Steve Brown

Head Swim Coach/Senior Team Coach

Coach Brown is a 1993 graduate of Ball State University with a degree in business administration. He grew up in a suburb of Chicago and swam for the Joliet YMCA. Coach Brown joined the Sharks staff in August 1994 and has been with the team in one capacity or another since. He has coached every group on the team, for at least one entire season, and was awarded the Florida Swim Coaches Age group Coach of the Year Award in 1998 when the Sharks swept both the short course and long course titles.

Coach Brown has coached Senior National and Junior National qualifiers and finalists, YMCA All-Americans, high school state champions and numerous Florida age group champions. He has been an integral part of the success that the age group and Senior Sharks have experienced during the past five years. He is a Level 4 ASCA certified coach.

Sherwood Watts

Competitive Swim Team Director/Head Age Group Coach

Coach Watts was raised in Sarasota and is proud to be a product of the Sarasota YMCA. He received his start in coaching right here with the Sharks, under the guidance of former head coach Tim Hill. Coach Watts later went on to coach at the Joliet YMCA in Illinois for one year in 1978, and returned to them in 1980 and continued to coach there until 1985. In 1984 he was named the Illinois Age Group Coach of the Year.

In 1985, Coach Watts came back to Sarasota and again coached the Sharks. He has been named the Florida Age Group Coach of the Year seven times: in 1987, 1990, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. In 2001 and 2002, he was named the Florida 3A High School Coach of the Year, after coaching his Sarasota High School boys team to consecutive state championships. He has coached the age group Sharks to nine consecutive Florida Swimming Junior Olympic titles (spring 2006 through spring 2010). He holds the prestigious ASCA Level 5 rating. Considered one of the finest age group coaches in the country, his teams have won more state titles than can be included here. His swimmers have gone on to become top collegiate competitors, world record holders, and Olympians.

Jay Coleman

Venice Sharks Competitive Director

This is Jay’s 20th year of swim coaching. Prior to Sarasota/Venice he spent 11 years as the head coach at the Oshkosh YMCA in Oshkosh, Wis. Before that he was the head coach of the Walla Walla YMCA Swim Team and the head coach at Whitman College, a small liberal arts college. In Oshkosh Jay took a team the had not scored at YMCA Nationals in 30 years to a program that placed in the top 10. His first year in Oshkosh they had one YMCA National qualifier, his 10th year they took 25 athletes. In Wisconsin Jay served as the state YMCA Swimming coordinator for three years. He founded and ran an Open Water Swim Camp for 11 years. Jay has a degree in English from Willamette University in Salem, Ore.

Brent Arckey

Senior 2 Coach/Assistant Junior & Senior 1 Team Coach

Coach Brent comes to the Sharks from Gainesville where he was a senior assistant coach and masters head coach with the Gator Swim Club, as well as a volunteer assistant coach with the University of Florida. He was the head coach of the Florida Swimming All-Star team in 2010, assistant Florida Zone Team coach in 2009, and assistant coach for the 2009 Florida Swimming All-Star team. He was a nationally ranked age group swimmer with Trinity Aquatic Team and Patriot Aquatics in Orlando and was a Florida High School State Champion for Winter Park. He swam for the University of Alabama and participated in the 2003 and 2004 SEC Championships. Coach Brent graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor of science in sports management with a concentration in business administration.

Terri Leap

ESJ Novice/Varsity/White Group Coach

Coach Terri brings depth of experience to the Sharks staff, both as a former nationally-ranked swimmer and as a coach with more than 15 years of experience. As a New Jersey age grouper and senior, Coach Terri was a state champion, a two-time high school swimmer of the year, and high school All American. She specialized in the 200 and 400 individual medleys and the distance freestyle events. She competed in senior national championships from ages 12 to 18, and represented the northeast as a 12-year old at the National Junior Olympics in Colorado. She was ranked 8th in the nation in the 1650 freestyle.

On a collegiate level Terri was named an All American four times while swimming at Florida State University. Ultimately, Coach Terri was a National Championship Finalist and a 1974 Olympic Trial qualifier in the 400 IM. She has been coaching with the Sharks for more than 10 years.

Jennifer Hart

Berlin Pre-Team/Varsity/Novice/White Group Coach

Coach Hart swam for the University of Florida and joins the Sharks coaching staff with over 15 years of experience coaching in Jamaica.

Kelly Wynns

Venice Assistant Coach

Coach Kelly graduated from the University of Indianapolis with a degree in chemistry/medical technology and from Parkview Memorial Hospital with a degree in medicine.  She swam competitively for 12 years with the Indianapolis Swim Club before competing in cross country, track and swimming during college.  She retired from the medical field in 2001 and has been coaching ever since.  She coached for Charlotte County Swimming for 10 years before coming to the Sharks in February of 2011.  She has been the 11-12 girls All-Star coach and 11-12 girls Zone Team coach for three years.

Courtney Hudak

ESJ Assistant Age Group Coach

 Courtney has grown up swimming for the Sharks and was nationally ranked when she was an age grouper, as well as a multi event qualifer and finalist for YMCA Nationals, Southern Sectionals and Senior Championships. She went on to swim for Riverview High School and was a state qualifier all four years and state finalist her last three years in the 100 back and 200 IM. She was MVP her freshman, junior, and senior years as a Ram. Courtney went on to swim at Florida State University from 2004 – 2007 and was part of the ACC Conference Championship Team in 2006. She was All-ACC Academic and Dean’s List in 2005. She graduated in 2008 with a degree in Political/Social Science with a minor in Criminology.

In 2009, she joined the Shark’s Masters program and is a two-time Y-National record holder in the 100 back and 500 free, and a multi-Masters Y-National champion. She is a Masters All American and Top 10 qualifer in mulitple events. She works with all age groups from Pre-Team to Gold Group.

Rachel Moore

ESJ Assistant Age Group Coach

Coach Rachel joins us from Raleigh, North Carolina. She started swimming competitively when she joined the Wave Swim Team at age 9 where she swam for four years, then later joined the Marlins of Raleigh at age 15 and swam for two more years under Coach Paul Silver. She quickly advanced to the top group on Marlins of Raleigh and made several senior championship cuts before graduating high school. She also swam at 4A ranked Apex High School and was a state qualifier in the 50 freestyle. After high school, she attended Liberty University and studied kinesiology to learn the more about fitness in order to become a better coach. She coached for three years on a highly ranked summer league team in Raleigh and coached age groupers at Marlins of Raleigh. Now Coach Rachel joins the Sharks, coaching age groupers from Novice team all the way up to Gold team.

Rick Walker

Masters Head Coach

Rick has been an active masters swimmer since 1985 and started coaching in 2002, after many years in business. As an ASCA Certified masters coach, Rick has seen his program grow from three swimmers in September 2002 to more than 200 currently. In the pool and in open water swimming, Rick has been ranked nationally and worldwide and has been recognized as All-American multiple times in various events.