Coaches and Directors
In his spare time Coach Cliff enjoys spending time with his wife, Sarah, and daughter, Dagny. Cliff enjoys hiking, fishing, camping, and scuba diving.
Coach Grant Gamblin was born in Anchorage, Alaska and began swimming competitively on NLSC in 1991, and continued through High School. After starting his coaching career in 2005 as the Service High School Assistant Coach, and realizing coaching was a serious passion, he joined the NLSC coaching staff in 2006 and started coaching adults in 2007 at The Alaska Club South.
Taking the Head Coach position of KNIK Aquatics, Eagle River High School and Bartlett High School in 2014 he continued to grow as a coach, developing learn to swim programs for all ages, age group and adult competitive programs.
Returning to NLSC in 2016 to build a dream of his, NLATS (Northern Lights Adult Training Squad)! Within the first year of NLATS creation it was top 10 for growth in U.S. Masters Swimming, bringing the team to just over 100 members. Grant brings a plethora of adult coaching experience, tremendous energy, and passion to our program.
If you’re reading this and are curious about adult swimming please contact Coach Grant to find out which practice best suits you. ALL skill levels are welcome!
Ryan Chastain is the current coach of the Bronze/ Iron groups as well as the assistant coach/ Lifeguard for the Silver group.
Ryan was born in March of 2000 and spent his childhood in Palmer Alaska where he began swimming competitively in the third grade. After a short stint on the Wasilla Waves Swim Club, Ryan transferred to the Northern Lights sister program in the Matanuska- Susitna valley. Ryan started out in the bronze group and over the years worked his way up to gold, competing in both local and out of state championship meets. Ryan also swam for Colony High, the local high school team, where he made state all 4 years and his senior year competed in the 50yd Freestyle and the 100yd butterfly, as well as helping to break the school record for the men’s 200yd Freestyle relay and the men’s 400yd Freestyle relay.
During his sophomore year of high school Ryan began to teach swim lessons for the local pool, he then progressed to coaching the Bronze/ Iron group in the valley by his senior year of high school (2018). After taking a short break from coaching to attend Arizona State University Ryan returned to Alaska and began coaching the Bronze/ Iron group at UAA pool and later Service pool. Ryan is now living in Anchorage and is currently attending University of Alaska Anchorage with a major in legal studies with intent to practice comparative and international law.
Kenny Fox grew up in Juneau, AK and swam for Glacier Swim Club since he was 6 years old and Thunder Mountain High School. After high school, Kenny attended Denison University in Granville, OH. Him and his team were able to win 3 Division III National Championships, and was individually recognized as an All-American 11 times. In college he swam the 100 Butterfly (his favorite), 100 Breaststroke, 100 Freestyle, and for kicks, the 100 IM. He also graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Health, Exercise, Sport Studies (HESS) in 2019.
Kenny’s coaching career began in the fall of 2019 as an assistant coach for both Glacier Swim Club and Thunder Mountain High School. Kenny just joined NLSC in July of 2021 and is super excited to meet everyone and to be a part of one the best swim clubs in the state. Being able to witness other swimmers accomplish their goals after seeing all that hard work has always been one of the main reasons he loves the sport of swimming.
Coach Sam Wicks is an alumna of NLSC - graduated in 2012. She started swimming at 8 years old for Alaska Pacific Swim Club, which is no longer around. She became a NLSC athlete after her freshman year of high school, also working as a Learn to Swim instructor.
She swam for Coach Cliff while at East Anchorage High School, and Coach Ben in the Gold group. Both encouraged her to work hard in both school and swimming, she ended up swimming at Boise State University. She primarily swam backstroke and sprint freestyle, but occasionally dabbled in IM - her favorite events were the 100 backstroke and 100 IM. She competed at Division I NCAA 3 of her 4 collegiate years, and those were some of the coolest experiences - to see so many fast and dedicated swimmers all under one roof. The only topper to that was competing at the 2016 US Olympic Trials in the 100 backstroke.
She completed coursework at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities for their Doctorate of Physical Therapy program. Since graduating from PT school in June 2020, she started working as a physical therapist at Providence Hospital in Anchorage. Throughout the years, she has dealt with a fair amount of injury (knees, shoulders, ankles) and believes her understanding of the mental side of this + her PT knowledge will allow her to be a valuable asset to athletes she works with.
She is now the Head Dryland Coach for all practice groups - from Iron to NLATS. She is excited about the dryland training program she's created in the hopes that each athlete will get a little bit stronger and improve some each day. Occasionally, she is on the pool deck working mostly with Silver, but enjoys coaching athletes of all ages.
Best advice she's ever received? In the words of one wise 6 year old patient of hers... "It's okay to do new things, even if they're hard".
