David A Rodriguez
Head Coach
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Originally
from Miami, Florida, David Rodriguez has been in coaching since
2005 and joined the Asphalt Green Unified Aquatics (AGUA) Swim Team
staff in 2012. His coaching philosophy focuses on long-term
development and embracing the learning process. From a young age,
our athletes build a strong technical foundation that allows them
to grow with our program.
As Head
Age Group Coach, Rodriguez developed several Junior Olympic
Champions, Zone team members, multiple USA Swimming National Top
Ten ranking athletes, and Junior and Senior Nationals qualifiers.
His swimmers broke over 70 team records and 20 Metropolitan
Swimming records. In 2016, two athletes qualified for the U.S.
Olympic Trials, and the team captured its first-ever Junior Olympic
championship and first Sectional Championship in eight
years.
Since
taking over as the Head Coach of the program and working as the
Senior Director of Aquatics for Asphalt Green, Rodriguez’s
athletes have broken countless barriers for AGUA. Notably,
Rodriguez helped coach two athletes to the 2019 World Junior
Championships in Budapest, Hungary. While representing the United
States of America, one swimmer earned a silver medal and top-25
World Ranking in the 400 IM. The second swimmer - a five-year
member of the Barbados National Team – competed in four
events at the Championships.
Rodriguez’s group
has also attained multiple top-eight finishes at the Junior
National level from both men and women, including one Junior
National Champion in 2019. Five of these swimmers achieved 18 and
under World Top 100 rankings in 2018 and 2019 and three athletes
have already qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2020.
Out of the
pool, more than twenty of Rodriguez’s swimmers have achieved
Scholastic All-America honors for their work in the classroom. He
was also named Head Coach of USA Swimming’s 2019 National
Diversity Select Camp as well as Metropolitan Swimming Senior Coach
of the Year in 2018 and 2019. Rodriguez is an ASCA Level 5
Coach and has helped AGUA to USA Swimming Silver Medal Club
Excellence status three years in a row.
Prior to
joining Asphalt Green, he served as head coach at Christopher
Columbus High School (Florida, developed multiple All-Americans and
state champions) and head age group coach at Pine Crest School
(Florida, set 35 team records and brought home the team’s
first-ever 14 and under Junior Olympic championship
title).
As an
athlete, David swam for University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he
helped bring home the first conference championship in the
school’s history.
Hailey Hewitt
Head Age Group Coach - UES AG3
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Hailey Hewitt grew up swimming in Fairfax, Va., where she was a
junior national qualifier for the Nation’s Capital Swim Club.
She continued her career as a student athlete at the College of
William and Mary, an NCAA Division 1 school. Hailey served as
co-captain of the Tribe team, and in her senior year, she became
the first swimmer in school history to qualify for the US Olympic
Trials in the 200-meter backstroke. The two-time Colonial Athletic
Association (CAA) champion was named Tribe Club’s Woman
Senior Athlete of the Year.
After graduating in 2012 with degrees in kinesiology and
elementary education, Hailey began her coaching career volunteering
with the College of William and Mary swim team. In 2013, she moved
on to become the assistant swim coach at Western Albermarle High
School and spent two years as the assistant director of competitive
swimming for the Shenandoah Marlins Aquatic Club.
Since arriving in New York in 2015, Hailey has utilized her
coaching talents as the lead instructor at Swim-City, a
learn-to-swim company based in Manhattan. During her time there,
she has coached over 100 swimmers in residential buildings around
the city.
Diana Pimer
Senior Development Coach - Senior 2
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Diana Pimer grew up in West Haven, Conn., where she set five
school records for West Haven High School and four team records for
the Hopkins Mariner Swim Team. As a student athlete at Keene State
College, Diana was a four-time school record holder and captained
the swimming and diving teams. In her senior year, Keene State
College named Diana the Strength and Conditioning Athlete of the
Year and the College Female Athlete of the Year.
Diana graduated in 2015 with a bachelor of science in exercise
science and a specialization in coaching. She remained at Keene
State College as an assistant coach, fostering one US Olympic
Trials qualifier and 10 All-American performances.
She moved on to coach for Greenwood Swimming, where her
accomplishments include leading one athlete to a bronze medal at
2016 Rio Paralympic Games. She has also coached USA Swimming
national top 10 athletes, National Zone Select Camp qualifiers, and
New England age group champions and record holders
Youngho Kim
Senior 1 Coach
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Originally from South Korea, Coach David began his U.S. coaching
career in 2016 at The Race Club under former Olympian Gary Hall Sr.
in Florida. Here in New York, he worked with the National Group at
the 92nd Street YMCA and was the Head Coach of the masters swim
team at McBurney YMCA.
He has led stroke clinics for Team New York Aquatics and has
privately instructed all ages at locations such as the Yale Club,
JCC, and Sacred Heart. He has worked with IMX short course NJ
ranking 1 age group swimmers who broke multiple team records.
Prior to moving to America, he established a Korean YouTube
channel that provides swimming technique and dryland training
tutorials which has accumulated 11 million views and over 24,000
subscribers. He was a finalist for the U.S. Masters Swim Team head
coaching position for the 2019 FINA World Masters Championships in
Korea.
