Kevin Nielsen
Head Coach, Senior Elite Coach
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Coach Kevin Nielsen has a rich tradition of working with
National and Olympic level athletes and has over ten years of
coaching experience. In 2009 he began his coaching career as
a volunteer Undergraduate Assistant Coach for the University of
California, Berkeley Men’s swim & dive program.
Kevin was mentored by the Dave Durden, the 2020 Men’s Olympic
Swimming Head Coach, and current UC Berkeley Men’s Head
Coach, and Greg Meehan, the 2020 Women’s Olympic Swimming
Head coach, the current Stanford Women’s Head Coach.
During that season, Kevin worked with over 8 Olympians and
was the primary Butterfly coach. In that season, the Cal
Men’s team placed 2nd at the 2010 NCAA D1 championships, won
4 relay titles, along with two individual titles, which included
Tom Shields winning the 100 butterfly, and Nathan Adrian winning
the 100 freestyle.
In 2011, Kevin began coaching age-group swimmers with Class
Aquatics under Steve Reardon’s guidance in Westlake Village,
CA. A couple of years later, he became the Strength &
Conditioning Coach for the Senior program, and in 2014 he was made
the Associate Head Coach, and primary Senior Coach. In his
first year, he had an Olympic Trials qualifier, 3 Junior National
qualifiers, and an 18-under Senior National Champion.
In the fall of 2015, Kevin was hired at the Canyons Aquatic Club as
the Lead Coach for SRII, and Lead Coach for AGIII. The former
Head Coach, and the coach of Olympian Abbey Weitzel, Coley Stickels
mentored Kevin which greatly influenced a creative and passionate
coaching style. Since joining the program, Kevin has coached
US Open, Junior National, and Futures qualifiers. The summer
of 2017 he also served as the interim coach for the National
group.
Some of Kevin’s athletic achievements include qualifying and
competing at the 2012 United States Swimming Olympic Trials in the
50 free, and the 100 butterfly, and he also qualified for the 2016
Olympic trials in the 50 free. In 2009, he was a finalist at
the World Champ Trials in the 100 butterfly.
In his free time, he enjoys playing basketball and golf and is also
passionate about personal fitness. Currently, he is working
towards getting certified to become a personal trainer.
Sean Kakumu
General Manager
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Coach Sean Kakumu has
coached and provided leadership for every important swimming
organization in the City of Santa Clarita over the last decade. In
2012 Sean was brought onboard the Canyons staff by former Head
Coach Jeff Conwell. Sean is currently the College of the Canyons
(COC) Site Director and Swim School Director. At COC, Sean
supervises all of the coaches and instructors and ensures that
everyone on the staff is giving their very best; infusing his
philosophy that swimmers are people first and every one of them has
unlimited potential if they work for it. With Sean's efforts, the
Swim School program has doubled in membership through a new
comprehensive program and the hiring of qualified swim instructors.
Before he was instructing age group swimmers, Sean coached the
Senior 1 and Varsity groups, where he produced a multitude of
Junior Olympic, Senior Development, and numerous Sectional cut
swimmers. In 2012, Coach Sean was selected as the 13-14 Girls coach
for the Southern California Swimming Pacific Coast All-Star Team in
Santa Rosa. Since 2015, Sean has been on the staff for the North
American Challenge cup; in 2017 Sean was the 17-18 Girls and Boys
Coach in UC San Diego. Sean for the last two years has been the
Southern California Swimming Coastal Committee Age Group Chair,
providing direction for age group swimmers in the Coastal
Committee. As of 2018, Sean was appointed to Open Water Chair for
Southern California Swimming and was Meet Director for the 2018
Southern California Open Water Junior Olympics and 2018 USA
Swimming Western Zones Championship.
When Sean is not with
Canyons Aquatic Club, he holds the position of Adjunct Professor of
Kinesiology and leads the successful College of the Canyons Cougar
Swim & Dive team as Head Coach. Starting his era in 2012, Coach
Sean implemented a modern and unique program never before seen at
College of the Canyons, or their competitors, in the team’s
four-decade-long history. Over the last six seasons the program has
set 43 new school records and claimed 11 individual Western State
Conference championships, 14 California Community College Athletic
Association State qualifiers, Junior National level swimmers, four
medley conference championships, and produced five CCCAA state
finalists, six All-American relay teams, six All-American
Individuals, one WSC Men’s Swimmer of the Year, one CCCAA
Men's Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and one on the 2-year College
National Rankings. Climbing the Western State Conference ranks,
College of the Canyons Swim & Dive program has achieved
unprecedented success in the pool, both in team and individual
competition.
