If your questions are
related to workouts, meets, events, goal setting, and other
swimming related needs, please contact one of your child’s
coaches. For all questions regarding billing, practice times, and
team advertising please contact Matthew Sprang. For all
questions regarding meet entries, overall team training, meet
entries, and practice group progressions, please contact Matt
Beckwith. For all questions regarding the GPAC Swim School,
please contact Matt Fraliner or visit
www.gpacswimschool.com.
Ryan began his coaching career with GCIT/GPAC as an assistant age group and senior coach in 2002. Since that time he has coached club, high school, and summer league in New Jersey; club/YMCA in Virginia; and Club/YMCA and high school in Pennsylvania. Some of Ryan's coaching stops include:
GCIT/GPAC: 2002-2006
Greenwood Park Summer Club: 2002-2005 (Tri-County Champions in 2004)
St. Augustine Prep High School: 2002-2006 (NJ State Champions in 2004 & 2005)
Shenendoah Marlins Aquatic Club: 2006-2009 (Virginia Swimming Age Group Coach of the Year in 2008)
West Short YMCA: 2009-2010
Nittany Lion Aquatic Club: 2010-2017
State College Area High School: 2012-2017
Throughout his career, Ryan has coached numerous USA Swimming sectional, Junior National, and Senior National qualifiers. He has also coached several swimmers as age groupers who went>
Coach Mike has been running the Masters Group since 2013. Mike has worked with Silver and other AG groups throughout the year. He has coached in both Tri County and Suburban summer swim leagues and is also a USA Triathlon Level 1 certified coach.
Coach Mike began his swimming career as a summer swimmer at Greenwood Park in Turnersville NJ in the early 80s. He went on to swim at Jersey Wahoos, Gloucester Cathlolic, Clemson University and Widener University. Coach Mike was primarily a 100, 200 Breaststroke and 200, 400 IM speacilist.
Coach Mike currently lives in Washington Twp with his wife Kim, daughter Kacie and son Andrew. He has been racing Triathlon since 2006 and has been consistently ranked in the Top 10 in the US every season since 2007. One of his biggest achievements was racing in Kona at the Ironman World Championships in 2012. He also enjoys ice hockey and regulartly plays in the over 40 mens league at Hollydell. He also enjoy surfing and watching his kids swim and play hockey.
David Wakeley has been
coaching for the past 15 years in the Middle Atlantic Swimming
LSC. In addition, he did some summer coaching in State
College, PA while in college. He brings great excitement and
enthusiasm to pool deck … and his engineering
background. He encourages his swimmers to achieve their
highest level possible and not be satisfied with average
performance. Many of the swimmers have achieved levels of
participation in the following events: Mini Champs (including
high point winners and record holders), Junior Olympics (including
individual and are group high point winners and record holders), MA
Zone Team (including top 8 finishers), USA Swimming Top Sixteen,
Sectionals (including top 8 and 16 finishers), Junior Nationals,
Nationals, US Open and Olympic Trials (2012). He has also
served 3 years as a MA Zone coach and 1 summer as Head MA Zone
coach. He has earned a reputation as a stickler for stroke
mechanic detail and is a true student of the coaching
profession. He will leave no stone unturned to encourage our
swimmers improve at every level of their development. He
enjoys seeing his swimmers continue to improve at college level and
beyond.
Coach Dave and his wife
have six children: Jonathan (Liberty University), Joshua (Penn
State University), Bethany (Liberty University), Hannah (Liberty
University), and Peter and Laura. He graduated with a degree
in Electrical Engineering from Bucknell University and brings his
scientific, technical bent to his coaching. He competed on
the colleges swimming and water polo teams and set the 200
Butterfly school record and swam the butterfly leg in the 400
Medley Relay team which set the freshman school
record.
Chris began coaching with
GPAC in 2006 and is currently the Head Coach for the Gold 1
group. Chris has, in the past, worked with the Mini, Bronze,
Silver, and Senior 1 groups.
Chris has been coaching
competitive swimming since 2001. Prior to accepting his position as
Head Coach at Wenonah Swim Club in 2011 he served nine years as an
assistant at Green-Fields Swim Club. Chris has also spent
four seasons as an assistant coach at West Deptford High School and
Pitman High School and one year as the Boys & Girls Head Swim
Coach at Clearview Regional High School. He also serves as a
volunteer assistant coach for the Rowan University Men’s and
Women’s Teams.
Chris graduated from
Rowan University in 2008 with a degree in Health and Exercise
Science with a Teachers Certification. While at Rowan he swam
2 seasons, where he was an All-American in Butterfly during his
Senior year.
Chris currently resides
in West Deptford and is a teacher in the Mantua School
District.
Currently, Coach Gordon is returning as an Assistant Coach for
Senior 1 and Silver after being the Head Coach for Stroke, Start
& Turn clinics over the summer. Prior to this position he
has been the Head Coach for the Silver, Bronze & Mini teams and
an Assistant Coach for the Gold teams as well.
Prior to joining GPAC, Gordon held coaching positions at the USA
Swimming Hurricanes, the successor program to the Voyager Swim Club
of Voorhees, NJ. He has been coaching Age Group swimming for
30+ years and has prided himself on providing a solid foundation
for many Age Group swimmers. He has coached many Junior
Olympic champions and Sectional qualifiers as well as some who
became college conference champions and Olympic Trial
qualifiers.