As an athlete, Coach David earned two MVPs from the Bucheon and
Jecheon City Mayor's Cup Masters swim meets. He also joined a
national triathlon championship with an Olympic course in Tongyong
City in 2000 where he won 3rd place.
John Alaimo
Senior Prep Coach
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John Alaimo is a 2009 graduate of
Vassar College with a B.A. in History. He is an American Swim
Coaches Association Level 4 Coach.
John was an assistant coach for
the New York Sharks from 2009-2011. In 2011, he took over as the
Head Coach through 2013. During this time, he trained five athletes
who qualified for USA Swimming Junior Nationals and two athletes
who qualified for USA Swimming Senior Nationals.
From 2013 to 2015, John took on
the role of Head Age Group Coach at Phoenix Aquatic Club. During
the 2013-2014 season, he led over 20 age groupers to Metropolitan
Top-10 rankings, several of which were number one. Throughout his
full tenure at PAC, John's swimmers earned multiple National Age
Group Top-10 rankings and Metropolitan LSC Records.
From 2015-2020, John worked as the
Head Senior Coach in Rockland with the New York Sharks. In his five
years with NYS, John fostered a culture of hard work and commitment
that led his athletes to several LSC records, Junior National and
National qualifications, and numerous USA Swimming Scholastic
All-America honors. Above all, his athletes made huge contributions
to the New York Sharks being recognized as a Bronze Medal Club in
2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 by the USA Swimming Club Excellence
Program.
Over the past several years,
John's athletes have been invited to attended USA Swimming Select
Camps. These include the Eastern Zone Diversity Camp and Eastern
Zone Select Camp. He has also coached two different athletes to the
National Diversity Select Camp and National Select Camp, both
hosted in Colorado Springs, CO at the U.S. Olympic Training
Center.
John was voted Metropolitan
Swimming Age Group Coach of the Year in May 2015 and Metropolitan
Swimming Must Watch Senior Coach of the Year in May 2017 by panels
of his peers. He also served on the Metropolitan Board of Directors
as the Senior Vice Co-Chair from 2018-2020.
Jeff Chen
UES AG2 and AG1 Coach
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Coach Jeff spent the first 12 years of his career at LaGuardia
Aquatic Club Twisters (LGAC) where he coached from 2007-2019. His
diverse experience helped him serve his athletes' fundamental
development at the age-group level. During his time at LGAC, his
contributions led the team to multiple Junior Olympic team titles
as well as many years placing in the top three. While working with
age groupers at LGAC, athletes under Coach Jeff’s guidance
achieved Top 16 USA National Age Group recognition, several
Metropolitan LSC records, National Age Group records, as well as
Sectional and Junior National standards.
In 2019, Coach Jeff started working with NYSA as the lead coach
of the AG2 and AG3 groups as well as the Program Director for
strength and conditioning for all training levels. Coach Jeff's
expertise had an enormous impact on the swimmers he trained both in
the pool and on land, resulting in a record number of swimmers from
the RCC site qualifying for Speedo Sectionals and Futures before
the 2019-2020 season got cut short due to the COVID-19
pandemic.
Coach Jeff joined Shark Swimming in spring of 2020 as the Lead
Coach for AG2 and AG3 groups as well as the Program Director for
the Dryland and Strength and Conditioning for all
levels. During the shutdown Coach Jeff continued his pursue
coaching at SwimLabs Westchester as video analysts and a personal
trainer.
Caroline Shannon
BPC AG1, AG2, AG3 Coach
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Raised in Paris and New York, Caroline is bicultural and
bilingual. She has swum competitively in both the United States and
France. Caroline started to swim competitively at the age of nine
and subsequently joined Middies and Empire Swimming. Recruited as a
student-athlete, she swam for four years at Vassar College, where
she held records in the 200 and 400 IM. She graduated in 2012
with a degree in French Studies and Art History.
While earning her Masters of Education at Hunter College,
Caroline was a Swim Instructor for Imagine Swimming (NYC).
She also trained to qualify to race triathlon professionally and
represent the United States on the international circuit. In 2017,
she moved into the professional field at the same time as she was
teaching full-time as a French teacher at Horace Mann School.
Caroline is both a dedicated athlete and a dedicated coach. At
Horace Mann, she shifted into a full-time position in the Athletics
Department, where she coached Middle and Varsity Swimming, Soccer,
Cross-Country, and Track. As an experienced educator with a deep
commitment to children’s physical and mental well-being,
Caroline shares AGUA’s values and emphasis on a strong
technique base and looks forward to passing on the love of sport
and the sheer joy of swimming.
Art Koharian
Strength & Conditioning Coach
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Art has diverse
experience training clients of all ages and abilities, specializing
in sports performance. An avid athlete, his passion for sports led
him to pursue a career in personal training. He is a certified
strength and condition specialist, USA Track and Field Level 1
coach, certified functional movement screening specialist, and
holds a Bachelor of Science in nutrition and exercise science from
Queens College.
Art’s training
approach is to identify the specific needs of each swimmer and
safely progress through a strength and conditioning program. He
addresses an individual’s asymmetries to create a fitness
regimen that will improve health and physical
performance.
