Thomas A McRae

Head Coach

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Coach Tom graduated from Ohio State University with a Physical Education degree specializing in developmental motor patterns in children. He was Assistant Coach for the Ohio State Women’s Swim Team in 1988-90, and Assistant Coach for the Stanford Women’s Swim Team in 1990-91. Coach Tom has worked with several 1992 & 1996 Olympic medalists from Stanford, and coached swimmers from the Mexican National Team for the 2000 Olympic Games. He is a Certified Level 4 member of American Swimming Coaches Association.

In 1990 he started as an Age Group Coach for SOLO, and became the Head Coach in 1992. Unlike many other Head Coaches, Coach Tom works with all levels of swimmers. His daily activities includes being in the water teaching the youngest swimmers, helping Age Group swimmers with their strokes, and running practices for National level swimmers.

Coach Tom is also the Head Coach for Menlo-Atherton High School’s swim team. In 2006 the MA girls finished undefeated in the PAL league and finished fourth in CCS. Four girls made All-American for the second year. On the boys side there were great improvements moving into the second place in PAL with boys finishing in the top 16 in CCS. The size and depth of the team has really been tremendous the past five years that Coach Tom has worked with the program.

Following his older brothers to the pool put Tom on his first swim team at the age of four. As a high school swimmer things really took off as a member of the Greater Columbus Swim Team. He was a walk on swimmer at Ohio State as a freshman, which lead to coaching the sport. As a masters swimmer Coach Tom broke the World Record in the February Fitness competition in 1995 and again in 1996 swimming over 725,000 yards in a month. The purpose of which was to show the swimmers that if they wanted to achieve success they needed to work toward a goal. For Tom that turned out to be 25,000 yards per day which took eight hours.

Sean Timon Horan

Assistant Coach

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Coach Sean started as the SOLO Aquatics Age Group Coach in 2009, immediately falling in love with the positive environment and coaching philosophy. His goal is to encourage swimmers to learn swimming technique for a lifetime of healthy living. He empowers his swimmers with peer leadership at every level in order to develop physical, mental, and social skills that will apply to all aspects of their lives. 

Coach Sean grew up in the East Bay, and began swimming for Woodlands Swim Team at age five. After a swimming career filled with Far Westerns times and Team Records, Coach Sean had the honor of being part of very talented relays in high school, winning the 200 Free, 200 Medley, and 400 Free Relays at the North Coast High School Championship Meet, and setting records at the Contra Costa County Championships. 

Sean found his passion as he began coaching at his childhood team in 2001, leading cheers and developing a passion for swimming spirit. He literally wrote the book on spirit – a recreational swimming guide that is still heavily utilized by the team today.  Sean has four siblings, all of whom are, or have been, swim coaches.  Family gatherings often involve conversations about the latest and greatest instruction methods, and he brings that depth of knowledge to the pool deck every day.  Sean prides himself on creating a cooperative learning environment, which is necessary to develop interpersonal, intrapersonal, and kinesthetic awareness for athletes.