Gordon is a proud graduate
of the Hokie Nation of Virginia Tech where he played college
lacrosse for 4 years and was named Captain and Midfielder of Year
his Senior season. Currently he is a Government Banker by day
and coach by night and weekends. At many a practice you will
hear Coach Gordon encourage his swimmers to focus by saying,
“It’s the little things that make the Big
Difference”!
Coach Shannon McKinnon has
a love for the sport of swimming. She has been a part of the sport
since1985.
For thirteen years, she swam for the Tri-County team of Greenwood
Park and was an assistant with
the youngest groups during her last two years there. Coach Shannon
participated in four years of
high school swimming, and continued to swim at Division I Towson
University. Throughout her swimming
career, Coach Shannon received many medals and awards swimming the
sprint and middle distance
freestyles, IM, fly, and backstroke events.
Coach Shannon started
coaching again as an assistant for the Ocean City High School
Raiders back in 2006
and was the head coach of their diving team. From there, she moved
back up this way and in 2007 became
and currently continues to be the head coach of the Gloucester City
High School Lions, where she
also teaches Biology to sophomores and seniors. In 2008, she became
the head assistant coach at
Greenwood Park until 2013, when she became the head coach for a
summer. She has aided in the TNT
program over at Rowan University until 2010. The fall of 2009, she
joined the Greater Philadelphia Aquatics
Club coaching staff, and has worked with the Mini, Bronze, Silver,
Gold and Senior 1 groups as an
assistant. She has been the head coach for the Fall and Spring Warm
ups. This past summer of 2014, she
was the head coach of the Riverton Waves.
Coach Shannon currently
lives in Glendora with her husband, daughter and two dogs. She
enjoys football,
especially watching the Giants. She has played soccer for eight
years and was a dancer for 15 years.
She currently still surfs and snowboards when the opportunity comes
around.
Sean has been part of the GPAC (formerly
GCIT Swimming) family since he was 8 years old when
the McCall family joined the team in September of
2000. Sean has swum in every group GPAC has
provided from Minis to Elite. In high school, as a member
of the Elite group, Sean won the 2009 NJ High
School Individual State Championships in the 500 free
and was a Junior National qualifier in all Freestyle,
Fly, and 400 IM events.
Sean continued his swimming career in
college locally in Philadelphia at La
Salle University where he studied Pre-Law and received
a degree in Criminal Justice in May 2014. In
college, Sean was team captain on the La Salle Men’s
Swimming and Diving team where he was an Atlantic
10 Conference Finalist all 4 years of his college
career. Sean now works as a financial advisor
for Northwestern Mutual locally in the Philadelphia
area and is more than happy to still be a part of
our GPAC community.
Stephanie joins us for her 3rd season coaching at GPAC.
Over the last two years, she was the head coach
of Mini's and has assisted with Elite, Silver,
Bronze & Gold teams as well as teaching swim lessons. This
year, s
he’s very excited to be the Silver team's head
coach, while also still helping anywhere else an assistant coach is
needed.
She has been coaching since 2006, including summer league
in Bethlehem PA for 5 years, at Widener University & Suburban
Swim Club, coaching all ages 5-21 years old.
Stephanie was recruited to attend Kutztown University where her
swimming career took off. She qualified for the NCAA Championships
her junior & senior year, finishing 2nd in the 200
Breaststroke both years; earning All-American status in four
events and honorable mention in three events. She currently
holds 12 team & pool records at Kutztown which includes being
apart of 4 out of 5 relays, 100, 200 Breaststroke & 200, 400
IM. She was also named Kutztown's Athlete of the Year & Senior
Athlete of the Year in 2010; she
was just recently
inducted into the Hall of Fame of Athletics
.
After graduating from Kutztown with a Bachelor’s
Degree in Sports Management & a minor in Coaching, she
continued her swimming career by trying out for Denmark’s
National Team. Being that Stephanie & her family are from
Denmark, she was recruited to try out for the 2012 Olympic Team. At
Denmark's Olympic Trials, Stephanie finished 4th overall
in the 100, 200 Breaststroke & 200 IM, only narrowly missing
their Olympic team cutoff.
Stephanie continues to swim with GPACs Master’s team &
training for triathlons. Her & her husband, Kevin,
currently live in Deptford, are enjoying their new home
and are expecting their first child in January - a girl! They
also enjoy spending time with their families and pretty
much anything else health & fitness related!
Matthew has been with GCIT/GPAC since 1998 and has served as an assistant coach, Head Age Group Coach, and Head Coach. He became owner of the program, changing the name to Greater Philadelphia Aquatic Club, in September, 2008. Matthew has been a USA Swimming National Team Coach twice (2015 & 2016); Head Coach for the East Women at the 2007 NCSA All-American team in Honolulu, Hawaii; and Head Coach of the Central Zone Select Camp (2014). He has also served as a USA Swimming National Team Manager for the World University Games (2013 in Kazan, Russia) and World Junior Championships (2015 in Singapore). Matthew has served>
Matthew holds a Masters degree from Temple University in Sports and Recreation Administration. He lives in Gloucester County with his wife, Tjitske, and two children, Keegan and Marley.