Before taking his
position with Canyons, Sean served as Pool Manager with the City of
Santa Clarita. During his 16 years with the City of Santa Clarita,
Sean has overseen and supervised multiple city swim teams, trained
and mentored city swim team coaches and meet support staff,
initiated the creation of swim meet events for 5-6-year-olds, and
currently still trains the staff in and helps run swim meet timing
equipment and video scoreboard design. Aside from the swim team,
Sean oversaw, directed, and influenced thousands of swim lessons at
his facilities. Being a natural competitor, he wanted his swim
lessons to be the best taught, have the most fun, and be the most
professional out of all other city lessons. Sean still helps trains
and educates city swim team coaches, provides technical assistance
and provides administration for city swim teams.
Personally, Coach Sean
has been waterlogged his whole life. Starting at Canyons Aquatic
Club in 1989, Sean swam his way to the Senior group at the age of
12 and worked under former Head Coach Bruce Patmos. During this
time he swam for Hart High School as a varsity member for four
years, finishing his high school career winning a CIF Championship
with his team. In 2002 he went off to swim for Division I
University of Illinois at Chicago.
Sean graduated from Hart
High School in 2002 to study Architecture at the University of
Illinois at Chicago, earning multiple Dean’s List awards and
leading the student body as President. Graduating in 2006, he went
on to the University of Southern California (Fight On!) to earn his
Masters in Architecture with a specialty in building systems and
materials application.
In his off time, Sean is
an avid reader and writer, designer of everything, furniture maker,
traveler, and attends multiple sporting events including USC
football.
Mike Bechtholdt
Head Age Group Coach/JOII Coach
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Coach Mike is an ASCA
Level 4 coach with an excellent record of advancing swimmers
to their next level of competition. Swimmers under Mike's guidance
have achieved Junior National, National and Olympic Trial
qualifying time standards. Mike has had swimmers go on to become
professional athletes, Olympic Team members, and Olympic
medalists.
Before coming to Canyons,
Mike commuted from the SCV to Pacific Palisades where he coached at
Westside Aquatics from March, 2014 to May, 2018.
While at Westside, Mike helped his swimmers reach their goals of
competing in college, and Westside swimmers reached the
National, Junior National, Futures, and Sectional levels under his
guidance. Before joining Westside Aquatics, Coach Mike
served at Canyons for over ten years, working with the senior level
swimmers. During that time, he also had a 5-year stint as the Head
Coach at Valencia High School, which culminated in the team's 25th
(boys) and and 31st (girls) places nationally. Prior to joining
Canyons, Mike was the head coach at Riverton High School, where he
coached the Riverton Aquatic Team and was selected as the North 4A
Coach of the Year. Before coaching, Mike was a collegiate swimmer
at the University of Wyoming, and he swam in high school at
Cheyenne East.
Mike has also been part
of the North American Challenge Cup coaching staff for the 2008 and
2007 seasons as well as Pacific Coast All Star Coaching Staff and
Southern California Zone Coaching Staff. He has also been invited
to travel as a "host" coach to the Olympic training center with his
athletes for both the Diversity Select Camp and the Junior National
Select Camp.
Mike's supportive wife is
excited that he is working again for Canyons who threw her a great
baby shower for their only daughter Francesca, now five.
Francesca is also excited that dad will be closer to
home.
Mikaela Kristine Smith
Swim School Director/JOI Coach
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Born and raised in the Santa Clarita Valley, Coach Mikaela
Smith, began swimming at the age of 7 with Canyon Aquatics. She
swam all 4 years at Valencia High School and set the 50 Fly record
sophomore year. She was also a part of the 200 Medley Relay Team
that set the record. She has 9 years of coaching experience with
kids ages 4-17. She coached for Paseo Aquatics Swim Team, where she
took multiple groups to Jr. Olympics and Far Western Championships.
Mikaela has also been a LA County Lake Lifeguard since 2008. During
the past eight years she has been very active in the Castaic Lake
Jr. Lifeguard program and was promoted to Coordinator of the
program inSummer 2016.
