The Badger Network

All Badger coaches are USA certified coaches, and they are encouraged to research best practices regarding technique, workouts, weight training and dry land training.

A tremendous asset to the program is the network of coaches John Collins has been able to interact with over the past 30+ years. Badger alumni are also a valuable asset to coaching education. Best practices from college, national, and international swimmers that have swum for Badger provide insight to how swimmers train at the next level. Coaches and swimmers alike learn from Badger’s past Olympians that occasionally come to each level of the team’s practices. These visits function as mini-clinics thus making the Badger coaching experience quite unique and a beneficial learning experience for all.

John H Collins Jr.

John Collins is one of America's most successful club coaches. Collins started coaching in 1970 at Rye YMCA which helped prepare him to take over the Badger Swim Club from his father in 1971. He is an All-American butterflier at Indiana University under the legendary coach, James "Doc" Counsilman. After Graduating from Indiana, he went on to graduate from Fordham Law School graduate in 1972. Collins has coached many world champions including Rick Carey (1983), Lea Loveless Maurer (1998), Tobie Smith (1998), Cristina Teuscher (2001), and Jenny Thompson (2003, 04) U.S. Olympic gold medalists include, Carey, Loveless, Teuscher, and Thompson.

Collins has been a U.S. National Team coach from 1984-2007, serving on numerous international trips with team USA including head coach in the1995 Pan American Games, head coach of the 1997 Pan Pacific Championships, head coach of the 2001 World Championships, and most recently, head coach of the 2007 World Championships in Perth, Australia.

Collins was named "coach of the year" by the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) in 1983 and is an inductee in the Metropolitan Swimming Hall of Fame, the Westchester County Sports Hall of Fame and in the ASCA Hall of Fame.

Kip Fierro

Head Age Group Coach Kip Fierro has been eating, sleeping and breathing Badger for forty years, first as an alumnus of John Collins and then as Badger Age Group Head Coach for over twenty-five years. He has been the Head Coach of the New Rochelle High School team for twelve years, was Head Coach at the New York Athletic Club for eighteen years and Head Coach at Coveleigh Club for three years. Kip has been coaching Top 16 nationally ranked swimmers for over twenty-five years. He has been the Age Group coach to numerous swimmers who have gone on to be World champions, Olympic champions, national champions and NCAA champions. He was two time Conference Coach of the Year and 2008 High School Coach of the Year. Kip himself was an All American Swimmer, National Qualifier, two time State High School Champion and Record Holder, and attended the University of Miami on a swimming scholarship. Having trained with world class swimmers and competed in countless regional and national competitions, Kip knows what it takes to rise to the challenge of competition and brings a wealth of knowledge of technique and competition to the Age Group program. “My goal is to motivate the kids, to inspire them to want to continue to be swimmers.”

Kaitlyn Ferguson

Assistant coach Kaitlyn Ferguson comes to Badger Swim Club with invaluable championship experience.  She is a two time US Olympic Trials Qualifier: qualifying for the 100 back in 2004 and the 100 and 200 back in 2008. While swimming for Penn State, Kaitlyn was part of the 2006 Big Ten Team Champions. She had perhaps her best season in 2008 where in addition to achieving two United States Olympic Trial cuts, she was a NCAA Championship Qualifier and awarded an NCAA Honorable Mention All American.

 

Kaitlyn began her coaching career in 2004 in the WCSC coaching for the Scarsdale Swim Club.  She continued coaching throughout college at the Penn State Swimming Sports Camp.  There she coached swimmers ages five to eighteen where she developed, coordinated and lead workouts that specialized in technique instruction.  Kaitlyn returned to Mamaroneck after graduating from college and took on high school coaching as a Mamaroneck HS assistant coach.

  

Dominic Galimi

Assistant Coach Dominic Galimi has been coaching the Badger Age Group team for ten years. He is also coach of the Bronxville Girls High School Swim Team, the Fordham Prep Boys Swim Team and Larchmont Yacht Club. He is a three time CHSAA Coach of the Year, two time Journal News Coach of the Year and Westchester County Swimming and Diving Conference Coach of the Year. Dominic competed in Westchester County for Leo Butler’s Gotham Aqua Kings. After swimming for Fordham Prep, he went on to compete for Lehigh University.

Adam King

Assistant Coach Adam King has been coaching the Badger Age Group team for the past nine years. He has also been the New Rochelle High School Assistant Coach for the past ten years. During the summer, Adam is the Head Coach at Coveleigh Club in Rye. In 2009, he led Coveleigh to a 3rd place finish at the County Championship and 3rd place finish in the Conference Championship.  Adam attended Mamaroneck High School and was a 4 year varsity swimmer. He also swam for Loyola College for four years where he was a member of an MAAC Championship team, as well as Team Captain in his Senior year.

Aaron Montgomery

Assistant coach Aaron Montgomery spent his swimming years split between the Eastern Queens and Flushing YMCAs.  Knee surgery in his freshman year and the termination of the University at Albany swim team ended his career prematurely; it also informally began his coaching career.  After finishing his BA in English and MA in Education, Aaron returned to the Flushing YMCA to begin his coaching career in 1994 where he coached their 11 & 12 program age group program.  After moving to Mamaroneck in 2002, he has worked with the Rye YMCA, Rye Golf Club and Larchmont Shore Club.  After being asked to coach the Mamaroneck HS swim team, Aaron and John met in 2004, and Aaron has considered John Collins an invaluable mentor since then.  He joined the Badger coaching staff in 2008. 

 

Aaron lives with his family in Mamaroneck and teaches 8th grade English at Hommocks Middle School.  During the summer, he is the aquatic director at Badger Sports Club.

Tim Tully

Assistant coach Tim Tully graduated from Boston College in 2006 as a three time BC Most Valuable Swimmer. Tim Tully returned home and started coaching the Badger Senior Team with Head coach John Collins.  Tim had a long career as a Badger swimmer, beginning at four years old and culminating with qualifying for Junior National in eight different events and qualifying for the US Open in the 200 fly and 400 IM.  In addition to working with John on the Senior Team, Tim is one of the most successful age group coaches in the WCSC and WCSA.  He was voted WCSC "Coach of the Year 2010" by his peers.  His summer work with Wykagyl's young swimmers has introduced a number of swimmers to the Badger Age Group Team.

Badger Swim School Staff

The Badger Swim School staff's core consists of educators. They are all career teachers that also share a passion for swimming.  They know the sport of swimming, and they all possess the means to communicate clearly and patiently to Badger's youngest members. They provide swimmers with the foundation of a lifelong career where swimmers learn to swim for safety, recreation or competition.