Jason Walter was named Lakeside Aquatic Club’s Head Coach in February of 2011 after a successful 4-year tenure as LAC's Head Age Group Coach, leading the team to consecutive Top 6 finishes at TAGS.  Coach Jason started with LAC in the spring of 2007 and has been an integral part of the club's success over the last 12 years.  During Coach Jason's tenure as Head Coach of Lakeside, he has led the team twice to a Gold Medal team in USA Swimming's Club Excellence Program (2017 & 2018).  LAC has also almost tripled in size, under Coach Jason's leadership, as well as becoming one of the top Age Group and Senior Programs in the State of Texas.

Coach Jason is currently coaching the National group at our Keller facility.  Under Coach Jason, LAC has had more success at both the local, state, and National levels than ever before.  In the past six years, Coach Jason’s swimmers have achieved over 25 college signings, 2014-2018 years with a swimmer on the USA Swimming National Junior Team, Junior National champions, Texas High School State Champions and many USA Swimming National Top 10 swims, and have set multiple teams, LSC, state, and Junior National records.  

Coach Jason has been involved in the sport of swimming for over 30 years as a coach and athlete.  Coach Jason’s swimming career credits include High School State Champion in the 200 Free Relay, placing in the 50 free at State Championships, and attending Junior Nationals. Jason holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Communication Studies from UT Austin and currently lives in Fort Worth with his wife Darcy and children Anna, Colin, and Nora.

A five-time Age Group Coach of the Year, Thomas (Tom) Cyprus brings over 25 years of club coaching experience and competitive excellence to LAC.  He is the National Team coach Site Supervisor at the Westside Aquatic Center (WAC) and Associate Head Coach

Prior to LAC, Tom was Head Coach at Charger Aquatics in New Mexico for 12 years where he led the team to be the first in New Mexico to achieve a Virtual Club Championship in the top 100 and also have multiple seasons as a USA Swimming Club Excellence Team. 

Prior to his tenure at Charger Aquatics, Tom was with City of Plano Swimmers, Inc. (COPS), where he spent one year as an assistant coach and 10 years as Head Age Group Coach. Tom is a Level-5 ASCA certified coach who has produced seven National Champions and over 200 Top-16/Top 10-time qualifiers. Prior to working with COPS, Tom also coached with USA teams in Ft. Worth, El Paso, and Austin. 

Tom began his swimming career at the age of 5 in El Paso, TX, and has now been involved with the sport for over 50 years.  His first coaching job was at the age of 16 during the summer of 1982.  He is a graduate of Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, and enjoys all outdoor sports, especially swimming and golf. Tom also taught high school math for seven years prior to making club swimming his full-time occupation.

He is married to Tawni Cyprus and has two daughters, Laurel and Chandler.

Chrissy Gentry brings a wealth of experience in age group swimming and coaching, and we are excited to have her at LAC.  She has most recently been coaching in High Point, North Carolina from 2006-to 2015, where she was the Head Age Group Coach at High Point Swim Club (HPSC).  While at HPSC, she mentored a variety of swimmers, from those involved in the Learn-To-Swim program to Age Group Sectional Finalists.  While in North Carolina, she served on the Local Swimming Committee Board as well as coaching many camps and zone championship teams.

Prior to HPSC, Chrissy spent two years as the Aquatics Director and Head Coach at the American School in Japan.  She graduated from Williams College in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.  At Williams, she earned four All-American Honors awards in swimming and was a member of the NCAA Division III Champion rowing team in 2002. 

Steve Mateer joined LAC in the fall of 2013, running the Age Group program in The Colony.  He brings to LAC over 30 years of coaching success at all levels of swimming.

Most recently, Steve was at COPS (City of Plano Swimmers) where he served in a variety of roles for 20 years including Head Coach and Head Age Group Coach.  As Head Age Group Coach, his swimmers won TAGS four times.  Coach Steve’s swimmers have been Junior National champions, Senior National finalists, and over 60 of his swimmers have achieved Top 16 or better national rankings in a variety of events.

