Omar Cruz

Head Coach

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This is Omar’s tenth year as Head Coach of the Norwalk ZEUS Swim Team. Omar has 30 years of experience in the sport both as a swimmer and as a coach.  Omar has quadrupled the size of the ZEUS team since his arrival and has consistently become one of the TOP 10 Swim Teams in Connecticut. 

In that time span, Omar has produced over 20 ZEUS swimmers to qualify for the USA Sectional Championships and 1 USA JUNIOR NATIONAL Championship qualifiers. Also during his tenure, Omar has helped coach many ZEUS swimmers to qualify for the Connecticut High School State Open Championships for Norwalk High School, Staples High School, and Fairfield Prep.  In addition, he has helped coach several High School All-Americans in the last few years, as well as USA Scholastic All - Americans.  The past few years several Norwalk High School relays won the State Championships with several ZEUS swimmers.  Eight years ago, Omar was nominated as Connecticut Coach of the Year and then again the following year. 

Currently Omar is on both the Technical Planning committee and the Nominating committee for Connecticut Swimming. 

Before joining ZEUS, Omar was the Assistant Head Coach of the Montclair YMCA, in New Jersey.  In one year with Montclair YMCA, the girls won the New Jersey YMCA State Championships.  Also Omar coached Chaminade High School in Mineola, New York.  There he helped guide them to a C.H.S.A.A. championship. 

Omar has spent most of his coaching career as the Head Age Group Coach of the YWCA Middies in White Plains, New York. There he worked every day with all swimmers on the team from the novice level to athletes qualifying for the 2000 and 2004 United States Olympic Trials. He helped coach the Middies to its 15th consecutive National YWCA National Championship and back-to-back Metro Junior Olympic Championships.

Omar has helped produce several National Age Group top 16 Qualifiers, 6 Eastern Zone All – Star Champions, 31 YMCA National Qualifiers, 29 Junior National qualifiers, 27 U.S. Open Qualifiers, and several Senior National qualifiers.  Eight years ago, Omar was invited to be a coach at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado to work with an elite group of select athletes from all around the country. Three years ago, Omar was selected by Connecticut Swimming to coach a swim camp and work with swimmers from all over the state.  

As a swimmer, Omar was captain of both his high school and college swim teams, Fordham University.  He was also a Junior National finalist in the 100 yard and 200 yard butterfly in the late 1980's and early 1990's.  

Omar has chosen to make coaching his profession because of his passion to work with athletes who want to work hard and achieve their goals of reaching the next level of excellence.  He believes helping individual athletes to accomplish this goal will teach the athletes as a group to come together to work hard as a team and succeed as a team. This philosophy of hard work makes athletes become better people 

Dennis Flores

Head Assistant Coach

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 This will be Dennis’ eighth year with the Norwalk ZEUS Swim Team as the Head Age Group Coach.  He has been in the sport for 21 years as a swimmer, a swim instructor, and the last 12 years he has been on the deck as a coach.  During his tenure with ZEUS, he has doubled the size of the ZEUS swimmers who have qualified for the Connecticut Age group Championships.  

In the past several years, numerous ZEUS swimmers in the Age Group program qualified for the Eastern Zone All-star meet.  In the winter of 2008, the ZEUS 10 and under won the Connecticut State Championships, after placing third the previous summer.  With all these accomplishments with ZEUS, Dennis won the Connecticut Age Group Coach of the Year Award in 2008.  An awarded voted upon by all the coaches in Connecticut. 

Before joining ZEUS, Dennis was the assistant Age Group Coach of the White Plains YWCA Middies for two years.  There he helped produce numerous of Metro Junior Olympic Qualifiers.  In his two-year stint with the Middies, he helped produce 15 of the younger Age Group swimmers to become Eastern Zone All – Star Qualifiers.  Also while at the Middies, he took many swimmers from the developmental stages and made them enjoy the sport.  

The last six summers Dennis has also been the head coach of the Roton Point swim team.  This past summer the team had a 5-1 record and placed second in division 2 of the fcsl. During his first year at Middies, Dennis was the assistant head coach of the Mamaroneck Barracudas in the Westchester/Fairfield Swim League.  There he posted the best dual meet record to date.  They also placed in the TOP 10 at their League Championships for the first time in their history.  

Dennis was the assistant aquatic director at the White Plains YWCA, where he started as a swim instructor back in 1997.  Dennis graduated Gorton High School in Yonkers, New York in 1997 where he was a varsity swimmer all four years. He then earned a degree in business management & marketing at the Westchester Business Institute.

 Dennis coaches because he loves the sport and his strong desire to help develop young athletes. He believes that the lessons learned in the pool, while not necessarily those that are performance related, will be lifelong lessons. Dennis has been in the business world and knows that an athlete is better prepared for the challenges that life brings to all of us.  Teamwork, determination, patience, self-discipline and self-confidence are all-important aspects to a swimmer and Dennis looks to teach that to all swimmers. 

Michael Jordan

Assistant Coach

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This is Michael’s Jordan first year coaching on Zeus. He hails from Milford, CT where he lives with his wife and four children.

His coaching experience includes Head Coach of JCC Dolphins 2005-2010 and Assistant Head Coach at Trumbull Pisces 2010-2012 where he coached Age Group through Senior Athletes.  He is currently an ASCA Level 3 Swim Coach.

In high school Michael was a YMCA National Finalist, New England Record Holder and a Junior National Qualifier in butterfly.  On Scholarship he swam for Southern CT State University under the tutelage of Bruce Hutchinson. While swimming at Southern, he was an all American all four years he attended. He also was a New England champion/Record holder in the 100 and 200 backstroke, team captain, MVP and voted swimmer of the 1990’s.

Michael enjoys outdoor sports Mountain Biking, fishing, Snowboarding

Michael once scored 40 Points in a Summer Men's basketball league

Nicole Hauser

Assistant Coach

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Nicole is in her first year coaching for ZEUS but she has been a competitive swimmer since she was an 8/under swimming with Norwalk Aquatic Club (the team before ZEUS!).  She swam at Georgetown University and still swims with the Masters team at the YMCA.  She also competes in open water swims during the summer.  She has taught swim lessons for many summers, mostly through the Swim America program.  Outside of swimming, Nicole is an elementary school teacher.  This is her 14^th year teaching first grade. 

Jenny Amato

Assistant Coach

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This is Jenny Amato's first year coaching with ZEUS.  She recently graduated from Springfield College in Massachusetts with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education and a minor in Health Studies.  As a certified teacher in Massachusetts, she is currently in the process of becoming a certified teacher in Connecticut.  Jenny has been teaching swimming lessons with SwimAmerica for the past 8 years and has been their head private swim lesson instructor the last three 3 years.   She has loved swimming from a very early age and teaching has always been a passion of hers.  Jenny is very excited to work with ZEUS as a new member of the coaching staff!