Matthew L Anderson
Senior Coach
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Coach Anderson is a former DCST age group swimmer who went on to
swim at NIU. During his senior year at NIU, he was named team
captain. While at NIU, Coach Anderson was also an assistant
coach for DCST. After graduation, he then spent 5 years as
the Assistant Men and Women’s Swimming Coach at NIU. He
then left DeKalb to become the Assistant Women’s Coach at The
Ohio State University for 4 years. After his tenure at OSU,
he has been the Head Women’s Swimming and Diving Coach at
Youngstown State University for the past 14 years.
Joshua Norek
Head Age Group Coach
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Josh began competitively swimming at the age of 7 for the
Belvidere YMCA and continued to do so until he was 18. During his
career he was a district champion, regional champion, state
finalist, and swimmer of the year During high school he
was named Varsity Captain for Rockford Christian School's Swim
Team. While in high school he got his first experience as a
swim coach as the Head Coach for Resa Middle School and
Head Coach for Marengo Park District.. After graduating Josh
began Coaching as an Assistant Coach / Lead Assistant
Coach for the Belvidere Barracudas for 6 years. While coaching
he also attended RVC and graduated with an Associates Degree
in Fire Science. When not on the deck he is a Firefighter /
Paramedic.
"Coaching for DCST has been an amazing experience. We
have a really great program! From the facility to
Management to my AWESOME Assistant Coaches. It has been a
blast getting know so many talented young people. It is truly an
honor to help guide them towards obtaining their goals and dreams."
Thomas Slater
Lead Great Dane Coach
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Coach Tom started competitively swimming in the 1900s at the age of
6 for the Sauk-Prairie Pool Sharks in Wisconsin. He was a 4 year
letter winner in swimming at Freeport High School in Illinois, and
was co-captain of the team his senior year. He did not swim
competitively in college, but stayed active in the water through
water polo and synchronized swimming at the club level. He began
coaching with DCST as an assistant coach in January of 2014. When
he’s not on deck, Coach Tom spends time with his family and
teaches computer skills at Northbrook Middle School in Mendota, IL.
Tom is the only member of his family to not attend Iowa State
University.
“It’s called radio, I can’t pick and choose the
songs… now go swim.”
Casey Beckley.
Assistant Coach
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Casey began swimming when he was 10 years old until he hung up his
goggles after his freshman year at NIU. During that time, he
competed at State and Regional Championship meets. Casey then
coached for DCST as a college student, as well as serving as a Head
Coach for the Bloomingdales Barracuda swim team. Besides being a
husband and father of three, Casey has run over 20 marathons,
holding a Boston qualifying time since 2014. Casey is a business
partner with his wife in a Nutrition consulting home business. When
he’s not running or at practice, Casey leads the students and
staff at Mooseheart Child City as their Campus
Pastor
Mckaylah Bittner.
Assistant Coach
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McKaylah has loved the water as far
back as she can remember. To help foster this love she joined the
Ottawa YMCA Swim Team at the age of 7 and continued to swim
throughout high school. She swam for four years. After high school,
she attended her local community college, Illinois Valley Community
College, for two years. She obtained an Associates in Science
degree and then transferred to NIU. She is now a junior in the
Kinesiology program, and is in pursuit of a masters degree in
occupational therapy. Coaching for DCST has been the best job
experience, as well as a great tool that has helped shape her
future career path. She has always known that she wants to have a
career in which she has the opportunity to help people, but
coaching has helped solidify her decision.
Owen Bockman.
Assistant Coach
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Owen is a Junior at Sycamore High School. He enjoys participating
in a whole bunch of different clubs and is active in our
community. During Owen’s swimming career he has been varsity
since freshman year on the Sycamore/ DeKalb Co-op team. Currently
he still swims for DCST and has been coach for about a year.
“I enjoy it very much. I enjoy teaching younger
swimmers and it brings back memories from when I was
younger.” Currently Owen has not decided what college he
would like to attend but is looking forward to that
journey.
Nathan Braun.
Assistant Coach
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Tim Braun.
Assistant Coach
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Tim started swimming on DCST in the summer of 2011. He has enjoyed
swimming on DCST for the friends he has made and the lessons he has
learned. Tim also swam on the Dekalb and Sycamore High School Co-op
Swim Team for the past two years. Tim’s favorite event is the
200 Freestyle. “I enjoy coaching because I get to know more
kids on the team.”
Lindsay Culp.
Assistant Coach
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Lindsay started swimming at a very young age on the lake at her
grandparents' cottage in northern Michigan. She started swimming on
a team when she was 7, through middle school and high school in her
hometown of Dearborn, Michigan. She studied Astrophysics at
Michigan State and now works in the NIU Engineering
department.
Although this is her first year coaching swimming, she has worked
with kids as a Girl Scout camp counselor, teaching horseback riding
and other sports. She really enjoys coaching for DCST, especially
working with the other coaches and getting to know all of the
swimmers.
Stephanie Despain.
Assistant Coach
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Grace Flemming.
Assistant Coach
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Grace has been swimming for DCST for the past 12 years. Her
favorite events are the 200 freestyle and the 100 back. “I
really enjoy coaching the younger groups and not only improving
their skills, but getting to know the rest of my team”. Her
favorite ice cream flavor is chocolate with cookie
dough.
Dirk Happ.
Assistant Coach
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Grace Johnson.
Assistant Coach
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Linda Kocjan.
Assistant Coach
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Linda grew up in DeKalb, and began swimming on DCST at the age of
5, and continued on the team for the majority of 8 years, through
8th grade. Fast forward to many years and 2 kids later, and shortly
after her daughter joined the swim team, she decided it might be
fun to encourage other kids through coaching. Although new at the
time to coaching swimming, Linda has been working with kids through
teaching and coaching Color Guard at Sycamore High School from
2008-2018. Linda is the proud swim mom to Alissa and Deegan. When
not on deck at the pool, she is working at the Kishwaukee College
Workforce Development office or training with her dogs, Chase and
Henry.
Mikala Kurzbuch.
Assistant Coach
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Mikala is a Physical education major at NIU with a minor in
health education and coaching. She is very excited to be apart of
the DCST program and gain some hands on experience. Growing up she
has always loved the water and swimming. Her swimming career began
during her junior year at Woodstock High School, and feel in love
with the sport. Even though she only competitively swam for two
years, it was the best two years she ever experienced.
Mikala’s favorite events were the 100 breaststroke and short
course freestyle.
“My favorite part about coaching at the YMCA is building a
coach/swimmer relationship with all the kids and getting to see the
kids out at my clinical's for class. I also really enjoy the great
team of coaches i have around me that i know i can go to at any
time and ask them for advice or get their help coaching something
i'm not experienced in.”
Brook Pugh.
Assistant Coach
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Deirdre Pugh.
Assistant Coach
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Emily Raetzke.
Assistant Coach
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Dylan Rasmussen.
Assistant Coach
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Edith Reynolds.
Assistant Coach
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David Ruetten.
Assistant Coach
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David is currently a junior at Sycamore High School on track to
graduate in 2020,
He’s been on the DCST since he was 7 and has loved
swimming ever since. Currently David swim’s on DCST’s
National Team, and has also competed at the State, Age Group, and
Zone levels. Outside of DCST he also swims on the Dekalb-Sycamore
Coop High School Swim Team, has competed in 3 sectional meets and
was a captain this past year. David started coaching last summer
and has goals of continuing his swimming career in college.
“DCST is my second family. Everyone is super close and get
along super well. I love spending time with the team and teaching
younger kids the sport I love.”
Kevin Waterstreet.
Assistant Coach
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Calvin Zhou.
Assistant Coach
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