Coach Charlie Kennedy, Elite Performance Coach
During Charlie’s 40 years as the Head Coach, the program has grown from 25 swimmers to over 275 swimmers. Charlie was inducted into the 2021 ASCA Hall of Fame. In 2019 Charlie was voted NCSA Coach of the Year. He was voted “Age Group Coach of the Year” by the American Swim Coaches Association and also “Age Group Coach of the Year” by Speedo. Within the Mid-Atlantic region, Charlie has been awarded "Senior Coach of the Year" and "Age Group Coach of the Year."
A nationally ranked swimmer at Suburban Swim Center and the University of Iowa, Charlie uses his first-hand experience to help swimmers meet the challenges of this demanding sport. His emphasis on proper technique permeates the entire program. Today, Charlie spends all of his time coaching our Elite swimmers within the Senior Gold group.
During the last 40 years, many of his swimmers have achieved numerous rankings and championships: High School Champions, Jr. National’s qualifiers and champions, Sr. National qualifiers and champions, U.S. Open champions, World Rankings, World Champions, Olympic Trials qualifiers, World record holders, and Olympics Champions. Charlie transitioned to Elite Performance Coach in 2022 working with our highest group of swimmers.
Tara Bolivar, Associate Head Coach
Tara grew up swimming in New England for Shawmut Aquatic Club based in Framingham, Massachusetts, Framingham South High School and Northeastern University. During her career she competed at a national level, was New England age group and senior level champion, and record holder, Bay State Games champion, and record holder and was a 4-time MIAA state champion, and state record holder. She was awarded to the Boston Herald high school all-scholastic team and Boston Globe high school all-scholastic team for the 4 years she competed for Framingham South High School. Attending Northeastern University, she competed as an Academic All-American and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Athletic Training.
Upon graduating from Northeastern, Tara became a Certified Athletic Trainer, working as an outreach Athletic Trainer at Upper Merion High School and various semi-professional sports teams in the Philadelphia area. Tara has been coaching at a USA swim club level for 20 years and prior to that time coached for a summer club in Massachusetts. In addition to coaching, Tara has been a swim instructor for all ages and ability levels for a variety of swim school facilities in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
Tara is responsible for programming and overseeing the staff of coaches. As of 2022, Coach Tara coaches across all groups and acts as Head Coach. The highest level of swimmers at our club have grown up with Tara as their coach and she is extremely proud of them.
Joanna Murphy, Executive Director, Coach
Joanna Murphy joined Suburban in 2019. Having swam for Coach Charlie in her younger years she returned "home" to work with the organization with her twenty years of experience in Non Profit Management and Accounting. Joanna was raised in a multi-generational family involved with swimming. She coached both summer and winter programs. Joanna works with the facility, board, coaches, swim team and programming to continue Suburban's mission of producing good swimmers and good people. Joanna is a graduate of Neumann University, Drexel University and the proud mother of 6 children. Joanna also coaches and teaches private lessons. In her spare time she can be found cheering for everyone!
Coaching Staff
Svetlana Panayotova
Svetlana has coached at the club level and high school level for the past 30 years. For the last 19 years she has coached at Suburban with a focus on the mini teams and younger swimmers.
She earned her Masters in Physical Education from The National Sport Academy of Bulgaria. While in Bulgaria, Svetlana earned many national titles, which qualified her for the “Master of the Sport” degree. She is also a coach at Saint Albans Swim and Tennis Club since 2000.
Anne Gavin
Coach Anne is a graduate of Princeton University and has 19 years of coaching experience. Anne is the Head Coach of Martins Damn in the summer and works with SSC swimmers throughout the winter. Coach Anne coaches our Senior Gold and Silver groups. Her expertise with our older swimmers is a driving force to their success in competition.
Andrew Austria
Andrew Austria is a proud alumnus of the Dover Dolphins YMCA. He has a Bachelor’s of Science in Sports Management. Andrew is our in-house Meet Director and focuses on running successful events. Coach Andrew is an Assistant Coach for the Academy of Notre Dame High School swim team. In his free time he can be found working at an insurance company or on the golf course.
Mira Klocek
Mira was born and raised in Austria and just recently moved to the United States. She comes from a family of 8 and spent most of her time growing up at the pool deck. Her parents run a swim team back in Austria, where Mira had been coaching from 2010 to 2019. What started as a high school summer job, grew into a true profession and soon, she had worked herself up to being the Head Coach of the age group swimmers. Her philosophy: Swimming is a school for life. During the day she is a passionate Early Childhood Education Teacher and, in the evening, you can find her on the SSC pool deck or spending time with her husband and son.
Nic Sardo
Nic began his swimming career at a young age and his fondest childhood memories are of swimming with his team. Aquatics instruction has been a passion his entire adult life. Nic expanded several summer aquatics programs including Concord Country Club and Broomalls' Lake holding the assistant coach and ultimately head coach positions. Nic moved on to Westtown School’s Aquatics department and helped lead the developmental swim program and served as the Summer Aquatic Director for Westtown’s summer camps.
As Head Coach for the Fitness & Wellness Aquatic Club, Nic worked with swimmers in every age group and worked towards the development of a new competitive swim program. While leading the ACAC Dolphins, Nic developed swimmers of all ages and worked passionately to fulfill the goals of his team and swimmers.
Nic is originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan and moved to Pennsylvania when he was 7. He has four sisters and a small legion of nieces and nephews that he makes an effort to visit when his schedule permits. He also has a dog named Geno. His coaching focus is to help swimmers improve technique and get faster while being a positive role model.
Hailey Stuart
David Schwarz
Ashley Suchecki
Coach Ashley has a passion for swimming and swam competitively for 14 years. Ashley was the Swim Team Captain for Gettysburg College and used her skills in the water to help drive her career in digital advertising.
Prior to joining the Suburban Seahawks Swim Club, Ashley spent 10 years at Comcast creating, developing, and managing sales teams as the Senior Director of Digital Advertising Sales. Ashley applied the skills, she had learned in the pool of discipline, perseverance and team comradery to help drive her career at Comcast. After having 4 children, she decided to turn back to the pool and focus on helping youth swimmers continue to develop and find their passion.
Ashley holds a BA in psychology from Gettysburg College, an MA in Communication from Villanova University and an Executive Leadership Degree from The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
Missy grew up in Delaware County swimming at Lansdowne Pool in the summers and at age 11 joined Suburban Seahawks. Soon to become a Charlie Kennedy favorite, Missy excelled quickly and earned a spot on the National Team. Missy went on to shine at West Virginia University, winning the 200 Butterfly as a freshman in the Big East Conference Championship Meet. Loved by all her teammates, Missy was team Captain her Senior Year and graduated with a BA in Communications.
After graduation, Missy worked in Corporate Recruiting and Human Resources, but she couldn’t resist returning to swimming as a full time coach. Missy is still involved with Lansdowne Pool during the summers, where she coaches and inspires all swimmers to have fun and enjoy the sport. Suburban was lucky to welcome back Missy in 2018 to coach. She is thrilled to be back on deck with Charlie and working with amazing co-workers. In her spare time Missy enjoys family time with her husband Brian, three boys Brady, Colten and Peyton, and their lovely daughter Blake.
