Our Team
HEAD COACHING STAFF
BILL RIETZ- SENIOR HEAD COACH
Coach Bill has served as a DARTS coach since 1979. He has served on the Delaware Hayes Pacer coaching staff from 1980-2017. Coach swam 7 years for the Delaware Swim Club after his family moved to Delaware in 1969. He was a 4 year varsity letter winner for the Pacers and served as captain his senior season. A 1980 graduate of the University of Tennessee, Coach is a retired high school teacher from the Delaware City Schools who has continued his passion of sharing swimming with the Stingrays and Pacers. He is married to Kay Rietz - aka "Mrs. Coach".
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (740) 369-6015 home
Phone: (740) 972-4980 cell
KELLY MONTEE - JUNIOR HEAD COACH
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 740-972-5017
STEPHANIE FRISCH - HEAD DIVING COACH & ASST. SR. COACH
Diving Head Coach – Stephanie Frisch
Coach Stephanie (aka Dish) joined the Wesleyan Woods Aquatic Club/DARTS at age 8, when a swimming instructor promised to pass her in all swimming lessons. She competitively swam for DARTS and Delaware Hayes, earning 4 varsity letters and being named captain her senior year. In college she participated in synchronized swimming on the Miami University Marlins club team. Dish coached swimming and diving with DARTS and the Hayes Pacers for 10 years before moving to CT 1996. She returned to OH in May 2013, and hit the pool deck with DARTS and Riptide swimming and diving that spring, and with the Pacers and Barons diving team in the fall. She calls Delaware home where she lives with a feisty French Bulldog, Cami-Lou, and Jake, a grumpy-old-man-Labrador.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (203) 924-9852
COACHING STAFF - ROLE AND EXPERIENCE
Swimming Program: Seniors
Bill Rietz Senior Head Coach
1. 43 years coaching with DARTS
2. 37 years coaching Delaware Hayes High School
3. 12 years swimming - Somerville (NJ) YMCA, Delaware (OH) Swim Club, Delaware Hayes High School
Joe Cellar Senior Assistant Coach
1. 10 years coaching with DARTS
2. 4 years coaching Delaware Hayes High School
3. years swimming - Olentangy High School, DARTS, Ohio Wesleyan University
Stephanie Frisch Senior Assistant Coach
1. 8 years coaching with DARTS
2. 5 years coaching Delaware Riptide YMCA (DRY)
3. 12 years swimming Wesleyan Woods Aquatic Club (OH), DARTS , Delaware Hayes High School, Miami Marlins Synchronized Swim Club
Caitlin Lord Senior Assistant Coach
1. 3 years coaching DARTS
2. 2 years coaching Kennewick Sharks in Washington State
3. 12 years swimming Tri- City Channel Cats, Kamiakin High School in Washington State
Phoebe Lightfoot Senior Assistant Coach
1. 1 year coaching with DARTS
2. 4 years volunteer with club team
3. 12 years - club, high school, Ohio Wesleyan University
Swimming Program: Juniors
Kelly Montee Junior Head Coach
1. 14 years coaching with DARTS
2. 8 years coaching Delaware Hayes, 3 years with Powell YMCA
3. 13 years swimming DARTS, Worthington Swim Club, Worthington Wave, Olentangy High School, Saint Mary’s College Notre Dame, IN
Katie Gilliland Junior Assistant Coach
1. 19 years coaching with DARTS
2. 1 year coaching at the Marysville YMCA
3. 12 years swimming DARTS, Olentangy High School
Tiffany Vroegop Junior Assistant Coach
1. 2 years coaching with DARTS
2. 2 years coaching Delaware Hayes
3. years swimming Galion YMCA, Galion High School
Maddie Richardson Junior Assistant Coach
1. 1 year coaching with DARTS
2. 10 years swimming - DARTS, 4 years Delaware Hayes High School
Liz Abahazi Junior Assistant Coach
1. 1 year coaching with DARTS
2. 8 years swimming -DARTS, 4 years Delaware Hayes High School, 2 years Mount Union University
Diving Program:
Stephanie Frisch Head Coach
1. 18 years coaching with DARTS
