Shelly Rawding - Head Coach

Shelly grew up in Seattle and swam for Cascade Swim Club and the University of Washington Huskies .  She is married to Dan (a Husky Swimmer also) and has four children.  The oldest, Justine (22), graduated from  Niagara University in 2009 where she swam for the Purple Eagles as she pursued a degree in Psychology with a minor in Statistics.  She currently attends graduate school at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.  Brett is 20 and has enlisted in the Army, where he is a Blackhawk crew chief currently stationed in Korea. The youngest two, Jacob and Mariah, are in the 8^th grade.  Shelly has 10 years swimming experience and 20 years swim coaching experience in a variety of settings.  She came to the HRVST in 1996 and has been head coach since spring 2000.  Swimming is different to many local youth sports since our coaches are professional coaches on a salary.  We take pride in the fact that our team provides funding for continuing education for all our coaches to keep them up to date on current coaching practices.  Our assistant coaches also attend clinics and they all share a video library to keep working towards the same shared goals. 


 

MJ Caswell - Assistant Coach

Growing up in southern California, Mary Jane (MJ) Caswell enjoyed swimming competitively both as an age group participant and at the high school level.

While competing for the University of California at Irvine, MJ had the opportunity to teach swimming to all age group levels in addition to conducting introductory classes in competitive swimming.

Currently MJ and her husband Michael, enjoy training and competing for the Columbia Gorge Masters Swim Team. MJ especially enjoys the camaraderie and support of  both the Masters’ group and the local aquatic community.  Her favorite events are the 200 and 500 freestyle and the 100 butterfly, which were the shortest events she swam in college.  In addition to teaching swimming, MJ has recently began coaching at the HRVST and is enjoying working with the kids and passing on her knowledge of the sport. 

David Cameron - Assistant Coach

Dave is beginning his 4th year coaching for the HRVST. Dave started swimming in the Santa Clara Valley when he was 5 years old. At 7 years old he was watching soon to be Olympic Gold Medalist Don Schollander (11 yrs older) and Mark Spitz (7 yrs older) training/competing in the very same pools he swam in. For Dave it was an exciting time and place knowing many of the best swimmers in the world were all living in the same area. Water still seems to be the ingredient in the sports he’s currently involved in, including windsurfing, skiing and swimming. He is married to Renee and has one son, Myles.

Paul Jones - Masters Coach

Paul Jones is the leader of our Columbia Gorge Masters program. Paul was the Assistant Masters Swim coach and age group coach in Sonora California for the past 7 years. They had an active membership of Masters Swimmers that grew from 100 to over 400 on the roster in the 7 years he coached. During his tenure he attended many swim clinics, and  looks forward to continuing his swimming education. 

With his wife Erica, he moved from California in September to take a job at Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort. He enjoy triathlons, skiing, hiking and coaching. His goals for the Masters Swim program are to keep it growing and to add more workouts throughout the day as the team grows. He enjoys the commitment and hard work each swimmer puts into every practice.  Paul was honored with the United States Masters Swimming Kerry O’Brien Award in 2008. 

Shea Macnab - Masters Coach

Shea is the newest addition to our masters coaching staff.  Shea has 21 years of coaching and swimming experience.  His swimming career started in The Dalles in 1987 and continued at Linfield College until 1998.  His coaching career also began in the Dalles in 1995 as the assistant coach of The Dalles Summer Swim Team.  In 2000 Shea took a break from swimming for a couple years when he moved to Philadelphia to work on his masters degree at Temple University. 

In 2002 he then moved to Scottsdale Arizona where he taught 7th and 8th grade science and took over as Head Coach and Owner of SunWest Swimming.  After leaving Arizona in 2004 Shea and his wife Annie moved to Minneapolis so Annie could pursue her DVM degree at the University of Minnesota.  While in Minneapolis he took over as the Head Age Group coach for
Barracuda Aquatics.

Shea and Annie recently moved back to the Columbia River Gorge.  Shea is excited about masters coaching and continuing to build on the program that Paul has done such an outstanding job with.   

Jill Miles - Assistant Masters Coach

         Jill is in her 3rd year coaching for the HRVST working with both masters and our age groupers through the years.  She has also coached for The Dalles Swim Team and has many years experience in the aquatics field.  Jill has lived all over the world, and we are excited to have her working with us.  Jill has a daughter Ariana and son Jesse.

Kassen Bergstrom - Substitute Coach

 Kassen Bergstrom has been assisting the HRVST the past three years.  This season she will be working as a substitute team coach.   Kass swam competitively in Moses Lake for the Manta Rays, and in college at Cal State Long Beach and at WSU in Pullman .  She has 12 years coaching experience.  She has been a Head Age Group Coach, an Assistant Senior Coach (in Sweden and in Pullman ), Head High School Coach (3 yrs here in Hood River ) as well as assisting our team the past few years.  Kass is married to Lars with 2 young boys, Leif and Pelle who swim on the team.