |
| Large Teams (176-350 athetes) | |
| Dwight Anderson | Bellevue Club Swim Team |
| Matthew Craven | Shawmut Aquatic Club |
| Jeff Debettencourt | NASA Wildcat Aquatics |
| Tom Himes | North Baltimore Aquatic Club |
| Brian Pajer | Aquazot Swim Club |
| Extra-Large Teams (351+ athletes) | |
| Raven Chastain | Nitro Swimming |
| Rod Hansen | Irvine Novaquatics |
| Ryan L’Roy | SwimAtlanta |
| Peter O’Donnell | Long Island Aquatic Club |
| David Schreck | NOVA of Virginia Aquatics, Inc |