Marcel Da Ponte
Head Coach
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Born in South Africa, Coach
Marcel is an ASCA Level 4 certified coach who
brings 27 years of relevant experience to CMA.
He has enjoyed a distinguished swimming and coaching career,
both in the United States and Internationally.
As an athlete, he
was selected as a team captain for the South African National
High School's Team, his club team and his local high
school team. Most of his career was spent competing for the
Pretoria Aquatic Club swim team in South Africa, where he swam
under South African Olympic Coach Gerhard van der Walt. Coach
Gerhard was ranked 2nd in the world in the 100m butterfly in 1987
and competed for Arizona State in the late 1980’s. Marcel
placed 2nd in the 100m breaststroke and 3rd in the 200m
breaststroke at the South African Junior National Championships and
was the first athlete in his high school's 100 year history to
receive an honors award for swimming. He is a two-time Olympic
Trials qualifier (1992 and 1996) in the breaststroke events,
placing 5th in the 200m breaststroke at the 1992 trials. Marcel
competed at the NCAA Division I level for the Ball State Cardinals
in Indiana, graduating with a degree in Business Administration in
2000. During his swimming days, he also trained in the U.S. under
famed Canadian National Coach, Nick Baker at the International
Swimming Hall of Fame pool in Ft. Lauderdale and attended the
prestigious Pine Crest School in Florida for a summer swim
season.
As a coach, he spent the
early part of his career back in South Africa, before moving to the
U.S. Here, he has been head coach of U.S.A. Swimming clubs in both
Arizona and Arkansas before moving to Maine. He
brings to the team a fantastic combination of coaching expertise,
wonderful enthusiasm for the sport of swimming and excellent
communication skills. Coach Marcel has produced swimmers who have
qualified for National and International teams and at all other
levels including, Speedo Far Westerns, Sectionals, Futures, NCSA
Junior Nationals, Speedo Junior Nationals, TYR Pro Series, U.S.
Open, U.S. Nationals. He has also placed numerous athletes onto
NCAA Division I, II and III college teams. He is a coach member of
the South African Olympic Committee, Swimming South Africa, African
Swim Coaches Association, American Swim Coaches Association (ASCA)
and World Swim Coaches Association (WSCA). Coach Marcel's coaching
philosophy encompases the statement of, "doing the little
things exceptionally well", having fantastic underwaters and
streamlines, great technique and having fun working
hard.
Marcel and his wife Tamaryn
are very dedicated parents to their three children,
Isabell, Landon and Adrienne.
Todd Larlee
Assistant Coach
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Todd has
been in the sport of open water swimming and triathlon for over ten
years. Prior to moving back to Maine in the beginning of 2015, Todd
was coaching and swimming with Gerry Rodrigues and Tower 26 in Los
Angeles as well as coaching youth and junior swimmers &
triathletes. Todd brings knowledge and an ability to challenge
athletes to be the best athlete possible. His goal is to make each
and every workout challenging and fun. Originally from the
Auburn area, Todd is enjoying being part of the Maine community
again with his wife Heather and two dogs Ciana &
Maverick.
Lillian Langeveld
Assistant Coach
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Coach Lia heads into her
14th year coaching, spending 11 years as a head coach and 3 years
as an assistant coach. Lia was the head coach at the Lima
YMCA in Lima, Ohio for 3 years from 2004-2007. During her
time there, she had multiple YMCA Nationals & Zones qualifiers,
a top 10 National 9-10 relay and a National Finalist in the 50
Breaststroke.
Lia moved to Maine in 2007
where she was the head coach of the Manta Rays from 2007-2011, with
another National qualifier, multiple New England qualifiers and
team records being broken. During that time, the team grew
from 45-120. From 2011-2015, Lia was the head coach of the
Portland Y Polar Bears. During her time there, the team grew
steadily from 50-90, with State Champion relay & individual Y
champions, New England qualifiers and a Zone qualifier.
Outside of the pool, she
can be found lifting weights, competing in Powerlifting
competitions or hiking.
Jeff H Ward
Assistant Coach
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Coach Jeff comes to us with
over 40 years of experience in athletics. His college swim
coaching career started at West Point, as an assistant to the men's
program. He then went on to be the head coach of the
women’s team at Columbia. At the club level, he was
head coach of the Hanover Swim Team and the West Point Swim Club.
He has worked extensively with swimmers at all levels from
beginners to national champions.
His administrative experience
includes 14 years as the athletic director at Bowdoin after serving
as the assistant AD at Brown. He was also Chief Program
Officer at Asphalt Green where he supervised the AGUA swim program
and helped develop it into a USA Swimming Gold Medal program, the
top distinction in USA Swimming. As an administrator and
consultant, he has developed and led programing in a wide variety
of areas including leadership, college recruiting, and
inclusion.
Now settled back in Maine, he
is excited to work with developing swimmers at CMA.
Erin Carragher
Assistant Coach
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Coach Erin is originally from New Jersey although she attended
college in Delaware and she has quite an extensive resume working
with beginners, as well as young, competitive swimmers.
From 2015-2016 she coached for the Western Wahoo's in Newark, DE
and was in charge of their silver squad which ranged in age from
9-12 years old. At the Wahoo’s, she started out as an
assistant coach for one season and then took over as the head coach
for the next 3 seasons. From 2012-2015 Coach Erin was the 8/U coach
for the Maplewood Makos in Maplewood, NJ during their summer
season. She then moved up to the Head Coach position for one season
in 2016 where she led the coaching of the 13/14 age group. Coach
Erin began coaching the pre-team group at the West Essex YMCA in
Livingston, NJ in 2019 until the pandemic hit. She has since moved
to Maine to start a master's program in occupational therapy at the
University of New England. Coach Erin has always enjoyed coaching
and it is something that she would like to continue pursuing.