Steve’s personal coaching accolades include being named Texas Age Group Coach twice, North Texas Age Group Coach of the Year four times, and also awarded Texas Senior Coach of the Year, USA Swimming Coach of Excellence (3 times) and coaching for USA at the 2010 Junior Pan Pacific meet in Hawaii.

Raised by competitive swimmers, Steve began competitive swimming at six, and continued on through his years at the University of Missouri. 

Bill Christensen joined LAC in the spring of 2018, leading senior-level practice groups at Keller.  He brings to LAC over 30 years of coaching success at all levels of swimming.

Most recently, Bill was at NTN (North Texas Nadadores) where he was Head Coach for 15 years. Coach Bill’s swimmers have been Junior National champions, Senior National finalists, and 5 Junior National team members, and over 50 of his swimmers have achieved Top 16 or better national rankings in a variety of events.

Bill’s personal coaching accolades include being named National Junior Team Camp Assistant Coach twice, and also twice awarded North Texas Coach of the Year, and was awarded the USA Swimming Coach of Excellence award in 2014.

Coach Bill was a former, average swimmer in Boise, Idaho, and the University of Oregon.  He is married with one son, two granddaughters, and 12 chickens that produce farm-fresh eggs! 

Coach Jeff comes to LAC with over 20 years of coaching experience. He has coached developmental athletes all the way up to Olympic trial qualifiers. As an Age group coach, Head Age group coach, Senior Assistant coach, and Head Coach, he has coached with some of the top club programs in USA Swimming, providing him with tremendous experience, knowledge, and expertise in helping young athletes develop as people and elite athletes.

Over the last 20+ years, Coach Jeff has served as the Senior Assistant Coach at the Bolles School Sharks in Jacksonville, Florida, Head Coach of The Columbus Aquatic Club, Head Coach and Director of Elite Swimming of the TAC Titans, Head Age Group Coach of New Wave Swim Team and Greenville Swim Club and Head Coach/Site Director for Chattahoochee Gold Swim Club that contributed to 30+ Individual State Champions, 5 Florida High School State Championships, 40+ NISCA, and Scholastic All Americans, Open Water National Championship qualifiers, Junior National Team Champions, National Junior Team qualifiers, National Team qualifiers and Olympic Trial qualifiers.

Coach Jeff is married to Beth for 23 years and they have three boys, Joshua (21), Jacob (17), and Jordan (15) along with their two dogs (Raleigh and Lulu and cat (Emma).

Coach Sarah grew up swimming in Tulsa, Oklahoma for local YMCA and summer league teams. She represented her high school team (100 fly, 200 IM) and then went on to swim for Hendrix College (200 Fly, 400 IM) one term before transferring to the University of Dallas.

In 1997, Sarah began coaching in North Texas and she has coached for Irving Swimmers, NTAC, NTN. She began to focus on developing swimmers early in her coaching career and built a successful Swim School for NTN.

Sarah joined LAC in 2010 to build and refine a developmental program to feed their successful club program. She is responsible for finding and training talented coaches and creating a large and successful swim school. Sarah is passionate about teaching children to swim and, as a homeschool mother of three, rates water safety at the highest level of importance.

Coach Sarah holds a degree in Classics from the University of Dallas.

Coach Jeff is excited to join LAC after spending the last 14 years of his career with Rose Bowl Aquatics in Pasadena California. While with the Rose Bowl Jeff coached many age group top 10 swimmers, Futures finalists, Junior National winners, and National finalists (he admittedly got lucky with one of those as the head coach’s son was a pretty good swimmer).

Jeff has been coaching for almost 30 years, which continues to surprise him, as he is fairly sure he isn’t that old. He is an ASCA level 4 coach. During his career he has helped bring two smaller clubs into the top 70 nationally, helped his teams win Sectionals and Junior Nationals, had more than 25 swimmers on the top 10 list, and most importantly helped young swimmers learn more about who they are and how they work.

While growing up in England, Jeff’s parents forced him to swim, which he did not enjoy at all. His family moved to California and then to New York, where he swam with Steve Lochte and it was there that he grew to love the sport and all it had to offer. Coach Jeff ended up at the University of Michigan and studied molecular genetics and literature, has done research with Astra and taught math. In his spare time he loves snowboarding and wandering in the mountains.

