Erik Collins
Head Coach
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Erik Collins graduated from Niagara University in 1991 with a
B.A. in English, and the joke in his family (or more accurately,
the "lament") is that he "walked off stage and right back to the
pool." Originally from Long Island, NY, Collins had the good
fortune to swim for the LI Express under Rob Ortoff, where he got
his first coaching job in the Fall of '91. He worked his way up to
Head Senior Coach at Express before leaving NY after the 1999 LCM
season. Since then, Collins has had "one spectacular year after
another" as he puts it, coaching at several prominent clubs before
landing for a second time in northern Virginia with SNOW Swimming
in the Fall of 2014. His second stint with SNOW has been much more
productive than the first.
When Collins signed on in 2014 it was with the understanding
that he'd run the Dulles South site for SNOW once it opened "in a
year or two," as Loudoun County Parks & Rec projected. That
"year or two" turned into more than three years before the site he
calls "The D" finally opened, and Collins wound up running the
combined Jr. Gold programs in the interim. Those Jr. Gold groups
did well, yielding Sectional & NCSA qualifiers as well as three
NCSA 14&U champions. Collins also stepped into the role of Team
Rep to the PVS Competition Committee for SNOW, where he had a
chance to immerse himself in the inner workings of the Potomac
Valley Swimming LSC. Collins wound being asked to fill an
"At-Large" position on the PVS Board of Directors, where he had a
greater opportunity to contribute to "better swimming for the
athletes of PVS," as well as a chance to learn from the world-class
coaches in Potomac Valley. Following his two year term in the
At-Large position, Collins was elected as the Age Group Chairperson
for the LSC. He assumed that role just as the pandemic hit, which
he says leveled the playing field for him. "It didn't matter how
long a person had been on the Board, nobody had any experience
running the LSC in a pandemic; from that standpoint, everybody was
starting from scratch, and I've been able to contribute just like
anybody else."
Once the Dulles South site opened, Collins hit the ground
running- filling training groups, working out kinks in the
schedule, and building on the successes of those Jr. Gold groups
the previous three years. Collins had new Sectional qualifiers and
one NCSA qualifier from the very first year The D was up &
running; several of his athletes were chosen for USA Swimming
Select Camps, and Collins himself was picked for the coaching staff
of USA Swimming's Eastern Zone Select Camp in 2018.
Prior to 2014, Collins had stops at several elite level clubs,
including Tualatin Hills (OR) with Coach Bergen, Auburn University
(AL) with David Marsh, and RMSC (MD) with Scott Vekeman where he
was Co-Coach of Record for Michael Raab, who won Gold for the USA
at the 2003 Pan American Games. Raab's winning time in the 200 Fly
that Summer made him the third fastest American ever in that event,
behind only Tom Malchow and Michael Phelps. Collins has served as
Head Coach at clubs in Georgia, Minnesota & Maryland, had
numerous Junior National & National qualifiers, and coached two
other international medalists along the way. He is particularly
proud of the USA Swimming Academic All-Americans he has developed
throughout his career. "It's not so much the accolade of being
'smart and fast,'" he says; but more "the mastering of the process
which yields that level of achievement for a young student-athlete.
There is nothing more empowering than that."
Collins is excited for the opportunities the post-pandemic
swimming world will offer student-athletes in general and his SNOW
swimmers in particular. "The opportunities for our kids to achieve
their goals and excel in the classroom and in the pool are out
there. They'll look a little different in 2021 & 2022, but
they're still there. Having a different look to those opportunities
means we'll have to work a little differently to achieve those
goals, but that isn't anything we can't handle. You only get what
you handle, so I think we're ready for the challenges that 2021
will present to us."
Collins & his wife, Sara live in Alexandria with their two
cats.
Ross C Hawks
Head Site Coach
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Ross Hawks started swimming competitively while attending Morse
High School in Bath, Maine (Class of 2006). Following an impressive
campaign during his freshman year at MHS, Ross took his swimming up
a level & joined the year-round USA Swim Club at the local
YMCA, Long Reach Swim Club (LRSC). Pairing up Ross' gritty work
ethic & determination with the accomplished coaches at LRSC
really paid big dividends: by his senior year in high school Ross
was 9th in the 100 Backstroke and 15th in the 200 Free, leading his
team to a formidable showing at the Maine State Championships. Ross
started coaching for LRSC in 2007, bringing all the enthusiasm
& determination he shared with his teammates, to the pool deck.
