Scott Hubbard was born in Edina, MN. His first aquatic experience began at the age of 6 months when his parents enrolled him and his sister in water baby classes. Scott showed proficiency as he grew, and by age 8 had ascended to the top of the swim lessons program. Scott transitioned into competitive swimming and immediately took to the sport with many early successes. In 1984, at age 12, Scott’s family moved to Sacramento, CA where Scott joined legendary Hall of Fame coach Sherm Chavoor of the Arden Hills Swim Club. Sherm had coached numerous Olympians including Debbie Meyer, Mark Spitz, Mike Burton, and most recently, Jeff Float, who was a member of the 1984 4 x 200 “Gross Buster” relay. Scott’s swimming career accelerated under Sherm and by his Junior year in high school, he was among the top college prospects in mid-distance freestyle. As a 16-year-old Scott broke the Junior National record in the 200M free with a time of 1:51.64 and attended his first Olympic Trials for the 1988 team. A year later he broke another Junior National record in the 400M free with a time of 3:56.56. Scott then moved to California Capital Aquatics for his final year of high school and trained under Coach Mike Hastings where he placed 2nd at winter nationals in 500 free (4:22:83) and eventually accepted a scholarship to UCLA. Scott swam for the Bruins for 3 years, until the men’s team was cut for Title 9. Scott elected to retire from swimming rather than transfer from UCLA with one year of eligibility remaining. Upon retiring he became an assistant coach at Team Santa Monica, coaching distance freestyle to the Senior and Senior Development groups, as well as coaching masters for SCAQ, LMU, and UCLA. Scott still enjoys swimming and will occasionally compete in open-water events. He currently lives in Westchester with my son, Lucas, and dog, Shelly.

Heather was born in the Hudson Valley in upstate New York.  She started swimming at 8 years old at the local YMCA and eventually joined a nearby competitive team when she was 10 years old. At age 13 she and her family moved to Pasadena, where she continued her swimming at Rose Bowl Aquatics.

Throughout high school at Crescenta Valley High, she set multiple school and league records for the 100 free, 200 free, and 200 IM as she began competing at the senior national level.  She eventually committed to Penn State University to continue her swimming and academic career.

While at Penn State she was a part of the conference travel team, where she contributed to numerous top 8 finishes in the 800-freestyle relay throughout her 4 years. Heather’s senior year she was elected co-captain of the women’s swim team. In May 2020 she graduated with a Bachelor’s in Rehabilitation and Human Services with minors in Psychology and Kinesiology.

Heather lives and works in West Los Angeles.

Coach Michelle has been fully submerged in the aquatics community since she was 12 years old and comes to Alpha Aquatics with 7 years of coaching experience. She grew up in Culver City, CA where she played club and high school water polo as well as swam competitively. Her love for the water doesn't stop at the pool, in fact, Coach Michelle regularly competes in open water racing events and will be competing in the Dwight Crum Pier to Pier in August, 2022. Her coaching knowledge and abilities stretch across all ages and levels of development and include a strong emphasis in technique-based training and Ultra [Long] Race Pace Training as well. Coach Michelle's philosophy is that through consistent effort, hard work and stepping outside of one's comfort zone, there is no goal too big or too hard to achieve! She also believes that a competitive swim coach is not only responsible for teaching young athletes how to swim fast and reach their goals but most importantly to teach them valuable life skills that they can apply to their lives outside of the pool. She looks forward to continuing to learn and grow as a coach with Alpha Aquatics and to provide a fun, safe, positive and goal-oriented environment wherein she can make healthy impacts on all of her athletes.

Jay was a member of two NCAA championship teams at Stanford (1986,1987).  He was a three-time individual champion at the NCAA Championships, twice in the 100 Butterfly and once the 100 Backstroke.  He is the former American and World Record holder in the 100 Meter Backstroke (SCM), as well as the American Record holder in the 100 Yard Backstroke (SCY).  He was a gold medalist and set a world record at the 1988 Olympic Games, where he was the butterflier for the United States on the Men's 400 Medley Relay.

His coaching experience began as an assistant swim coach at Stanford University under coach Skip Kenney.  He has coached groups at the Palisades YMCA, Blast Sharks, Team Santa Monica, and for the last 3 years at Alpha Aquatics.

He has four children and lives in Pacific Palisades with his wife Karen.

Erik is from Tucson, Arizona where he started swimming at the age of 5 on his neighborhood swim team.  He began swimming year-round at age 9 with Ford Aqautics. Erik specialized in sprint freestyle, garnering multiple top state and sectional finishes. He then moved on to swim for the United States Air Force Academy and was named co-captain his senior year on the team. He graduated from USAFA in 2021 with a BS in biology and was commissioned into the US Space Force as an acquisitions officer. Erik is looking forward to helping grow the next generation of swimmers at Alpha!

Gabrielle was born and raised in Memphis, TN. She started swimming at age 4 to keep up with her older brother.  Despite breaking a National Age Group record for 11&12 Girls in the 50 and 100 breaststroke, Gabrielle’s swimming trajectory faltered through much of high school.  She credits her brother with inspiring her to stay in the sport and swim in college.  

Gabrielle is a two-time Olympian, representing Brazil in 1996 and the U.S. in 2000.  She was a 22-time All American at Stanford University where she contributed as a member of an American-record setting relay, scorer on the 1998 NCAA Championship team, and co-captain her senior year.  As a member of the USA National Team, she went on to swim professionally after college and proudly helped Irvine Novaquatics win a National Championship Team title while also earning the USA Swimming Kiphuth Award for high-point.   She credits Dave Salo of Novaquatics with showing her new possibilities of having fun and swimming fast as well as the power of coaching in partnership and believing in oneself.  

Gabrielle discovered leadership coaching while pursuing her MBA at Stanford.  She gladly draws on her passion for helping people and the extraordinary influence of her previous coaches in supporting Alpha athletes.  She delights in being in the water as a master's swimmer, and she is happy to see her daughter Annie also loving the sport as a member of Alpha.

Samantha Smith was born and raised in Culver City, CA. She started swimming at age 6 for a local club team and eventually joined Alpha as one of the original swimmers in 2014. In high school, she was a 4-time Varsity MVP and competed at CIF every year.

She returns to Alpha now as a coach after graduating from Loyola Marymount University with a degree in environmental science. Samantha swam for four years on LMU’s swim team as a sprint freestyler/backstroker and was selected as team captain in her final year.

Samantha started coaching and teaching swim lessons in high school and continued to do so throughout college. She has experience working with all age groups and most recently was the JV coach for Culver City High School.

She looks forward to working with silver/junior level swimmers and cultivating a fun environment for swimmers to work hard and grow!