Frank comes to Lakeside from Houston, TX where he was the Head Age Group Coach of Eagle Swimming Association. Originally from Niskayuna, NY, Frank was named the Adirondack Swimming Male Scholar Athlete in 2009. Swimming collegiately at Eastern Michigan University, he competed in the distance events and was part of the MAC Conference Champions team of 2012 & 2013. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.B.A. in Finance & Human Resource Management.

While at ESA Frank guided them to a 7th place finish at TAGS where ESA was the recipient of the Horizon Award (Most improved team from one TAGS to another). Between 2019-2022 Frank has had multiple athletes finish in the top 10 and top 20 in the country, a relay go number 1 in the country and dozens of team records broken. Prior to his time at ESA Frank was the Associate Head Coach of the Piranhas Swim Club and Head Girls Coach for Pleasant Valley High School.

Frank began his coaching career by serving six years on staff at the Michigan Swim Camp at the University of Michigan. Frank’s first coaching stint was with Club Wolverine in Ann Arbor MI. While with Club Wolverine, he also coached with Michigan’s All-American Swim Camps from 2013 – 2017. And if that didn’t make him busy enough, Frank also coached two local high school teams during his time in Ann Arbor.

Under Frank’s tutelage, his athletes have qualified for both NCSA’s and Winter Juniors. Both club and high school athletes have obtained numerous team records and several of his high school athletes have gone on to qualify and final for their respective State Championships. Frank has guided many athletes (high school & club) on to compete collegiately at all levels (Division I, II & III).

Frank will be a certified ASCA level 3 coach shortly!
 

Andrew joined Lakeside Aquatic Club in the spring of 2019 as the Head Age Group coach for The Colony. He now coaches the National Prep and Senior group at TC. Prior to joining LAC, Andrew served as the graduate assistant coach for the Ithaca College swim team, where he also attended graduate school for Sport Psychology.  

Before his time at Ithaca College, Andrew worked in Chicago as an Assistant Senior Coach with NASA Wildcat Aquatics. While in Chicago, Andrew also volunteers to assist the Northwestern University, swim team. 

Prior to Chicago, Andrew was an Age Group Coach for Club Mountaineer Aquatics from 2012-to 2016.  Andrew completed his undergraduate studies at West Virginia University, where he graduated with a degree in Athletic Coaching Education and a minor in Sport and Exercise Psychology. As a swimmer at West Virginia, he set the Big XII record in the 100 backstroke, qualified for NCAAs twice, and qualified for Olympic Trials.

While at LAC, Andrew has coached multiple LAC record holders as well as TAGs champions. Most recently, he was named an ASCA 2021 Finalist for Age Group Coach of the Year.

Beth has been involved in swimming her entire life. She has been coaching age group athletes of all abilities for the last 15 years. Her love for the sport started when she was first introduced to the water through swim lessons at age 3. She swam throughout her childhood as a competitive swimmer and as a collegiate athlete. Since then, she had been involved in swimming as a teacher and coach. She is a First Grade Teacher and a mom of three boys.

Coach Bailey is currently a college student working toward her degree in education. She swam competitively for many years including all throughout high school. Bailey swam on LAC for 6 years and now continues to swim on the Master's team. She enjoys working with athletes of all ages, teaching them skills they can use their entire lives.

When not at the pool, Bailey can be found reading, spending time with her family or finding new restaurants to try with her friends! 

Coach Chelsie grew up swimming in Fair Oaks, CA where she also developed a love for coaching at the age of 16. After 12 seasons with that team she and her family moved to Oregon where she was the Head Coach for St Helens High School for 6 years. During that time she was Coach of the Year twice, got the district to create the first middle school swim team in Oregon, and created and ran two summer youth swim camps to bring attention to competitive swimming. She is ASCA level 5 certified and loves to grow and learn as a coach. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Education from California State University, Sacramento. Coach Chelsie and her husband Tim have two daughters, Gracie and Charlotte.

Julie began swimming competitively at the age of 4 in her hometown Baton Rouge, LA. Since then, her love for the sport has only grown, with a soft spot for any event breaststroke. She began teaching swim lessons in 2018 and has continued throughout her career. When she is not at the pool, Julie enjoys spending time with family and friends, hanging out with her two dogs, or working on her many art projects.

