Coaches & Directors

We are here to support your needs. If your questions are related to workouts, meets, events, goal setting, and other swimming related needs, please contact one of the coaches. For all questions related to administrative, such as dues, safety, or policy issues, please contact one of the board members.

Coaching Staff

Scott M Lathrop

Head Coach

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Scott Lathrop brings 17 years of coaching experience to Desert Thunder Aquatics. Scott’s coaching career began in 1986 as an assistant coach for ASU  before branching out to club swimming.He has worked at all levels of coaching with USA Swimming from novice to Olympic Trial qualifiers. In 2000, Scott  accepted a position of Associate Coach for Desert Thunder Aquatics Club, and then became the Head Coach and CEO of DTAC in 2006. Scott coaches the Senior and High School development level swimmers at the Chandler Pool.

Scott has had comprehensive study in technique with former head coach and now consultant Milt Nelms, and has collaborated on a technical curriculum for USA Swimming with the foremost mind in technique, Bill Boomer. This background plus his experience with one of the most advanced training systems available, Parametric Training, has brought Scott to develop athletes of all ages to their best potential, including Top 16, Junior, and Senior National Level athletes.

Scott competed in swimming throughout his high school and college career, becoming a three time National Qualifier, a scholarship athlete for two colleges, and on the ASU academic honor roll.
Scott  graduated from ASU in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Technology. In addition, He has been an avid competitive cyclist, being a three time National Qualifier, and an Olympic Trials Qualifier in 1992. Scott also enjoys outdoor experiences including mountain biking and mountain climbing, and frequently visits Colorado to join his family.

Currently Scott resides in Chandler with his dog Tanner. 


BRYAN T CRANE

Associate Coach _Chandler

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Coach Bryan is the proud husband of Jen, who Bryan affectionately refers to as the most beautiful woman to walk this planet.  He is also the proud father of three wonderful children: Jake, Luke, and Kirsten Leigh. Coach Bryan was born and raised for most of his childhood in the Great Pacific Northwest, more specifically Anacortes, Washington.  From the age of five to almost eleven, his father was stationed in Sicily for civilian military service.  Bryan learned to swim in the Mediterranean Ocean! 
After returning to the Pacific Northwest, Bryan’s mother signed him up for the North Whidbey Aquatic Club at the age of eleven.  Coach Bryan had actually told his mother he would never join the swim team, because he never wanted to wear a Speedo.  Fortunately, mother knows best, and young Bryan reluctantly joined the team and eventually started swimming in that dreaded Speedo. 
From there Coach Bryan went on to swim competitively for twelve years.  In 1995, he graduated high school and went on to study Kinesiology and swim for Whitworth College, an NCAA Division III college.  Bryan finished his four years of swimming at Whitworth by scoring in the championship finals of the Northwest Conference Championships.  His events were the 500 Free, 400 Individual Medley, and 200 Fly.

Coach Bryan’s coaching career began when he volunteered as an Assistant Novice Coach for the Spokane Waves Aquatic Association starting in 1996.  By 1998, Bryan was Head Coach of the Spokane Waves and built the program through the summer of 2002.  From there he worked in Los Angeles for a year under the tutelage of international technical expert Milton Nelms and five-time Olympic Coach Richard Quick. Finally in 2003, Bryan came to Arizona by the combined resources of Desert Thunder and SWIMkids USA.  

In addition to coaching the DTAC Chandler Age Groupers, Coach Bryan is the General Manager of SWIMkids USA.  At SWIMkids USA, Bryan directs a swim school that serves up to 2400 infants, toddlers, and adolescents  per week.  Under the guidance of SWIMkids USA owner Lana Whitehead and the support of a devoted  management staff, Bryan has hired, trained, and organized forty staff members into a premiere aquatic instruction team.  Desert Thunder Aquatics and SWIMkids USA have worked together to develop a  learn-to-swim progression that can develop swimmers from infancy all the way through high school graduation  and into adulthood.
  
Coach Bryan is a coach who is compassionate for the children.  Bryan’s coaching philosophy and approach is one that puts development of the person first, and the swimmer second.  Regardless of how fast a child swims, he or she can collect a multitude of life-lessons from the sport of swimming.  Under Coach Bryan your  swimmer will experience firm, loving guidance.  Your swimmer will learn to be accountable and take responsibility for their development as a swimming athlete.  They will learn how to  self-evaluate their work and performance, accept constructive criticism, contribute their own internal  feedback, and make a decision that is progressive and mature.  Coach Bryan will always work to reinforce three characteristics for living a good life: respect, trustworthiness, and gratitude.