My name is Sam Kruzel. I have been swimming since I was 8 years old, and I swam through college. In my 14 years of swimming, I swam all year round, in the winter before the age of 14 I swam for the Elk Grove Stingrays and then later finished out with HWSA. In the summers I would swim for the Bloomingdale Park District or better known as the Bloomingdale Barracudas, and when I got into high school I would volunteer to help coach the 10 and unders. Once I got into college, I worked my way up from coaching aid to head coach for the Bloomingdale Barracudas. Also, during my college years, I was an assistant coach for Cardinal Aquatics during the winter in Naperville and during that time Coach Lauren was my boss as head coach! Speaking of college, I graduated in 2019 with a double major in Neuroscience and Psychology, and essentially started working full-time since then. I worked for Northwestern Medicine for little over a year and a half as a receptionist and currently work for Advanced Clinical as a clinical trial assistant.

As for my coaching style, I’m the type of coach that likes to pull the full potential of each swimmer. I tend to come off as the tough coach. The type of coach that will make sure that streamlines, underwater kicks/pull-outs (for breaststroke), and turns/open turns are cleaned up/perfected. But I am also the type of coach that can slow down and try to figure out how to fix/improve a swimmer’s stroke technique. My goal is to prevent injures, have the swimmers gain endurance, and become more efficient in their stroke so that they can just work on speed. I used to teach swim lessons so that taught me how to break down my own stroke and how to teach it to others. Additionally, it taught me how to teach each swimmer in their own way since each swimmer learns differently. In the end I am a guide and I hope the swimmer will take the knowledge I give them, apply it and swim (run) with it.

Coach Driscoll is the Carl Sandburg Girls Swim and Dive Head Coach. She has previously served as head coach of Andrew Girls Swimming and Diving for 8 seasons from 1998-2005.  During that time, her teams were 2 time SICA/SWSC Conference Champions, Sectional Champions in 2001, and finished 10th in State in 2002. She also coached the only State Swimming Champion in history of District 230 - Christine Magnuson - 2002 and 2003 State Champion 100 yard freestyle. Magnuson went on to win two Olympic silver medals at the 2008 Beijing Games. Coach Driscoll was also named ISA Sectional Swimming Coach of the Year in 2000, 2002, and 2003. She also spent 3 seasons as an assistant coach at Sandburg from 2017-19. Coach Donna has not only coached in her off season for POSA leading the high school group, she also was a member of the POSA Board and has had her 3 children compete on the team.

I’ve been swimming on POSA since I was 5 and have been on Sandburg’s swim team since freshman year. I love backstroke but the 500 freestyle is definitely my favorite event. I’m also on the waterpolo team at Sandburg and I’m excited to be a coach on the team I’ve been on for so long. 

I have been swimming on POSA since I was 7 years old. I grew up in the water and can’t imagine doing anything else.

I love being able to make an impact on the swimmers for the team I grew up on. I have been playing water polo and swimming for Sandburg since my freshman year.
My favorite events are the 50 and 100 free.

Swim has always been a huge part of my life, so I can’t wait to see what the season brings!

I’ve been swimming on POSA since I was 5 years old. I’ve been on the Sandburg swim and water polo team since freshman year. My favorite strokes are freestyle and backstroke and my favorite events are the 200 free and 500 free. I am very happy to be able to coach for POSA and I am looking forward to what this season holds for us.