Andy Shields
Head Coach/USA Paralympic Coach
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Head Coach Andy Shields joined the
Tritons at the start of the 2018-2019 season. Andy brings with him
more than 20 years of youth sports and coaching experience, having
coached multiple sports and age levels from novice to high
performing.
In 2017 Coach Andy relocated to New England
with his family from Atlanta, Georgia where he had spent time as a
Physical Education teacher and competitive soccer coach before
switching to full-time swim coaching at two competitive USA swim
programs. At Chattahoochee Gold he was the Lead Age Group Coach and
Swim Director and prior to that he was Head Coach and Swim Director
at Atlanta Swim Academy. Coach Andy's first year in New England was
spent with Bluefish Swim Club-Williston where he was the Lead Age
Group Coach for the 2017-2018 season helping the team win multiple
age group Team Championships including the team's first 10 &
Under Championship title before being given the opportunity to
take on the Head Coaching position at
ATST.
Coach Andy has been an active USA Swimming
Zones Coach, both with the Georgia Zone Team and the New England
Zone Team having won Championship Titles in both 2017
and 2018.
Coach Andy is an ASCA Level 3 certified
coach and has coached a number of State, Age Group Sectional and
Zone Champions. In additional his swimmers have achieved both State
and National Age Group Records. He is also proud to have a former
swimmer currently representing the USA National and Paralympic
Team.
Steph Mattrey
Head REC Coach/Assistant US Coach
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Coach Steph hails from a small town called Bethlehem in eastern
Pennsylvania. An avid athlete all her life, she was
drawn to swimming at a young age. Stephanie was a
competitive swimmer from the age of 6 to 18, competing at both Rec
and USS levels. Her training, coupled with her slow
twitch muscles, morphed her into a 100 and 200 butterflier, as well
as a competitor in all of the distance freestyle events, although
she still likes elementary backstroke and wishes this could be a
“thing” at meets. Yes, coach Steph
experienced the challenges of long distance training yardage, but
wouldn’t have it any other way. She fell a little
more in love with the sport each day as she grew
up.
Having decided not to swim in college, however, Stephanie still
couldn’t seem to stay away from the pool. Amid her
double major in Psychology and Creative Writing at West Chester
University of Pennsylvania, she studied animal behavior extensively
and sat as the long standing editor in chief of the college
literary magazine. She also played collegiate level
water polo for 5 years during her stay there, while thoroughly
soaking up all the lovely gems that Philadelphia
offers. Tournaments up and down the Atlantic coast consumed
her time, happily, most weekends. Stephanie gleaned so
much insight from her experience in water polo, that her coaching
and training expertise in the competitive swimming world has become
very well rounded.
After college, Coach Steph coached a startup USS team for a
short time in 2004-2006 called Argo Aquatics. She worked with
all age groups and served as head Dryland coach for that team as
well.
Coach Steph is also an Acupuncturist and Chinese Herbalist, and
has been licensed by the states of California and Massachusetts
since 2010. She has a bustling private practice in
Hadley, MA, where she treats all kinds of medical conditions and
has a unique niche for women’s health and the complex
treatment of eating disorders.
In her spare time, Coach Steph now trains for the international
sport of Strongman. During her first year of
competition, she qualified for North American Strongman Nationals
in Missouri later this year. She has found a passion for
Olympic style weightlifting due to this sport, and brings this
passion and knowledge to her dryland coaching for the
Tritons. It is safe to say that Coach Steph thoroughly
enjoys picking up heavy things and putting them back
down! Her study and interest in lifting has also
fishtailed into the study of body mechanics when it comes to how
resistance training can support the improvement of technique in the
4 swimming strokes, as well as starts and turns.
When she is not on the pool deck, holding tiny needles, at the
gym, or sleeping, Stephanie proudly mothers her three daughters,
two of whom are swimmers on the Tritons. Coach Steph
adores nature and makes a point to get out into it in some form or
another each day, regardless of the weather. New England makes
her happy and she resides in Amherst with her family.
Jenn Albertine
Assistant Coach/USS Team Registar
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Coach Jenn was born and raised in Central MA. Her mom enrolled
her in swim lessons at age 3, where her love for the water became
apparent immediately. She swam competitively for 12 years
both in the New England area and in Maryland. She continues
to enjoy swimming with a local Master’s team when she has
time in her busy schedule.
She has passed on her love for the sport through coaching for
the last 13 years, 7 of them being here with the Tritons. In
addition to being an assistant coach for the Tritons, Coach Jenn is
the Head Coach of the Amherst High School Swimming and Diving Team.
In the summer, she is an Assistant Coach with the UMass
Championship Swim Camp where she gets to spend an intensive 5 days
learning from top level collegiate and age group coaches while
coaching kids from all over New England. Jenn holds coaching
certifications with USA Swimming, The YMCA, National Federation for
High School Sports, and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic
Association.