Julie is currently a college student working toward a degree in psychology. She hopes to one day own her own neuropsychology practice.

Leslie started swimming at the age of 8 with the City of Plano swim team.  She competed with them until moving to Denver, Colorado at age 13.  She was part of the 5A varsity team at Cherry Creek High School in Englewood, CO, which won state 3 of the 4 years she competed.  In addition, she swam with the Denver Hilltoppers, a year-round team out of the University of Denver. There she competed in meets up to Sectionals, mainly in Breaststroke and IM events.  She went on to swim Division 1 in her 4 years at Centenary College of Louisiana in Shreveport. There she holds 6 top 10 school times in individual events, as well as being part of 3 top 5 school relay teams. She graduated from Centenary with a BA in Psychology and a minor in Physics in 2010.

Leslie has since been teaching various levels of swimming around the Shreveport and Plano areas. These include a summer league team in Shreveport, as well as teaching at Emler Swim School in Plano and Frisco, teaching lessons, and coaching the Masters' team at Lifetime Fitness in Plano.

Leslie lives in Plano and she still enjoys swimming with a Masters swim program 3-4 times a week, as well as competing in the area.

Jay began swimming when he was 6 years old and retired from competition at the age of 22.  His successful career included competing in the China Olympic Swimming Trials in both 2000 and 2004, as well as being ranked top 8 in China in the 1500 meter freestyle (1999) and in the 4x200 meter freestyle relay (2001 and 2005).  In 2010, Jay began his coaching career where he trained 8-14 year old kids on a swim team in China that repeatedly had top 3 finishes in Shanghai area swim meets.

When Jay is not at the pool, he enjoys scuba diving or spending time with his wife (also a swim coach) and their two girls.  One of these days, he plans to learn how to ski and surf.

Connor returns to LAC after graduating from Western Illinois University in May 2020 where he received his Bachelor of Business in Marketing. While at WIU, he swam all four years and was the team captain during his senior season. 

Connor was a Winter Nationals qualifier while swimming at LAC and is very excited to be back with his former team, sharing his wealth of knowledge for the sport. He has been involved with swimming since age 11 and has most recently been the Head Coach for the City of Lewisville Summer League Team. Since rejoining LAC, Connor has spent time working with all groups from our lessons program up to our National Prep group

Kara started competitively swimming at the age of 7 and joined LAC when they moved to Texas in 2004. Kara had a great swimming career with LAC and competed at Junior Nationals in both Knoxville, TN in 2012 and Irvine, CA in 2013. She also swam for Marcus High School her freshman year and was named Rookie of the Year. She continued her swimming career at the University of Wyoming where she was a finalist at the Mountain West Conference in 2017. She graduated from the University of Wyoming in 2018 with her bachelor’s in Nutrition.

Coach Jasmine is originally from Morgantown, WV, where she also first began her coaching career. She graduated from West Virginia University in 2017 with a degree in Sport and Exercise Psychology and Athletic Coaching Education. She then moved to Ithaca, NY, where she obtained a master's degree in Exercise Science and Sport Psychology. During her time at Ithaca, Jasmine also worked as a mental training coach for the Ithaca College swimming and diving team and led a research study on influential coaching in swimming. Upon graduation, she spent a year working with tactical athletes in Killeen, TX, where she had the opportunity to coach swimmers competing in the Army Warrior Games.

Jasmine is currently completing a second master's degree in Counseling and Rehabilitation. When she isn't doing homework she enjoys using her spare time to train for triathlons, reading a good book, or working on an art project!  

Michelle moved to Keller in 2019, from the greater Houston area, where she spent the last couple of years as the Swim Team Administrator for the South Shore Sails Swim Team. She was born and raised in Denmark, but moved to the US in 2006 after meeting her husband in Uganda. Michelle has a degree in Human Resource Management from Texas A&M and is currently finishing up her MBA. 

She lives with her husband Ben and her daughters Bella and Kaja. Michelle enjoys traveling and spending time with her family.