Showing a deft hand for his coaching as well as his swimming, Ross
developed LRSC athletes who qualified for the 2010 YMCA National
Championships.
Ross moved to Virginia in 2013 to begin coaching with SNOW, and
has used the same savvy approach to develop JO qualifiers and Team
Record Holders as the Head Site Coach at Ida Lee. He has taken on
an additional training group each season and created a real
stronghold for the club in Leesburg as the club has shown
considerable growth from year to year. Ross has also coached
the Stone Ridge Sharks summer league team in the ODSL (2014-2015)
as well as the Greenway Gators summer league team in 2016. Ross is
excited for the opportunities our student-athletes will have in the
post-pandemic swimming world, and eager to help everyone on SNOW
achieve their highest goal.
Suzanne Patras
Head Site Coach
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As Head Site Coach of Claude Moore for SNOW Swimming, Suzanne
Patras draws upon more than 16 years of experience to oversee
age group and senior swimming. Nominated several times for
the Fitter and Faster ASCA Age Group Swim Coach of the Year,
Suzanne Patras has coached Masters National champions,
international record holders, and Junior National team
swimmers.
Suzanne Patras joins Snow Swimming this fall, before which she
acted as the coach and Director of Competitive Swimming at the New
Cannan YMCA and owned and functioned as the head coach of the
Phoenix Swim Team in Plymouth, Minnesota. She also coached
Minnesota high school programs and served two years as the business
manager and head age group coach with Twin Cities Swim Team.
Moreover, she is a certified Level 5 ASCA coach, nutritionist, and
personal trainer, and maintains active membership with the American
College of Sports Medicine and National Association of Swim
Coaches.
Complementing her coaching experience, Suzanne Patras holds an
MBA and a BBA in sports management and accounting from St. Leo
University.
Kristy Lai Harris
Assistant Coach
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Kristy Lai-Harris is in her third year with SNOW Swimming and
overall has ten years coaching experience under her belt.
Originally from Michigan, Kristy began her coaching adventure in
Kingsport, TN, working with age groupers and Masters swimmers. Once
her family made their way to northern Virginia, Kristy landed a
coaching job with the Reston YMCA where she parlayed her Tennessee
experience into a Lead Assistant Coach position where she quickly
found herself working with four of the Y’s seven training
groups. Those groups ran the gamut from 8&Unders up to high
school seniors. As Kristy’s responsibilities and influence
over those groups grew from year to year, so too did their
performances improve: the Reston Y 8&Unders won their
Championship Meet the last two years Kristy was there, while five
of her high school seniors qualified for YMCA Nationals her last
year there. That was the largest squad the Reston Y had sent to the
meet held annually in Greensboro, NC in ten years.
Now a part of the coaching staff here at “The D” for
SNOW Swimming, Kristy runs our afternoon groups, which includes
Olympic Way and TAG Bronze, TAG Silver & TAG Gold. Kristy also
runs our evening Senior Silver group, as well as working with the
PM Junior Gold and Junior Bronze groups. Kristy has also been Head
Coach of the Armfield Farm summer league team in Chantilly for six
years running; in her first year there she managed to engineer a
complete reversal of fortune for them, logging a 4-1 campaign in
dual meet action after going 1-4 the previous summer. In her second
year at AF the team went 5-1 and won the overall Division
Championship. Since 2018, Kristy has also served as Head Coach for
the Potomac Falls high school swim team; her squad there has broken
several school records and sent a men’s & women’s
team to the State Meet each year since her arrival.
Kristy has a Bachelor’s degree Public Relations &
Journalism and a Master’s degree in Graphic Design. A
Certified Fitness Instructor and Personal Trainer, Kristy teaches
Group Fitness Classes at both the Reston YMCA and Claude Moore Rec
Center. Kristy enjoys teaching private swim lessons when
she’s not at a weekend meet for SNOW. She is married with
three children, all of whom have swum for SNOW.
