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West Coast Aquatics
was formed by the merger of several East Side teams. The
merger was inspired by the building of the Frank Fiscalini
International Swim Center and the potential of that
facility to house a tremendously competitive aquatic
organization.
At its inception, WEST
offered two programs: youth year-round swim team and
Masters swim team. Over the years, to continue with the
mission of providing aquatics sports to the community,
WEST has developed a summer youth swim team, a community swim
lesson program, and, a men’s and women’s
water polo team, with competitive opportunities offered
from entry level to national level.
Greg Tomasello served
as the head coach from 1977 until his retirement in
December 1992. Mr. Tomasello led several swimmers
to Junior and Senior National levels, and he
established the WEST summer lesson format that provides a feeder
program and fiscal support for
WEST.
From December 1994 to
September 2001 Dr. Paul Weiss served as Aquatics
Director for WEST. Dr Weiss utilized his
Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with a focus in Sport
Psychology, Human Motivation, and Performance Enhancement
to have a positive influence on the development
of the organization. Under Dr. Weiss WEST
experienced a solid financial base, developed a
high-caliber coaching staff, and built the foundations
of a healthy relationship with Independence High School, the
ESUHSD, and the City of San Jose. Dr Weiss expanded the
lesson program, developed a national level water polo program and
built a swim team of ESUHSD students that won both local
meets such as the South Bay Swim League and placed in National
Meets in New York, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Alaska.. In 2001 Dr Weiss
left to accept a position at Asphalt Green in New York
City.
From 2001 until December
2005 Aquatics Director Aaron Bartleson continued to expand
the WEST lesson program to over 2,000 participants, build the
Summer Team to 440 swimmers at 3 ESUHSD sites (Independence,
Piedmont Hills, and Silver Creek), Victor Wales SJSU Head
Women’s Swimming and Diving Coach worked with the WEST
senior group until becoming the Head Swimming and Diving Coach at
the University of Hawaii. Late in 2005 Aaron Bartleson was
forced to resign because of a family
emergency.
In 2006-2007 WEST made a successful
transition to Overfelt High School, hired Danica Burge as the
interim aquatics director, re-introduced national team travel,
nurtured a range of programs (clinics, pre-competitive teams
water polo teams, swim school) to serve the needs of the east side
community, continued to build the relationship with all local
school districts, and procured college scholarships for graduating
ESUHSD seniors. Our 2007 summer program was one the most
successful program ever. In addition to offering competitive
swimming and polo, WEST ran a record number of swim lessons
and hosted events which brought over 5,000 visitors to the
community. . In August 2007 WEST hosted a complimentary community
BBQ at the Fair Community Center.
Plans for 2008 include the
“Leap Day” Mile Challenge to raise funds for community
programming and scholarships, opening a year run swim
school, expanding the novice “pre-competitive”
program, expanded community outreach to local schools and community
groups, and hosting the Long Course Far Western Swimming
Championships (the premier weatern age group
championships)
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