Colorado Dolphins Coaching Staff

Coach Duffy Dillon - Founder/Head Coach​
[email protected]

 

  • Olympic Coach in 2000 for Panama
  • International Gold Medalist, NCAA & American Record Holder, NCAA & USA National Champion
  • Holds an MBA in International Marketing and 2 Bachelor degrees (Accounting & Finance)
  • One of the world’s most prolific coaching educators having conducted over 30 clinics in over 20 countries to over 3000 coaches
  • Head Coach of the FFCHS Trojans Girls and Boys Swimming and Diving Teams

Coach Kristine Gabor-Burnett

Coach Kristine has been coaching for the Dolphins since 2019, first as a volunteer coach and now as one of the lead coaches for the Gold/Dolphin groups.  Prior to joining the Dolphins staff, she was a volunteer coach for a few different teams before committing to coaching full time at Pueblo West Swim Club where she worked for 5 years.  Coach Kristine swam competitively for fifteen years, attended the University of Utah for her B.A in Education and Colorado State University for her Masters in Special Education. She is married with one son Garret who swims for the Dolphins as well as on the Fountain Fort Carson high school team, one step-daughter, three cats and two Giant Mastiffs.  She is currently a high school teacher but has taught in the Prison System, inner city schools, and extensively with at-risk youth, and in psychiatric environments. She loves working with children of all ages and believes everyone should know how to swim.

Coach Lizzy Benov - Admin Coach, Safe Sport Coordinator

Coach Lizzy is originally from Cary, North Carolina. She swam competitively throughout middle school and high school for Raleigh Swimming Association, Marlins of Raleigh and Raleigh Charter High School, reaching state championship and sectional levels.  After high school she attended the United States Naval Academy where she was a member of the varsity swim and crew teams, graduating in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science degree.

Coach Lizzy has over 15 years of coaching experience, including 5 years at a swim school, giving her a strong foundation for teaching the fundamentals of swimming and correct stroke technique to young children.  She was an assistant age group coach for 5 years at the club level before she become a full time lead coach with the Marlins of Raleigh.  She also coached her neighborhood summer league team for 5 seasons, eventually working her way up to head coach.

Coach Lizzy joined the Colorado Dolphins staff in August 2021 and primarily coaches the Bronze and Silver groups.

Coach Tristan Riffe - Aerial Dolphins Diving Coach

Coach Riffe is very excited to bring his knowledge and experience to the new Aerial Dolphins program. He was a competitive diver for 6 years before becoming the Diving coach for Fountain Fort Carson High School. A few years ago the school was at risk of losing the diving program, so he volunteered to coach the team. He said "This sport is too amazing not to offer". The next year he was hired as the full time coach for both the men's and the women's teams.

Kiana Dungan - Dolphin Trainer

Coach Kiana is a Colorado native.  She is a student at FFCHS and a member of the women's swim team.  Although this is her first swim coaching position, she has experience coaching several other sports and has learned a great deal shadowing her mom who works in Early Childhood Education.  Coach Kiana says, " I look forward to using my experience with children combined with my love of swimming to make a difference in your children's lives. SWIM ON!!!"  She joined the Dolphins staff in April 2022.

Marissa Bolado - CDSA Instructor

Coach Marissa is originally from San Antonio, TX, but has also lived in North Carolina and Hawaii.  She was a competitive swimmer and soccer player growing up and still enjoys doing both in her free time.  She attended Texas Woman's University, majoring in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Adaptive Hydro Therapy as well as Texas A&M Corpus Christi, double majoring in Criminal Justice and Kinesiology.  She currently works for FFCHS and has two beautiful children, Kaleb who is a student at Fountain Middle School and Marisol who is a FFCHS graduate.  Coach Marissa has over 20 years of experience in aquatics as a lifeguard, swim instructor, swim team coach and aquatics director.  She is experienced and passionate about special needs lessons and adaptive aquatics.  She joined the Dolphins staff in March 2023.