Tanya Marie Chang
Assistant Coach
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Coach Tanya has been a SNOW parent since 2012 and began coaching
for SNOW in 2017. She coaches for groups ranging from Olympic Way
to Junior Silver. She is certified as a Foundations of
Coaching 201 coach and as an Aquatics Instructor at Ida Lee.
Tanya swam competitively starting in the sixth grade and in high
school qualified for the Pennsylvania State Championships and YMCA
Nationals. In addition, she qualified for and medaled at
Division III Nationals while swimming for the Johns Hopkins
University. She graduated from the Pennsylvania State
University with a B.A. and completed graduate work at the George
Washington University. She loves the sport of swimming and wants to
pass on that enthusiasm and love of the sport to the younger
swimmers.
Ivan Boyarskiy
Assistant Coach
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Coach Ivan first started coaching as a junior coach at Ida
Lee's Eeliminators Summer Swim Team 7 years ago. Since then
Ivan has become a Swim Instructor, Assistant Coach, Head Lifeguard,
and most recently a Lifeguard Instructor at Ida Lee. Ivan loves
teaching kids how to swim and has been with SNOW since the
beginning of 2020. If you see him at a swim meet, you can always
hear him over the crowd cheering on his swimmers. Ivan graduated
George Mason University with a degree in
Information Technology, and when he's not at the pool, he
works as a software engineer.
Sharon Rose Whelan
Assistant Coach
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Sharon started working with SNOW in 2015 and has 10+ years of
coaching and teaching experience in northern Virginia. An ASCA
Level 3 certified coach, she has coached at every level in the
sport and enjoys working with children in all age groups. Sharon is
the Head Coach of the Leesburg Eliminators summer league team and
the Leesburg Masters team. Originally from California, Sharon has
been swimming competitively since the age of five, and still loves
being at the pool every day. Sharon hopes to foster that same love
for swimming in her athletes.
Hannah M Carter
Assistant Coach
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Samantha M Pliuskaitis
Assistant Coach
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Jennifer Reeves
Assistant Coach
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Charles B Durazo
Recruiting Specialist/Substitute Coach
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Bryan grew up in Leesburg, VA and swam for SNOW Swimming from
1998 until he finished college. He has coached for SNOW
in 2011 as a Junior Gold Coach and currently is a substitue
coach and recruiting specialist. He has a degree in Cultural
Anthropology from Duke University (2011). In high school, he swam
competitively for Heritage High and was their first State Champion
in 100 Breaststroke his senior year. He continued to swim for the
Varsity men’s swim team at Duke University, making finals at
his last ACC meet before graduating. At the Division I level, he
learned the skills of dedication, hard work, and determination. He
is knowledgeable about the pressures and time commitment of sports,
recruiting and the college decision process. He currently is a
tutor for Top Score EDU and the director of Top Score EDU Loudoun.
Daniel M Durazo
IT/Tech/Admin
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Danny has been involved with Snow from the very beginning - first
as a swimmer, then as a coach, and now as back office support
staff. After graduating from Heritage High School and the Loudoun
County Academy of Science in 2009, Danny attended Drexel University
in Philadelphia as a division I athlete. Danny returned home in
2014 after graduating and began to support Snow as both a coach and
technical liason. This role developed further through the years and
now includes administrative duties and new project
initiatives.
Teresa M Pliuskaitis
Owner, Financial and Admin
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Teresa started Snow Swimming in 1998 in Loudoun County. At the
time there was a program at GMU and Falcon's Landing. The following
year with the entire SR group graduating at the GMU site and the
merger of Snow Swimming with Riptide Swimming, of Virginia Swimming
in Leesburg, the team became a one site team until 2008 when Claude
Moore opened up. When we expanded we were 180 swimmers and the next
year we were at 325. Dulles South and Round Hill were added in 2018
and the rest is history! Teresa swam summer league and high school
when she was younger and has always been involved in the aquatics
industry. Teresa has four children Bryan, Danny, Stuart
and Sam.
