Joseph Glenn
Head Coach
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Coach Joe joined Aulea in May 2014. Prior to that he worked as
an assistant at Punahou beginning in 2004 and took over as head
coach in 2008. Coach Joe is an American Swimming Coaches Assocation
(ASCA) level 4 swim coach, which is in the top 10% of all coaches
in the nation, and was named ASCA's Hawaiian Swimming Age
Group Coach of the year in 2011. In 2016, his second season with
Aulea, Joe was one of 100 coaches nationwide named as Nationl
Junior Team Coach. He has coached swimmers to all levels including
junior and senior nationals and has had many swimmers reach
national top 10 rankings. He has coached swimmers to over 30
new Hawaiian swimming records as well. During his short time
with Aulea he has already helped the team to accomplish the
following:
-Aulea acheived Bronze Medeal Status (top 200 club nationwide
out of almost 3'000) in 2016 and 2017
-Grew the club from 90 to 200 members
-Jumped from 13th place at age group state
championships in December 2013 to 2nd place
in July 2015 and sustainted top 3 finishes since then
-Jumped up from 10th place at Hawaiian Swimming Senior
championships in November 2013 to 2nd place in November 2014 (SCY)
and June 2015 (LCM)
-Top 10 team finish at Senior Sectionals in both 2015 and 2016
-Qualified mulitiple swimmers for the USA Swimming Senior
National and Junior National competitions. One swimmer had a
runner up finish at Junior Nationals and qualified for USA
swimming's national junior team.
-Had a swimmer who broke 5 Hawaiian Open division men's
records
-Over 20 invidual or relay state championships earned
During his time at Punahou, Joe also worked as a social studies
teacher at Farrington High School and was also the head swim coach
at Farrington High School from 2006-2013. He revived a
program that had been dormant from 1997-2005 to a top-10 finish in
the OIA and it’s first state qualifying individual swimmers
and relay swimmers in over 40 years.
Joe grew up in Santa Rosa, Ca and swam club from the ages of
6-18 with the Santa Rosa Neptunes qualifying for and competing at
the Junior National level. After high School, Joe went to
Denison University in Ohio where he studied economics and was a
four year member of the varsity swim team which twice finished as
runner-ups at the Division III swimming and diving national
championships. Joe won multiple All-American honors during
his tenure and served as team captain during his senior year.
Immediately after college Joe returned to the bay area and worked
in the mortgage finance industry helping mortgage banks with
interest rate risk management. Shorty after moving to Hawaii,
Joe received his teaching license in secondary social studies.
During his time at Farrington High School, Joe was named an Ola
Pono award winner in 2008 (one of ten winners statewide) for his
work in promoting safe, healthy and drug-free lifestyles. In
addition, he was featured in a front page article in the
Star-Advertiser in 2012 for his work in reviving the Farrington
High School swim program. After taking the Aulea job, Joe
decided to make a full plunge in to windward aquatics and as
of 2014 he serves as the head Coach of the Le Jardin Academy
Bulldogs.
Joe and his wife Melissa live in Kaneohe. They have a
six year old daughter named Maya and a 9 month old son named
Aidan. In addition to serving as head coach of Aulea, Joe is
currently working as the Executive Director of the Hawaii
Aquatics Foundation, a non-profit who's mission it is to have all
2nd grade students on the Hawaiian Islands learn drowning
prevention skills. He also serves as the Age Group Chair for
the Hawaiian Swimming LSC. In his spare time, Joe can be
found doing open water swims, surfing, hiking, biking and enjoying
time with his family.
Yan Chen
Junior Group Coach
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Coach Yan
joined Aulea in September of 2017 and she will be serving as
our Gold group coach. Coach Yan is a
retired Chinese National team swimmer. She won a Gold
medal at 4×200m freestyle at 1997 FINA Short Course
World Championships. Later that year at Chinese National Games, she
broke world record at 400m individual medley.
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She then won 400m individual medley and 400m freestyle
at 1998 Perth World Aquatics Championships. She
participated in 1996 and 2000 two Olympic Games.
She started college in China and transferred to UH Manoa in 2002 as
a sophomore. She earned her BS in 3 years, and swam on an Full
Scholarship. After her undergrad, she completed a
master's degree at UH and has been working in recreation management
with the Sheraton hotel ever since. She was both the head age group
coach and head coach for Punahou Aquatics in Honolulu, HI from
2008-2016. Her time at Punahou was extremely productive.
She coached swimmers to over 50 state age group records and
coached state, regional and zone champions as well as multiple
national top 10 swimmers.
Coach Yan believes in a very technical approach with fundamental
skills such as kicking and streamline at the core of her belief.
She is very goal driven and teaches her swimmers to be that
way as well. She shares not only swimming expertise with her
swimmers but also her own life experiences both in and out of the
pool. We are very fortunate to have coach Yan leading the
gold group. When she isn't coaching or working at the hotel,
she enjoys swimming herself and loves surfing!
Tom Lileikis
Gold/Chief Technical Officer
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COACH TOM LILEIKIS JOINED AULEA AS IT'S SILVER GROUP COACH IN
NOVEMBER 2015 AFTER COACHING AT SUN-SHINE AQUATICS SINCE 2007 AND
THE OAHU CLUB MASTERS TEAM SINCE 2011. COACH TOM BRINGS WITH HIM
40+ YEARS OF COMPETITIVE SWIMMING EXPERIENCE-INCLUDING 27 YEARS AS
A COACH.-AT THE AGE GROUP, NATIONAL, COLLEGIATE, OLYMPIC TRIAL,
OPEN WATER, MATERS AND TRI-ATHLETE LEVELS. PRIOR TO SUN-SHINE AND
OAHU CLUB MASTERS, COACH TOM SERVED AS ASSISTANT COACH AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII MASTERS' PROGRAM FROM 1989 THROUGH 1999. TOM
SERVES AS OUR CLUBS SENIOR GROUP COACH BUT IS ALSO ASKED TO WORK
WITH OTHER GROUPS IN HIS ROLE AS THE CLUBS CTO (CHIEF TECHNICAL
OFFICER).
THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER HE HAS COACHED ALL LEVELS OF AGE GROUP
SWIMMERS UP TO THE NATIONAL CALIBER, INCLUDING A SWIMMER ACHIEVING
STATUS OF HAWAIIAN AGE GROUP RECORD HOLDER, USA SWIMMING NATIONAL
DIVERSITY CAMP SELECTION, AND USA SWIMMING NATIONAL TOP 20
RANKINGS. COACH TOM SPECIALIZES IN STROKE TECHNIQUE, RACE
STRATEGIES, MENTAL PREPARATION AND PATIENCE. COACH TOM BEGAN
SWIMMING COMPETITIVELY AT THE AGE OF 7 IN CALABASAS, CALIFORNIA,
FOR CLASS AQUATICS UNDER COACH BRAIN BRIO. SURING HIS AGE GROUP
YEARS HE WAS RANKED TOP TEN NATIONALLY SEVERAL TIMES MAINLY IN
FREESTYLE AND BUTTERFLY EVENTS. AFTER ATTAINING ALL-AMERICAN STATUS
IN HIGH SCHOOL, TOM ATTENDED AND SWAM FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII
WHERE HE HELD SCHOOL AND WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE RECORDS,
QUALIFIED AND WAS A FINALIST AT THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS FROM
1985-1988. HE WAS ALSO TEAM CAPTAIN AND VOTED MOST IMPIRATIONAL
TWICE AS HE STUDIED GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES. AFTER
PARTICIPATING IN THE 1988 OLYMPIC TRIALS, TOM TOOK HIS LOVE FOR
SWIMMING TO THE OCEAN WHERE HE WAS A SILVER MEDALIST IN THE 1991 US
NATIONAL 10K OPEN WATER SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS, HAWAII OPEN WATER
NORTH SHORE SHERIES CHAMPION (1991 AND 2009) AS WELL AS PLACING
1ST, MASTERS DIVISION, AT THE WORLD PADDLEBOARD CHAMPIONSHIPS IN
1999.
Cassie Pardee Kyffin
Bronze/Swim School
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Coach Cassie has been a
valued member of the Aulea staff since 2013 and is currently
coaching the Bronze Group and the Swim School. Previously she
has worked with the Platinum group as well as the Gold group.
She has an excellent rapport with all the swimmers on the club and
brings positivity to the pool deck every day!
Coach Cassie swam
competitively from the age of five up through college at the
University of Redlands. She competed in butterfly, IM, and sprint
freestyle. Now Cassie is excited to continue to be in the
swimming world as a coach and help a new generation of swimmers
improve their strokes and reach their goals in and out of the
pool.
Before moving to Hawai`i
Cassie served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines.
In December 2014 she graduated with a Masters of Marine Science
from Hawaii Pacific University and is currently working in the
field doing research for the Hawaii Fisheries Council. We are
excited to continue having her leading our youngest
swimmers!!
Emily Bennewitz Mobley
Platinum/Swim School
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Coach Emily joined the Aulea coaching staff in January of 2018 and
immediately made a positive impace on the Platinum group.
Emily is a
former competitive swimmer who began her swimming career at Edina
swim club in Minneapolis, MN. She swam through High school on both
her club and high school teams. When it was time to decide on
college, she wanted a change of climate (much warmer) and decided
on University of Redlands where she swam all 4 years (two of which
were with coach Cassie). Emily swam mostly long distance and
competed in the 500 free and the mile. She also swam 100 and 200
backstroke. After undergrad, she received her Masters degree in
communication disorders from University of Redlands.
Emily moved
to Hawaii from San Diego, CA in December of 2017 with her husband
Sam. In San Diego, she had worked as a speech language pathologist
in several pediatric settings. She is now working in the Leeward
school district. Emily is excited to continue working with Aulea
swimmers and help them grow their love of the sport.
Suzette Helen Seolas
Silver/Swim School
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Suzi is originally from Athens Greece.
Suzi grew up swimming and loving the water as her family had a pool
and a lake on their 40 acre ranch.
Every summer she loved youth camp and looked
forward to swim certifications and training, and took her first
swim survival course at age 10.
In 2002-2004 Suzi
was a Sponsored Runner for Fila and loved the challenge and thrill
of training with world class athletes.
Suzi has
been a competitive triathlete for 15 years with many age group wins
and qualified in the Elite Division 2003 and was offered a Speedo
Sponsorship.
In her early years of Triathlon Suzi had
the opportunity to train & improve her swim with Dave Scott,
Ironman Champion/ Master Swimmer.
Cross Country for Bolles Private
School,Jacksonville Florida 2007-2008
Head Strength Trainer/ Coach Kids USA Swim Team
Jacksonville, Florida 2008-2010
Kamehameha Swim
Club Assistant Coach 2016
Suzi has been a Ocean and Safety Lifeguard/ Surf
Instructor here in Hawaii for 8 years and is very passionate about
the ocean.
Suzi loves a positive attitude and winning
spirit. And knows first hand the power of the mind to succeed and
accomplish one's goals.
Suzi earned her Degree in Sports Therapy &
Holistic Health in San Diego, California.
She has a Sports Therapy Practice and has worked
with 100’s of athletes from the weekend warrior to
professionals with performance, recovery, sports nutrition and
sports psychology. Suzi’s passion for sports and
time as a competitive athlete has given her many
insights and working knowledge on how to help
others. Helping you reach your excellence and potential
is her goal.