2. 15 years coaching Delaware Hayes High School, 5 years-Buckeye Valley High School, Dempsey Middle School
3. 12 years swimming Wesleyan Woods Aquatic Club (OH), DARTS, Delaware Hayes High School, Miami Marlins Synchronized Swim Club
Erik Richards Assistant Coach
1. 4 years coaching with DARTS
2. NA
3. 4 years diving DARTS, Delaware Hayes High School
The inaugural season (1979) had two swim coaches (Cellar and Bill Rietz) and 1 diving coach(David Potts). The entire team was 57 athletes. There was 24 Juniors and 33 Seniors. The Junior team consisted of only 5 boys, one of which was 8 years old. Rietz handled the Juniors while Cellar worked with the Seniors. The weekly newsletter “The Waterlog” was created by Cellar who taught English at Hayes. He cranked out each edition on a typewriter on a ditto that was mimeographed on a machine in the Boy’s locker room store room. The first season saw the Juniors finish 1-4, the Seniors 2-2-1 (tied Mt. Air) with respective 7th and 8th place finishes at the GCSL Championship.
Over the years the program has grown in number of participants and team success. The following data point this out.
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1980 - Wesleyan Woods Aquatic Club (C.O.S.A. League member) combined with D.A.R.T.S. which effectively doubled the team size. By the late 1980’s the roster numbered between 180-200 athletes annually.
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In 2015, DART Stingrays Inc. was formed as a non-profit organization.
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All team operations are now overseen by a five member Board of Directors.
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In 2021, DARTS returned as a program under City of Delaware Parks and Recreation
Junior dual meet record 115-48-0
Senior dual meet record 129-35-3
(incomplete records for 1989 and 1990)
Juniors have had 16 undefeated dual meet seasons in 43 years in G.C.S.L. Seniors have had 15 undefeated seasons
Overall G.C.S.L. Team Champion 2009-2019
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Awarded to team with highest point total for Diving, Junior and Senior Swimming
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First awarded by G.C.S.L. in 2009.
G.C.S.L. Champions Juniors – 1982, 1985, 2009-13, 2015-18
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Seniors – 1987, 1988, 2004, 2011, 2013-2017, 2019, 2021
G.C.S.L. Runner – Up Juniors – 1984, 1987, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2014, 2019
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Seniors – 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1989, 2002, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012
G.C.S.L. 3rd place finish - Juniors 12 times
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Seniors 13 times
Head Coaches (oversee entire program and Senior swimmers)
T.K. Cellar | 1979-1982
Bill Rietz | 1983-1991
Tom Main | 1992 (finished season for Rietz)
Bill Rietz | 1993-2003
Dick Hawes | 2004 (finished season for Rietz)
Bill Rietz | 2005 to Present
Junior Head Coaches
Bill Rietz | 1979-1982
Julie Schupp Long | 1983-1984
Denise Guenther Hackett | 1985-1994
Angie Hillier Ullum | 1995-2001
Robert Schalmo | 2002
Denise Berry | 2003 to 2015
Jordan Nicol 2016
Kelly Montee 2017-present
Head Diving Coaches
David Potts | 1979
Kristen Cellar | 1980-1984
Helen Andersson | 1985-1995
Ben Teets | 1996-1997
Brian Book | 1998-2002
Robert Krichbaum | 2003-2005
Zach Kaple | 2006 & 2008
Becky Whitney | 2007
Christine Runkle | 2009
Erin Hanahan | 2010
Megan Savage | 2011-2012
Julie Jefferis | 2013 -2014
Stephanie Frisch | 2015 to Present
G.C.S.L. Hall of Fame Members
T.K. Cellar Class of 2005 & Bill Rietz Class of 2009