Kirby has been involved with swimming in Marysville since moving here to take a teaching job at Cedarcrest School in 1991.  

His involvement with swimming started long before that as a swimmer for the Thurston Olympia Swim Club as a youth. 
He competed in the High School State Meet for North Thurston High School in 1978 with a top 6 finish.  He went on to swim at NCAA Division 3 Grinnell College in Iowa and was an All-Conference swimmer each of his 4 years.  He also earned the Doug Johnson Memorial Leadership Award, and was team captain, his final 2 years at Grinnell.  He formed and coached the Grinnell College Water Polo Team for 4 years. After Grinnell College Kirby went on to earn a Masters Degree of Science in Physical Education at the University of Florida.
Kirby began his swim coaching at Shoreline High School and later Garfield High School in Seattle.  He then became the Inaugural Head Coach of the Queen Anne Swim Club, also in Seattle, from 1986-1991.  He was a Zone All Star Coach for the PNS from 1988-1990.

After moving to Marysville Kirby became an assistant coach at Marysville-Pilchuck High School and became involved in USA Swimming with several programs for Junior High swimmers.  He became involved with the Marysville Marlins Swim Team from 1997-2002 and became the first Head Coach of the Mighty Marlins Swim Club, which formed from the school district sponsored team in 2002.  After many years of effort to start a Junior High Team one was formed in 2000 and Kirby became the first head coach, and coached until 2010, of the team affectionately known as the Hatchetfish. Kirby is very proud of the Mighty Marlins Swim Clubs success at providing opportunities for young individuals to learn the valuable skills of commitment, and dedication, to achieve goals, and of the positive effect the club has in the Marysville community.  Kirby has had the honor of coaching 4 age group swimmers ranked in the top 5 nationally, 4 Western Zone Champions, 5 Junior National qualifiers, 5 National qualifiers, and 2 Olympic Trials athletes! One of Kirby’s greatest joys is following the growing number of swimmers that are competing at the collegiate level.

Kirby continues to remain active in sports.  He has completed many Triathlons, including 2 Ironman Triathlons, and over 10 Marathons.  He also stays in good enough swimming shape to compete in relays when the team needs him.  Kirby looks forward to the Mighty Marlins Swim Club being a positive part of Marysville, and surrounding communities, for many years to come!

Josh began his competitive swimming in 1991 with the Lake Stevens Swim Club. While at the Lake Stevens Swim Club, he learned to swim, train hard, swim long distance and to set and accomplish goals. During high school, he swam for the Everett Park Sharks. While with Everett, Josh learned to fine tune his strokes, swim sprints, compete and evaluate his strokes. Josh attended Lake Stevens High School. While at Lake Stevens he focused on breaststroke and long distance freestyle events until he graduated in 1999. During his time swimming for Lake Stevens, Josh became a three-time letterman and part of a three-year undefeated streak in dual meets. They were also team district champs three years in a row! Also During his time in high school, Josh got his first coaching experience in 1997 as a volunteer assistant coach for the Lake Stevens Middle school teams.

Josh attended Central Washington University, earning a BS in Information Technology with minors in Human Resources, Personal Computer Applications and Coaching. As a Wildcat, he swam for Candy Eslinger and was a three-year letterman for the Central Washington University swim team from 1999-2002. Due to injury, he stepped back from swimming for a couple years and, finally, swam for Central Washington Swim Club and Ellensburg Area Swim Club from 2004-2006. During his time at Central Washington University, Josh also competed on the water polo team from 2004-2006. During the summers, Josh would coach the Everett Park Sharks from 2000 to 2005 and in the summer of 2000, he swam for Snohomish Valley Swim Club (SVSC).

After college, Josh coached the Mountlake Terrace Marlins from 2006 to 2007, the North Shore Riptides from 2007 to 2008, the Everett Parks Barracudas summer 2010, Storm Aquatics 2007 to 2010, and The Tigersharks Swim Club 2010 to 2012. Josh is currently working during the days for Snohomish County Treasurers Office as a Network Administrator and is an ASCA Level 2 swim coach with schooling finished through Level 4. In his spare time he enjoys swimming, cooking, traveling, fishing; playing: football, baseball, softball, golf, ultimate frisbee, water polo, and tennis; as well as watching football, baseball and movies with his wife Rachel.