Paul J Stafford
Head Coach
Bio coming soon!
Coaching Staff
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Coaches' Bios
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| Coaching Staff |
Zachary Hojnacki
Head Age Group Coach
Zachary Hojnacki is an Arizona native who grew up in the Phoenix area. He graduated from the University of Arizona with a B.S. in Psychology and minor in Sports Management in December of 2012, and an M.A. and Ph.D Educational Psychology in December 2014 and August 2017, respectively. He swam on the University of Arizona swim team for three years from 2009-2011, and competed in the 2012 Olympic Trials, as well as in three Pac 12 championships. Zac has aspirations to someday return to the collegiate ranks as a Division I head coach.
Zac began his career with Ford coaching the Silver group as a volunteer in the Fall of 2012. After working his way through the program—including stints with the Senior groups, as well as the Gold and Elite groups—he took over as Head Age Group Coach in the Fall of 2015. He appreciates the opportunity to learn from both the Ford staff and his swimmers each day. Zac prides his age group program on establishing fundamental skillsets to position his athletes for long-term success in the sport, and on developing swimming knowledge through a full-fledged swimmer education program.
Rick B Laing
Senior Coach
Senior Coach Rick Laing joined Ford Aquatics in May 2014. Before that Coach Rick was the Head Coach of El Dorado Aquatics from November 2008 - May 2014. Coach Rick moved to Tucson in 2000 from New Zealand, where he earned his international coaching reputation. With over 15 years experience on deck, coaching age groupers right up to Olympic medalists, he coached along side his father, legendary New Zealand coach Duncan Laing. Coach Rick mentored New Zealand star Danyon Loader who won gold in the 200 and the 400 freestyle at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and silver in the 200 fly at the 1992 Barcelona games. He also coached Olympian Liz van Welie.
(Under Coach Rick, EDAC swimmers competed exceptionally well in local, state, and regional meets. Locally, in non-USA swimming events, EDAC won the 2010 Santa Cruz SAAA League Championship, and placed well in high school state championships including an EDAC 2009 state champion in three events and two seniors, one of whom was a freshman, in A finals in 2010. At the year-around state level, EDAC swimmers amassed three top three high point trophies, multiple state titles and top three medals, as well as top 5 high point winners at Arizona Age-group State Championships in 2009-2010 seasons. Regionally, in 2010, six EDAC swimmers went to Far Westerns, winning one title and nine top 8 medals. Coach Rick has also coached three EDAC swimmers to top 10 or top 20 national rankings in their main events.
Emma Darlington
Senior Coach
Emma Darlington is a Tucson native who attended Salpointe Catholic High School, and swam for FORD Aquatics from 2004-2007. After high school she attended and swam collegiately for the University of Arizona where she received her B.A in History, minor in Psychology, and her Masters in Teaching and Teacher's Education. During her career at the University of Arizona she was an NCAA qualifier all four years, two-time NCAA All-American, three-time PAC-10 Champion, two-time Olympic Trials qualifier, USA Swimming National Champion, and a member of the 2008 Pac-10 and NCAA Championship team.
Emma currently teaches U.S and World History at Salpointe Catholic High School. She started working with the Senior groups in February 2014, and is enjoying being back on the pool deck and working with the FORD swimmers!
Chad Joseph Castillo
Senior Coach
Chad Castillo was born and raised in Tucson Arizona. At the age of 9 He began swimming in the SAAA summer league and progressed onto year round and high school swimming where he was an all american sprinter. He attended the University of Arizona earning his B.S in Biology and M.Ed in teaching and teacher education. After college, Chad worked with turnaround schools in TUSD helping Palo Verde High School go from a D to an A ranking in 3 years. He is currently a chemistry teacher at Canyon Del Oro High School. Coach Chad is married to Katie, a retired NAU Lumberjack distance swimmer, and they have two children, 1 year old Camryn and 4 year old Caden.
Chad began coaching the FORD senior development group at the beginning of the 2015 season. Before coming to Ford he was the head coach of the SAAA CT Marlins and the women’s swim team at Salpointe Catholic High School. While at Salpointe, Chad was recognized as the AZ daily star women’s coach of the year 4 out his 6 season’s with the team, and his teams never finished lower than 3rd at the state meet.
Coach Chad loves helping the senior groups realize their amazing potential. He is thankful to work with such an extraordinary staff and group of families at FORD.
John Condit
Age Group Coach
John Condit joined Ford Aquatics in September 2014. Born in the Philippines, he grew up in San Diego, California, then moved to Tucson. John has been around the water throughout his childhood. He started competitive swimming at the age of 12. John swam varsity all four years in high school, as well as for Ford Aquatics his junior and senior years of high school. He also worked as an instructor and deck manager at DeMont Family Swim School from 2012-2015. During those times he also helped coach with his father who previously an SAAA coach, is now a head coach for a USA club swim team, FAST.
John started his career at Ford working with the Silver and Elite group as an assistant coach in the winter of 2014. He is now currently the lead coach for the Silver group, and co-lead for age group development as well as the Ford Mustang lessons group. John loves working with the youth of our community in preparing them to become not only better swimmers, but also better people through individual progress, family participation, and team unity. He has a younger brother that he loves who also swims competitively. John's goal is to fulfill a lifelong dream of coaching swimming and giving back to the community some of what was given to him by his coaches and the sport.
Austin P Ringquist
Age Group Coach
Austin Ringquist joined Ford Aquatics in May 2015. Born in Hillsboro, Oregon, he started swimming at the age of 5, later attended the University of Florida for two years, and finished his collegiate swimming career swimming and graduated from the University of Arizona in August, 2015. During Austin's swimming career, he competed at the Pac-12 championships, National Championships, Olympic Trials, and 2012 Inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore.
Austin started his coaching career with Ford working with the Silver group in the Summer of 2015, and now currently coaches with the Gold and Elite groups. Austin enjoys being able to work with the other great coaches on Ford in addition to the passionate and hard working kids on the team. When he is not coaching at Ford, Austin also works at the University of Arizona as Assistant Aquatic Director. He enjoys being around water, coaching, golfing, and spending time with friends and family.
Devin L Price
Age Group / Senior Coach
A lifelong Tucsonan, Devin grew up in the SAAA system and swam for Palo Verde High School. Devin took the Water Safety Instructor course for the first time in 1986. He taught for varous entities over the years, including: Jim Mance, Ott YMCA, Arizona Gold, and El Dorado. In 2009, Devin started coaching summers at Catalina Terrace. In January, 2011, Devin joined the Ford team year round. Devin is excited to be at Ford and looks forward to working with the swimmers and their families. Please feel free to contact him at any time! Phone: 250-3786
Jim Stites
Head Coach Masters Swimming
Jim has served as the Ford Masters coach since 1990. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, he followed legendary Arizona coach, Frank Busch to Tucson when Frank first made his move to the desert. Since becoming the head masters coach, Jim has grown the program from 30 swimmers to more than 140.
Jim swam in college at the University of Cincinnati. He continues to swim, cycle, and run. Jim runs both the morning and noon workouts.