Whitney Cox
Assistant Coach/Office Associate
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Coach Whitney has lived
in Santa Clarita her entire life; she has grown up in this
community. Before swimming, Coach Whitney was a bowler for ten
years. She participated in state and city-wide tournaments and
leagues. One of her teammates was the captain of The Saugus swim
team and convinced her to join before her freshman year started.
Whitney started swimming from the very bottom at 14; she worked her
way up during the next four years of high school from a swimmer who
got placed only in D relays, to a 100 backstroke and 500 freestyle
swimmer. During her junior year, she swam with Canyons under coach
Mike. Coach Whitney knew since her senior year that she wanted to
be involved with coaching somehow, and was given the opportunity in
October 2015 when an old friend offered a spot coaching with Golden
Valley. Now as a coach for the last five years she has been the
head coach of Golden Valley High School since 2016. She was brought
on to Canyons by Sean Gucciardi in February 2018. Since that time
Coach Whitney has worked closely with JO3, Senior 1, JO1, and
JO2.
Erik Johnson
Senior Varsity, AGIII Coach
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Erik began his competitive swim career at age five, joining the
Canyons Aquatic Club at age nine. Continuing with the club he also
swam with Valencia High School's Varsity team for four years, where
Erik attended CIF his senior year in the 100-yard Backstroke. While
he began swimming at Linfield college, he decided to focus entirely
on academics, leaving the word of swimming behind and instead began
to accrue additional athletic experiences. His experiences through
Japanese Jiu Jitsu, traditional Kung Fu, Yoga, and Muay Thai, have
greatly influenced his approach to coaching and dryland. Graduating
with degrees in Psychology and Studio Art, Erik returned home well
equipped for his eventual reunion with the swimming world.
Erik worked for the City of Santa Clarita for nine years,
holding positions up to Assistant manager, where he further
developed his skills in teaching through swim lessons, and other
aquatic programs. Through his time there he was reintroduced to the
Canyons Aquatic Club and began volunteering via weekly dryland
sessions for the senior groups with coach Coley Stickels and Sean
Kakumu's groups for three years. Erik is currently employed with
the club and is enjoying being back in the swim community.
Outside of the pool Erik can be found in the gym training
Powerlifting and Strongman or cooking while watching his favorite
sport, Sumo.
Tim Lim
Pre-Team/AG1 Coach
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Coach Tim started out swimming through Canyons Aquatic Club in
2009. Eventually ended up with Coach Kevin Nielsen in SRII, as well
as swimming for Saugus High School. Tim was a part of the CIF
runner up 200 Freestyle and 400 Freestyle relays at Saugus in 2017.
Swam for Colorado Mesa for the 2017-2018 year before coming back
home to College of the Canyons.
He is currently pursuing a career in education through College
of the Canyons, with a concentration in English. Coach Tim served
as an assistant coach at Saugus High school for the 2018-2019 year
under Jim Klipfel and Krista Botton.
As a coach at Canyons Aquatic Club, he hopes to guide swimmers
in reaching their personal goals in and out of the pool.
Chris Mcelroy
Senior Elite Assistant Coach
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Coach Chris McElroy is the Senior 1 and AG3 coach for Canyons
Aquatics. Growing up in Orange County, he has swum his entire life
with the Mission Viejo Nadadores, culminating with his high schools
years training on the National Team under Coach Bill Rose. Directly
after graduating, he joined the coaching staff and proceeded to
coach the next two years under Coach Mark Schubert and Coach Bill
Voigt. After transferring to Cal State University Northridge, he
moved to Los Angeles and is now continuing his career as a Canyons
Aquatics coach. Coach Chris is a junior in college at CSUN, and
studies film music composition with the hopes of one day writing
blockbuster soundtracks. In his free time, he enjoys both writing
classical literature and playing classical piano works. He hopes to
provide all of his athletes with the desire to reach their
individual potential in the sport of swimming.
Chris Rogers
Senior Development/Senior I Coach
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Coach Chris brings a
history of success at all age group and ability levels. Chris
is joining us after working with Team Elite-San Diego (assistant
coach 2018-2019), University of California, Berkeley Men’s
Team (volunteer assistant 2017-2018), and The Olympic Club (Junior
Aquatics manager 2012-2017). During that time, Chris worked
with World Record holders Ryan Murphy, Kathleen Baker and Irie
Ryosuke, 5 other American Olympians and 2 International
Olympians. Over his years of coaching, Chris has also worked
directly with 13 members of the USA National Team and also coached
at 2 USA National Team Camps at the US Olympic Training Centers in
Colorado Springs and Chula
Vista.
