The Son of a Coach

I come into swimming naturally, through my mother Shana. Shana was a club swimmer back in Grinnell, IA where she excelled setting multiple age-group team, LSC and Grinnell High School records, competing at the Iowa State Championships all 4 years. She participated in the AAU/Junior National Olympics in 1985 setting a new National Record at the time as a member of the 400 yd Free Relay.

Shana went on to swim four years at the D1-level at the Univ of Northern Iowa. After college and as a new Middle School Special Education teacher, she began coaching the Middle School swim team and with the Omaha Suburban Aquatics Club under legendary coach Jack Jackson (who coached high-school teams to 21 state titles, 1984 Manager of the US Olympic Swim Team, and more). After OSAC, Shana coached for 8 more years with the Council Bluffs Swim Team and Head Coach Bruce Schomburg (the team I was and am on).

Jack was a coaching-mentor who encouraged Shana to become involved with the US Paralympic program where after years of working with physically-challenged world-class athletes, she was asked to join the team for the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece.

The experience with the USOC Paralympic Team got Shana connected with the US Olympic Swim Trials that were being held in Omaha for the first time in 2008. Shana was a Local Organizing Committee Chairperson and organized local junior swimmers as basket carriers for those first Trials, and has been part of every Trials meet held in Omaha since – 2012 and 2016, and will be the Assistant Meet Director of the 2020 Trials in July.

I attended those first trials in 2008 as a 5 year old, just a few weeks before my first competitive swim. I was a spectator again in 2012, was a basket-carrier in 2016 and will be again in 2020. Additionally, my sister Lauren has been involved since 2008 and will be the Chairperson of Doping Control during the 2020 Trials.

I have been brought up in a swim family and began competitive club swimming the same year I saw my first Olympian on the swim deck in Omaha. My driving goal since is to be competing in those 2024 Trials, in the city where I went to high school, with my mom on the deck as the Trials Meet Director.