
Dave Gingrich
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Coach Dave
- M.Ed., CAGS, USA
Swimming Certification, American Swimming Coaches Association
(ASCA) Certification Levels 1 & 2
As
head coach for the Wavemakers, Coach Dave oversees all of the
workout plans and works closely with our assistant coaching staff.
Dave is looking forward to our upcoming season of swimming and
continues to emphasize: endurance training, stroke structure,
racing strategies, team spirit, and working together in an
atmosphere of support and fun. He employs video analysis to help
swimmers truly see what their strokes look like. Coach Dave has
been a classroom teacher for 35 years and has enjoyed coaching
with the Wavemakers for over 16 years. He has been swimming
competitively for over 50 years. As a swimmer he continues to
compete Masters swim meets. He is grateful for the opportunity to
combine his love of teaching and swimming into coaching.

Katie Ruggles
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Katie
is a lifelong swimmer who started year-round swimming on a team at
the age of 7 and was the daughter of swim coaches for the Lake
Champlain Waves. She swam competitively for Clarkson
University achieving Academic All-American and graduated with
Distinction with a Bachelor of Science in Business
Administration/Pre-Physical Therapy in 2003, Master of Physical
Therapy in 2005, and obtained her Doctorate Degree in Physical
Therapy in 2008. Her involvement in athletics and the
biomechanics of sport led her to the profession of physical
therapy. Katie has worked in outpatient physical therapy for over
14 years. Coach Katie is excited to integrate her knowledge of
biomechanics with her first love of swimming to help kids reach
their life goals.

Whitney Vanier
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Coach Whitney has been coaching swim teams and teaching lessons for
6 years. She started swimming competitively at the age of 6, and
has always loved the sport. Coach Whitney joined the Wavemakers in
the summer of 2021. She also teaches group and individual lessons
at TWC.

Valdis Jurka
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Coach Val has been coaching with the Wavemakers for several
years. Val swam in age-groups, high school and college. While
at Rensselaer Val was a team captain and vice-president of the
water polo club. Summers were spent working as a camp
waterfront director. As his sons grew up Val was a Boy Scout
leader and swim-team parent. After swimming on and off, Val
has rejoined US Masters Swimming and competes several times a
year. Val is a retired environmental engineer having worked
for AT&T, federal government and consulting. He enjoys
helping the kids to swim better and faster while they grow as
individuals on a great team. Coach Val maintains the team recods
and supports the team and parent board in many ways.

Tom White
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Coach Tom started competitive swimming in junior high school in
Syosset, NY. His family moved a couple times and he continued to
swim high school at both Stranahan High School in Ft Lauderdale,
Florida, and then back to New York at Great Neck South High School.
During the off season he swam for the Ft Lauderdale Swimming
Association at the Hall of Fame Pool, and the Jack Nelson Swim
club. Off season in NY he swam for the Flushing YMCA where they won
the state championship. Tom continued swimming in college at the
University of Connecticut. The majority of his events were distance
freestyle; 400, 500, 1000, and 1650, along with backstroke. Tom is
a retired pharmacist with over 40 years as a
pharmacist.

Greg Wood
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Greg actually began his swimming career with the Wavemakers when he
was 8 before moving on to the Seacoast Swim Association, and
eventually, the Bernal’s Gators. Greg went on to swim at
UMass Amherst before taking a long break from the sport to focus on
hiking and dirtbiking, two pursuits that he still enjoys.
Greg has been teaching at Belmont Middle School for the last six
years and he employs those skills while helping our swimmers
succeed in and out of the pool.

Katherine Wilcox
Assistant Coach
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Katie started swimming on a team when she was 6 years old and
swam daily throughout the summers of her youth. She also swam
for my high school team back in St. Louis. Her first job was
working as a lifeguard, then teaching swim lessons at the
local YMCA. She worked for the YMCA throughout high school &
college years. She also ran an ARC swimming program at a camp
in Alton Bay for many years, ending up in New Hampshire.
She met her husband while working at the summer camp and they
still work at the same camp.When not coaching
Katie works as a Nurse supporting computerized charting for
fellow nurses.