Sean Christopher Farrell
Head Coach
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Sean joined the staff as Head Coach in September of 1999. During his tenure with the Sea Dogs, Sean has produced several senior national qualifiers, an Olympic Trials Qualifier, 17 Individual YMCA National Champions and 6 Relay YMCA National Champions. His swimmers have broken 25 Individual Connecticut, 14 Connecticut Relay Records and have earned over 430 YMCA All-American Honors. Additionally, he was named the Connecticut Senior Coach of the Year in 2001 and was nominated for that honor in 2002, 2005 and 2008. Sean was voted the 2008 LC YMCA National Coach of the Meet by his peers and was nominated for the 2009 YMCA Coach of the Year. A 1988 graduate of Cheshire High School, Sean returned to Cheshire after being the Head Coach of the Westfield (NJ) YMCA from 1998-1999. In addition Sean was the Head Coach of the Sun Devil Aquatics in Tempe, Arizona and the Assistant Coach with the Arizona State University from 1995-1998. During his tenure with ASU, the squad established a NCAA Division I top-10 team ranking all 3 years and his resume includes working with 10 Olympians, 15 Division I All-Americans and 5 Pac-10 Champions. Sean earned a BS degree in Biology at Southern Connecticut State University. While at Southern, he earned Division II All-American honors and was a multiple swim team record holder. After graduating, Sean was the assistant coach for Southern’s Men’s Swim Team from 1993-95. As well as being the Head Coach for Sea Dogs, he was also the Connecticut YMCA Swim League President from 2001-2003, Program Development Chair for Connecticut Swimming from 2004-2006 and is currently on the Connecticut Swimming Technical Planning Committee.
Cathleen Novak Maliar
Head Developmental Coach
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Cassie is joining the Cheshire Sea Dogs as the Head Developmental
Coach and will primarily be working with the Buccaneer and Preteam
groups. She has been involved in swimming for over 25 years
and during her swimming career, she was a 4x YMCA National
Qualifier and was one of CDOG'S first Short Course YMCA National
Champions in 2001 in the 200 yard backstroke and a member of the
400 yard medley relay. Cassie was also a varsity member of
the Cheshire High School Girls Swim team and was a 4x All-American
Swimmer in the 200 and 500 Freestyle and a member of the 400
freestyle relay. She went on to swim at The University of
Connecticut and was awarded Most Valuable Swimmer, UCONN club award
and was a Captain of the varsity team her senior year. During
that time she was a Senior National Qualifier, US Open Qualifier
and Big East Finalist. Cassie graduated the University of
Connecticut with a bachelors degree in Kinesiology specializing in
Coaching and Administration. She then went to Central
Connecticut State University and did some work on her masters
degree in Physical Education and Human Performance while working as
the Graduate Assistant with the swim team and the SONOCO
club. While there, she worked with Division 1 NCAA Qualifiers
and multiple Senior and Junior National Qualifiers. In
2008 she was appointed the head coach of the Farmington Valley YMCA
in Granby and started the USA component to the team while
developing the team into a top YMCA Yankee Cluster team with
multiple CT Age Group Champions and CT Zone Team Qualifiers.
In 2013 she relocated to Cheshire and she was an age group
assistant swim coach for CDOG from 2013-2017. Cassie lives in
Cheshire with her husband, Dave and their 3 kids; Christopher,
Emmalyn and Alexander.
Jess Demirs
Assistant Coach - PT 1, BUC 1, & AG 1/2
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Jess joined the CDOG
coaching staff in April of 2018. Previously, she was an age group /
developmental coach at Amity Regional Aquatic Club. She was also
Head Coach of the Watertown High School Boys Swimming and Diving
team for the 2017-2018 season. Jess grew up in Watertown, CT and
was a four-year member of the swimming and diving team at Watertown
High School. She was a part of the team that went undefeated her
senior year as well as winning an NVL title. After high school,
Jess attended Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven,
CT where she was a 3-year team member of the Swimming/Diving team.
She was also a part of the winning Northeast-10 Conference team in
2017. While she was a member of the team, she swam primarily
breaststroke and IM events. She recently graduated with her
Bachelor of Arts in Biology from SCSU.
Susie Johnson
Assistant Coach - BUC 2
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Susie Johnson has been
involved in competitive swimming for over 30 years. She is a
graduate of Weston High School in Weston, CT. A former Weston
Swimming, Wilton Wahoos and Westport Water Rats swimmer, she also
swam for 4 years at Division 1 Lehigh University. After receiving
her Masters in elementary education from Lehigh in 1993, Susie
taught 6th grade in Allentown, PA and was also the head swim coach
of the USS swim team West End Tide and the pool director and head
swim coach at Lehigh Valley Country Club. She moved back to
Connecticut in 1999 to teach 4th grade in Wilton, and was also an
assistant swim coach for the Wilton Wahoos and pool director and
assistant swim coach at WeeBurn Country Club in Darien. Susie was
also the head swim coach for the Special Olympics CLASP of Westport
swim team until 2005 when she took a break from coaching to raise
her family. She returned to coaching in 2012 with the Makos in
Brookfield where she was the head developmental and 8&under
coach until April 2018 when her family moved to the Sea Dogs. She
lives in Brookfield with her husband and their 7 children, who
range in age from 6 to 21 years old.
