Louie Balogh
Coach
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Coach Louie began his coaching career in 1983 as an assistant coach with the Taylor Pools Sharks(TPS) USA swim team in Taylor, MI. His talent as a coach and love of the sport was quickly recognized and he was promoted to the head coach position after one year. The team grew from 30 swimmers to nearly 100, which was an impressive accomplishment considering the local high schools did not offer swimming as a sport. His swimmers attained numerous national Top 16 times, State championships, Zone championships and Junior National qualifying times. As a team, TPS consistently placed Top 8 in the State championship meets. After spending time to raise his new family and start a career as an engineer, Coach Louie took over Southern Michigan Aquatic Club(SMAC) in 1997. The team was very small, around 35 swimmers, and within three years it had grown to 170 swimmers. Swimmers on SMAC broke 19 State records, won nearly 100 individual State championships, 10 became Zone champions and 6 Sectional champions. As a team, SMAC was a perennial top 5 finisher at the State meet. Numerous swimmers achieved National Top 16 times, with one National #1 swimmer ranking. Coach Louie has also coached swimmers in the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Swim Team Trials, participated in several National championship and US Open meets and has sent dozens of swimmers onto the college level for swimming .
Since the teams start up in 2008, LSS has become one of the top teams in the region. They are the current 2016 Short Course and Long Course MW Swimming State champions, earning each team championship since 2010. Coach Louie has been elected the Head All Star coach(2010, 2011) and Zone coach(2010) as well as the 2009, 2011 & 2013 Age Group coach of the year. Select swimmers under his guidance have consistently achieved National Top 10 times, broken numerous MW Swimming records and earned berths on the All Star and Zone teams. Currently, 11 Select swimmers have been invited to the Central Zone Select Camp, one of the highest number of swimmers attending this camp in the Midwest. His primary coaching groups are the Blue, Gold and Black practice groups.
Norma Jeanne Balogh
Coach
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Coach Norma began her coaching career with the Taylor pool Sharks (TPS), the club she swam for thoughtout her childhood, as an assistant coach in 1985. A year later, Coach Norma also became the Head Coach for the Allen Park Middle School Girls' swim team. Coach Norma and Louie coached the TPS for 4 years, but when Coach Louie's engineering job became more demanding.Coach Norma stepped in as head coach and resigned the other positions.The transition for the club team was seamless and sucess in team growth, time improvements, and achievements continued under Coach Norma 's leadership. Two years later following the birth of their third baby she temporarily left the swimming scene to focus>
After having two more children, Coach Norma found herself back>Southern Michigan Aquatic Club (SMAC). In 2000, Coach Norma was named the Monroe High School (MHS) Girls' Varsity Head Coach. The team scored 4 points in her first year at the MI High School State meet, finishing 47th . MHS next placed 12th in the state, then 5th in 2002, 3rd in 2003, 12th in 2004, 9th in 2005, and 4th in 2006. During those years, MHS swimmers achieved 6 State titles, 4 State records, 22 All-American swims, and 1 National top time. Coach Norma was awarded “Conference Coach of the Year” 7 times, Region Coach of the year 5 times, Michigan Zone Coach of the Year in 2003, and twice received the Guiding Force Award from swimmers with high scholastic achievements.
As a coach with LSS, Coach Norma is the primary coach for the Gold and Black groups. The success her swimmers have achieved over the past several years has been nothing short of phenominal. Select swimmers under her guidance have achieved over 100 National Top 10 times and broken several hundreds of Midwestern Records. Select is consistantly a top 10 team at our Region VIII Sectional meet.
Coach Norma is the mother of 6 children and has a Bachelor degree in Industrial & Systems Engineering from the University of Michigan.
Nicole Nikki Pappas
Coach
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Coach Nikki joined the Select coaching staff in August 2013. Born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska, swimming has always been a big part of her life. At a younger age, Nikki swam for several different teams, including Nebraska Aquatics, Swim Omaha, Greater Nebraska Swim Team and Lincoln Select. She often traveled for swim meets and competed in All-Star, Zones and Sectionals meets.
Nikki attended Lincoln Southeast High School from 2003-2007 where she competed on their varsity team for all 4 years. During her time at Southeast, she specialized in sprint freestyle and breaststroke, winning the 100 breast 4 years in a row at the Heartland Conference Meets and placing in the State Finals each year for sprint freestyle. During this time she spent summers helping coach various city league teams and GNST.
After high school graduation, Nikki moved down to Fort Worth, Texas to attend Texas Christian University (TCU). She swam at TCU for all 4 years, continuing her training in sprint freestyle and also competing for the team as a relay member. She graduated in 2011 with a Bachelor’s degree in Education with an emphasis in English and English as a second language.
Following college, Nikki moved back to Lincoln and is currently an English teacher at Dawes Middle School.