Chris draws his
inspiration from the many mentors he was fortunate enough to coach
with over the years. At Team Elite he coached alongside the
2016 Olympic Women’s head coach David Marsh, and at Cal he
coached with 2020 Olympic Team Men’s head coach David Durden.
While at these two programs, Chris worked with a wide variety of
swimmers, ranging from stroke specialists to distance swimmers,
along with a large group of international athletes. Under the
tutelage of Marsh and Durden, Chris gained experience coaching the
full spectrum of athletes and is excited to bring that experience
to the club level.
Prior to graduating UC
Berkeley in 2013, Chris began coaching a local team in San
Francisco, The Olympic Club. There he worked with developing
athletes of all ages, and worked primarily with the Senior
group. In a few short years, the team went from a single Far
Westerns qualified swimmer to 2 Junior National qualifiers, 5
Futures qualifiers, 13 Sectional qualifiers, and with over 20
qualifiers for Far Westerns.
Some of Chris’
athletic achievements include, competing in the 2008 and 2012
Olympic Trials in the 100m and 200m backstroke, participating on 2
winning NCAA DI National Championship title teams with the
Men’s Cal Berkeley team in 2011 and 2012, achieving Pac-10
Academic Honorable Mention in 2011, and representing the USA at the
World Youth Championship in Monterey, Mexico in
2008.
In his free time Chris
likes hiking and fishing, and whenever possible getting in the
ocean for a swim.
Emilio Santoyo
Pre-Team/AG1 Coach
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Coach Emilio will be
coaching our Pre-Team Group. Coach Emilio started his swim career
at Canyons Aquatics Club twelve years ago in our swim lesson
program. He then swam his way to our Senior Elite program,
racing at a national level. He was also a member of the Hart High
School Swim Team where he swam varsity all four years and finished
as a captain for the team. Currently, Coach Emilio is attending
College of the Canyons, studying in Fire Technology and building
towards a career as a firefighter. He is also a member of the COC
Cougars swim team, coached under Coach Kakumu, and making it to the
California Community College Athletic Association State
Championship in San Jose in 2019. Coach Emilio's goals for coaching
is to help his swimmers strive to meet their full potential in the
water.
Courtney L Skelley
AG2/Masters Coach
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Courtney Skelley is Canyons Aquatic Club latest swimmer to come
back to the club as a coach in our Age Group program. She is
looking to make a positive and fun experience for all of her
swimmers with Canyons.
Courtney began her affinity for the water at the age of seven.
Courtney started to swim for Canyons at the age of ten, eventually
reaching Coach Jay in the Junior Olympic group. Finding success,
she found the pinnacle of Canyons swimming with then Head Coach
Coley Stickels in the Senior 3 National group.
Graduating Saugus High School in 2016, she continued to swim at
Indiana State University, producing results for the school as a
finalist in the 100/200 butterfly and 200 freestyle in their
Missouri Valley Conference Championship.
Coming back to California in 2017, Courtney will continue her
education at College of the Canyons and swimming for the Cougar
Swim & Dive Team under Head Coach Sean Kakumu.
Autumn Wyatt
Assistant AG3/Senior Varsity Coach
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Coach Autumn began her swimming career at the age of seven as a
synchronized swimmer. Throughout her years, she placed first in
many citywide and countywide synchronized swimming competitions.
Once she made it to high school, she joined the Canyon High School
swim team. Starting her sophomore year, she joined Canyons Aquatics
and swam under coach Mike. She was able to gain the knowledge and
speed to make it to CIF in the 200 Free relay and 400 Free relay
her junior and senior year.
She graduated with a degree in studio art and digital art from
Chapman University. Soon after graduation, she got a job as an art
teacher and worked as a teacher for the past two years.
Autumn never moved far from the pool; however, she has worked for
the City of Santa Clarita for the past eight years as a lifeguard
where she gained experience as a synchronized swim coach and swim
lesson instructor. She is currently the new Head Swimming Coach for
Canyon High School and is excited to share her passion for swimming
with all her swimmers.
