Coaches and Directors
John began his coaching career with the Briar Village Swim Team, in Houston, Texas. He coached the Briar Village Swim Team for three seasons and served as an Assistant Coach and Head Coach. While in Houston, John also held a position as a Swim Instructor and Assistant Coach at Memorial Athletic Club.
John moved to Fayetteville in 2006 to attend the University of Arkansas. After arriving in Fayetteville, John began working as a Swim Instructor and Assistant Coach at Fayetteville Athletic Club. Upon graduating from the University of Arkansas with a Bachelor’s of Science in Recreation and Sports Management, John accepted a role as the Aquatics Director at Fayetteville Athletic Club. As the Aquatics Director, he revitalized the FAC Sharks Swim Team and Learn-to-Swim program. He also went on to serve as the Operations Director for Fayetteville Athletic Club.
In November 2014, John accepted a role as the Head Age-Group Coach for Razorback Aquatic Club AquaHawgs. While with the AquaHawgs, John oversaw the operations of the Age Group Program and primarily coached the Rookie Hawgs and Wild Hawgs. During his tenure, he helped with the recruitment of new athletes and saw the team grow to record numbers. John began working for the City of Benton, Arkansas in March 2017. He served as the Aquatics Specialist and helped open the River Center. He was instrumental in the success of the Benton Sharks Swim Team in their inaugural season. While in Benton, John also worked with the Central Arkansas Swim Club. John returned to Northwest Arkansas as the Head of Development and Team Director in August 2017. While at NWAA, John helped grow the team to over 200 swimmers. In 2019, the NWAA Girls finished 1st at the Arkansas Swimming Long Course Champioships.
John is also extremely proud of his work with the Northwest Arkansas Summer Swim League and excited to be involved with the future success of the league. John was an Arkansas Zone Team coach in 2016, 2018 and 2019. Coach John will be the 2020 Arkansas Zone Team Coordinator and Head Coach. He has also served as the Arkansas Swimming Inc. Technical Planning Chair since October 2016.
Carolyn was the original founder coach of Walmart Swim Club, now known as Northwest Arkansas Aquatics Sharks. Her coaching career began in 1975 when she stepped up to become the coach for the Bentonville Summer Swim Team at Bentonville’s City Pool. Under her coaching, the summer swim program grew from 25 swimmers to 125 in her 9 years of coaching the team. The Bentonville Swim Team was a member of the Tri-State Summer Swim Conference, and under her leadership, she took the team to many first place conference championships. In 1984, she began a year-round United States Swimming program at the Walton Life Fitness Center in Bentonville. She experienced all the growing pains in bringing Walmart Swim Club from its initial membership of about 20 to about 70 when she retired from coaching to become the full-time Aquatics Director at the center in 1994.
Anita has over 40 years of competitive swimming experience. She began her own competitive swim career in 1968 as a member of the Little Rock Dolphins and while an age group swimmer was named the 1980 women’s Arkansas Athlete of the Year for Swimming. Anita proceeded to swim on scholarship as a collegiate All-American at Rice University in Houston, Texas. While building a 20 year career as an Information Technology executive/consultant, Anita continued her swimming participation as Master swimmer, Masters swim coach, and private swim instructor. Upon her professional retirement, Anita and a friend created the Fayetteville Athletic Club Shark swim team. From there, Anita started 7 summer swim teams in Northwest Arkansas and was a founding member of the NWA Summer Swim League. She currently coaches the Mount Sequoyah Marlins and, new this summer, the Wilson Park Wahoos.
Anita is married and has 4 boys who all swam for the RAC/Aquahawgs. She is a 2006 inductee into the Arkansas Swimming Hall of Fame and her family currently sponsors the Heil Mile award given at the annual Hall of Fame banquet. She is a founding member of the Ozark Open Water Swim.
David Sexton began swimming with the local club team in Tulsa at age 7. A few teams later, he graduated from Swim Tulsa in 1991 and began a Division III swimming career at Hendrix College and finished at Trinity University. After graduation, David was the age group coach for Swim Tulsa for three years. During that time, he was also the head Zone Coach for Oklahoma and assistant Zone coach . His daughters, Ashley and Brianna both swim with the team.
Caitlynn swam all throughout high school for Har-Ber Wildcats; where she qualified for state relays multiple times. While attending high school, Caitlynn started lifeguarding. She transitioned into coaching in 2018. Caitlynn is currently in her second year at the University of Arkansas, and is studying to be a Special Education Teacher. Caitlynn is an Assistant Coach for both the Rookie and Hawg training groups.
Jana graduated from the University of Arkansas in 2000. She has been a part of the AquaHawgs organization since 2017. In 2019, Jana took on the position of Team Administrator for the Razorback Aquatic Club. She brings with her over ten years of experience in Early Childhood Education. In 2020, she stepped into the role of HawgStart Director/ Team Administrator. Jana looks forward to combining her experiences and expanding our programs.