Darren Mehay
Coach
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Coach Darren is a recent graduate of Indiana University with a degree in Chemistry. He is currently working in a research lab at UNL and is planning on continuing his education here. Although Darren is still quite young, he has a passion for coaching and especially with beginning level swimmers . He has been a swimming instructor with the Bloomington Parks and Rec department for over 5 years and was a part of the Counsilman Center Indiana Swim Team staff where his focus was on the Developmental and Intermediate groups. On top of that, he was a middle school swim coach for the past three years. As one of his references stated, "Darren is the best developmental coaches who has worked for him, he is great with kids". Darren's primary focus is with the Minnow, Bronze and White groups.
Tiffany Hale
Coach
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Coach Tiffany joined the Select coaching staff in November 2015. Since the age of 5 years old Tiffany has been swimming competitively until her daughters Chloé and Serenity started swimming. Born and raised in Nebraska, she swam for Eastridge Swim Team, and Nebraska Aquatics. Tiffany also competed in Zones in 1991 and every year in Cornhusker State Games until 2013.
Coach Tiffany attended Lincoln East High School from 1993-1997 where she competed on their team for all 4 years. During her time at Lincoln East, she specialized in 200 freestyle, 500 Freestyle and 100 backstroke. She also competed all 4 years at State finals and placed each year in her 100 backstroke, 200 Medley Relay, 400 Free Relay. In 1996 Tiffany helped her team mates break the school record in the 200 Medley Relay and 400 Freestyle Relay.
After high school graduation, Tiffany moved to South Dakota on a swimming scholarship with the Yotes at University of South Dakota in Vermillion. She swam for USD for 3 years where she specialized 100 backstroke, 200 backstroke and middle distance events. In 1997-98 at the NCC swim meet Tiffany had surprised herself by dropping off a time in the 200 backstroke in prelims that just put her 2/100’s of a second shy of making national cuts. Tiffany also contributed in setting the 400 Medley Relay in both USD meter records and pool records in 1999 (4:44.29) to which the record was not broken until 2013.
After college, Tiffany moved back to Lincoln to continue passion as a Special Education Teacher and Swim Coach at Lincoln High School. In 2006 Tiffany opened up her own daycare and continues to do that today.
Jennifer A Wheeler
Coach
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Coach Jennifer joined the Select coaching staff in September 2016 after moving to Nebraska from Alma, Michigan. She swam for Alma Flyers Swim Club for thirteen years. Jennifer also swam 4 years of varsity swimming for Alma High School helping break both the 200 free relay and 400 free relay school records. She competed in both the 100 fly and 500 free throughout conference and state meets.
Jennifer graduated from Hillsdale College in May with a degree in financial management. Competing in the GLIAC Conference, she received achieved 3 D2 B cut time standards in the 1,000 yard free, 400 free relay, and 800 free relay.
In addition to coaching, Jennifer is currently a credit analyst at West Gate Bank.
Jan Bidrman
Coach
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Coach Jan joined our staff in the spring of 2017. He has an extensive coaching background and will be working with all our groups. A few highlights about Jan are listed below:
- Coach of record for 2 Olympic gold medalists and 2 bronze medalists along with 3 other swimmers finishing in the top 8 at the Olympic Games.
- A bronze and Silver medalist at two World Championship meets
- Assistant coach at University of Nebraska
- Head coach for the University of Calgary National Swimming Centre
- Swim Alberta High Performance Coach
- Age Group Coach University of Calgary Swim Club
- Canadian National Team Head Coach at one World Championship and Commonwealth Games and has been a Canadian National team coach at all major competitions since 1997
- A 1992 Olympic swimmer in both the 200 and 400 IM representing Sweden
Randy Harris
Coach
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Coach Randy rejoined the Select coaching staff in October 2017.
He previously coached with Select in 2011-2012. Randy comes with
many years of swimming and coaching experience. He swam for Kansas
Aquatics, Topeka West High School, and the University of Nebraska.
In high school, Randy swam at Junior Nationals and was a World
Record holder (Guinness Book of World Records) as a member of a 24
hour swimming relay. He also currently holds several Masters
National Records in Thailand.
Randy has an undergraduate degree in Engineering and a graduate
degree in Cross Cultural Communication. For over two decades he has
lived in Macedonia (Former Yugoslavia) and Thailand, working in a
variety of roles including journalism, humanitarian aid/relief,
education, church ministry, and coaching.
For the past twelve years Randy has coached all levels and ages of
swimmers in Thailand, including multiple members of the Thai
National Team, the Thai National Para Team, and Thai National Age
Group Champions and Record Holders.
One of his mottos is, "Excellence is not a singular act but a
habit. You are you are what you repeatedly do." So as coach, Randy
seeks to create a positive and encouraging environment, where all
swimmers are challenged to succeed to the best of their talents and
abilities, by emphasizing good technique, fast swimming, and
character development.