Coach Jenn is also Dr. Jenn and holds a PhD in Plant and Soil
Science from UMass. She teaches classes in Environmental and Public
Health Sciences at Mount Holyoke College. Her research
focuses on the impacts of climate change on human health,
specifically how environmental changes impact plant biology and how
that then feeds back to impact human health, whether through our
pollen allergies or our ability to grow food.
Neel Sekar
Assistant Coach/College Swim Adviser
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Coach Neel was born in Natick, Mass and grew up around the
Natick area. He spent most of his early life doing sports and began
swimming lessons from infancy. In addition to swimming, Neel
also played basketball, baseball, soccer, ultimate frisbee, and
skateboarding while growing up. He originally tried out for the
Hockomock Area YMCA Lightning at age 7, and made the team when he
was 8, before transferring to Bluefish Swim Club at age 13. Neel
swam competitively until 18 when he decided to attend UMass
Amherst.
After deciding to attend UMass, and not to swim at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, Neel decided to try triathlons as he had
also always been a decent runner. In summer 2016 he participated in
his first event, the Westboro Sprint Triathlon. He plans on
continuing competing in triathlons and hopes to one day do an
XTerra and a Spartan Race.
Neel is currently enrolled at the University of Massachusetts in
Amherst, where he is pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering
with a minor in Chemistry.
Oliver Wyeth
Assistant Coach
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Ollie is a Native of New Zealand that used swimming as a means
to move to the United States. New Zealand is surrounded by water
with the furthest inland point being only 74 miles. As a result of
this, he began learning to swim as a toddler to prepare
himself for the huge swells on the beaches. It wasn't until
he was around 8 years old that he began to swim competitively.
At age 12, he saw his first national success which would
carry through till he graduated high school. During his time
in high school, he would have the opportunity to travel to a
few countries as a member of both the New Zealand junior team and
New Zealand Olympic Development team.
In 2014, Ollie was recruited by the UMass Amherst varsity team
as a 500 freestyler, and 100/200 backstroker. During his time at
college he was able to win multiple individual medals, two
conference championships, acquire NCAA cuts, and captain the team
his senior year. In 2018, he put up the cap and goggles
and realigned his focus to an area of study he was
passionate about. This resulted in continuing his studies focusing
on gaining a Master of Science in Business Analytics in 2019 and in
turn finding a job in Northampton. With the extra time created now
that he is not training 20 hours a weekin the pool, he is excited
to be on deck in a different capacity to dhare his
passion and experieinces in the sport.
Josie D Connor
Assistant Coach
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Coach Josie has been a part of the Amherst Tritons since she
was 7 years old. An avid breastroker, she competed with the team
until she graduated from high school in 2017. During this time, she
competed for both the REC and USS leagues. At the age of 16, Josie
began volunteering as an assistant coach for ATST. It was this
experience that heavily influenced her to pursue her Bachelors
Degree in Human Development and Family Studies at the University of
New Hampshire. After school she plans to become a certified child
life specialist.
When
Josie is not away at school she happily returns to her home in
Hadley and to coaching with the Tritons. She enjoys skiing in the
winter, going to the beach in the summer, and reading lots of
books.
Andy Paul
Assistant Coach
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Andy has been swimming competitively since the age of 5 starting
his career at the Amherst Triton's. He has continued his love of
the sport into College, swimming for Roger Williams University
where he is also studying electrical engineering.
He wishes to continue to share his passion and knowledge of
swimming through coaching and helping
the next generation of Triton's swimmers achieve the
success and enjoyment he had as a top age group and senior
level swimmer.
Casey Ransford
Assistant Coach
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Coach Casey is a current UMass student originally from
Rochester, NY. He began swimming competitively for his local
country club when he was 4 after watching his older brothers race
and wanting to join in on the fun. When he was 10, he earned a spot
on the Niagara LSC team for the Eastern Zone Age Group
Championships for the first time and continued climbing his way up
the ranks competing in NCSA Junior Nationals, Futures, and Winter
Junior Nationals for his club. In high school he achieved All-State
honors 4 years in a row and was named team MVP his Senior year
after winning the 100 Fly and 200 IM at the Conference championship
meet and breaking the school record in the 100 Fly at the
State meet.
During his Senior year of high school Casey was recruited by
UMass to swim the 100 and 200 fly, the 500 Free, and the 200 IM. In
his first two seasons he has broken the 200 Fly record on multiple
occasions. In addition to this he has made three A final
appearances at the Atlantic 10 Championship meet. Casey has been
named a UMass team Captain for the 2019-2020 season.
Outside of the pool he is pursuing a degree from the Isenberg
School of Management at UMass and enjoys watching football on
Sundays. Casey is looking forward to helping out the next
generation of swimmers and hopes that he can inspire these boys and
girls to keep swimming and strive for excellence just like his
coaches have done for him throughout his career.
Ashlyn Butkowski
Assistant Coach
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