Coaches & Directors

Our mission is to have our swimmers enjoy positive experience at every level, from learning to swim to our highest level senior gold group.

To have a nationally recognized aquatics program that teaches and trains all levels of swimmers emphasizing individual progress, team unity and family participation. The PS program is characterized philosophically by the principles of self image philosophy. This discipline is concerned with guiding and directing individuals towards maximum development of their talents and abilities. The coaches endeavor to teach, train and motivate all the young people to achieve their ultimate potential in swimming, in the belief that this experience will prove valuable to them as they grow and develop.

Coaching Staff

Dianne M Molenaar "Di"

Head Coach All Groups and Owner

Di Molenaar was born in South Africa . Di has 3 grown children and 2 grandchildren who live in San Diego . Di swam competitively until the age of 16 in South Africa . As well as a 16 year career in Advertising and Marketing, Di ran a swim school in Johannesburg for 13 yrs after her first child was born before moving to the the US. After arriving in the states Di coached for the United Poway swim team for 2 years. The Pacific Swim team was founded in 1990 with a small group of swimmers and a handful of beginners in lessons. "My passion for swimming as well as my love of kids has made this an unbelievably gratifying experience and journey for me, we now have 200 year round swimmers, over a 1000 beginners in lessons, adults who are beginners and adults who swim masters. A positive experience for all levels is my motto and we strive to create this every day for everyone who swims in any of our groups, beginner through national.

Gary Scott

Swim Team Manager

Swim Team Manager
Meet Entries/Meet Director/Dues

Invoicing/Webmaster/Questions (858) 486-3670

gary@pacificswim.com

Alexandra L Hatch - "Alex"

Coach and PS HR Manager

Alexandra Hatch caught the swimming bug at a young age, competing in her first meet at 6. After moving from Zimbabwe to South Africa at age 8, she joined the husband and wife team of Mo and Bill Lamont. In a strange twist, it was here that she first met Owen and his sister Jane Molenaar. Alex continued swimming throughout her age-group years, and was nationally ranked from ages 8-18. The impact that her coaches made on her, and the positive lessons learned from being a part of the swimming community have shaped her desire and love for coaching. At 13 she made the South African National Travel team, and traveled with them abroad to Hong Kong and Taiwan to represent her country. She traveled to the US at 17, attending the University of Houston on a swimming scholarship. While still swimming in college, she began coaching a summer league swim team, and discovered her passion for coaching and teaching younger swimmers. After graduation, she worked for a year as a college assistant coach. In 1998, she began coaching high school swimming at North Shore Senior High School in Houston , Texas , and in that same year was named as the Conference Coach of the Year. She coached at the high school level and worked as an English teacher for 3 years. Moving to San Diego in 2001, she returned to both age-group coaching and to swimming herself. Alexandra has been involved in all levels of swimming and coaching. She firmly believes that a solid background in technique and a consistent commitment to working hard will always lead to success. Her coaching philosophy is based on the idea that success in the pool is achieved by those same elements that lead to success outside the pool; namely consistency, balance, accountability, and attitude.

Away from the pool, Alex enjoys camping, swimming, surfing, hiking and reading. She recently married Kurt Hatch of San Diego. Kurt and Alex have since adopted two cats, and are working to prevent them from tearing up their home...

Owen J Molenaar

Head Competitive Age Group Coach

Started swimming in South Africa when he was 3 years old. Swam competitively for club and High School until age 17. Has been a swim coach at Pacific Swim for the past 15 years. During that time coached beginners and 3 Olympic Trial Qualifiers. Since 1997 Has consistently coached top ranking swimmers in the Nation. Coached multiple Junior Olympic Champions, C.I.F Champions, Sectional Champions, Junior National Champions, Senior National Qualifiers and Finalists. Owen’s swimmers have won over 25 races at the Western Zone Championships.
As an age group coach, Owen has received the Coach of the year award and was head coach of the San Diego Imperial Allstar team. His swimmers have been ranked # 1 in the nation. They have broken many San Diego Age Group and C.I.F records.Owen was selected to attend Select Camps at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
He is proud of the fact that many of the swimmers he has worked with from a very young age swam with me for over 10 years and are currently swimming on scholarships at top colleges across the country including Stanford, Northwestern, USC, UCSB, UCSD, UCI, UCLA, Wisconsin, Tulane, Villanova and many more.

Dan S Peck

Head Coach Senior Gold

Dan enters his first season as the Pacific Swim Senior Gold coach after coaching the Senior Silver Group last season. He enters this new challenge with a wealth of experience coaching swimming in all levels of the sport. He hopes to make in impact on both the competitive level of his athletes as well as connect with them as young adults and motivate them to want more from swimming as well as life.
Before beginning with Pacific Swim he was the head assistant coach at the University of California San Diego for five full seasons. The men and women placed in the top 5 nationally 7 times in his tenure and the athletes achieved multiple national titles, Division II national records, All-Americans, Senior National and Olympic Trial time standards.
Dan has also coached the Mt. Carmel High School men’s and women’s varsity teams for the past 4 years. The girls have never placed lower than 3rd at C’ were runner up in 2004 and 2006 and added a CIF championship in 2005. In 2005, the Sundevils won an unprecedented 8 of 12 events set 8 school records and 1 National Record. In 2004, the Mt. Carmel Boy’s placed 5th with an All American Relay and a 3 CIF titles. After rebuilding in 2005 and a move from 9th to 4th in 2006, the boy’s will be a contender for their first CIF championship this season under Dan this upcoming season.
Dan also is the founder and Head Coach of Swim Smarter one of the most competitive Masters teams in San Diego . Swim Smarter ranked 14th Nationally in the summer of 2005 with 11 National titles. At World Championships in 2006, Swim Smarter saw it’s first World Champion and runner-up as athletes took 1-2 in the 200 Free Age 25-29. They also came with .2 of setting a World Record in the 200 Free relay. They set 5 individual and 4 relay San Diego records. Along with Masters competition, some of the more competitive athletes are still competing at the highest levels of US competition.
In addition to the competitive side of Swim Smarter masters, he also coaches multiple athletes ranging from triathletes, fitness swimmers, channel swimmers and more. He has been teaching private technique to athletes all across San Diego for the past 6 years and has been growing his reputation as a premier coach at the masters level. He is also a certified USA Triathlon coach.
For his own swimming career he was awarded his high school MVP for 3 years in a row and was team captain both his Junior and Senior year. After high school he became a four year NCAA Division I varsity swimmer for the University of Massachusetts at Amherst , where he specialized in middle distance and distance events. Winning the UMass Minuteman Award in 1996, he was ranked 3rd, 4th, and 5th in New England in the 200yd, 500yd and 1650yd freestyles respectively and helped the Minutemen to win their first 3 Atlantic-10 Conference Championships.
Dan currently lives in Sabre Springs with his wife Amy, a school teacher and head girls basketball coach at Rancho Bernardo. When not coaching or swimming, he is an avid golfer and enjoys skiing, beach volleyball and almost every sport.

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