Swim Team Adds Three New Coaches
Abigail St. Jean and Caroline Surratt
T.C. has three new swim coaches that high expectations for the team this year.
The team has taken a breath of fresh air with an entire new swim staff this year. The new coaches have lots of goals and fun practice ideas to achieve these goals so that T.C. Swim can be the best it can possibly be. The coaches want to create a balance of fun and hard work to create a competitive team for people of all skill levels.
The new head coach, John Gullickson, was born in El Salvador and raised in Northern Virginia. He went to West Potomac High School. Currently, he is a coach for Potomac Marlins Swim Team and Mansion House, a summer swim team in Northern Virginia. He used to coach for Bishop Ireton High School. Gullickson enjoys coaching high school swimming, he says “it is the best of both worlds, you get to be competitive while having fun.”
Gullickson has very high hopes for T.C. Swim. His future goals for the team include a tri-city title, and a boys and girls regional title. He also hopes to produce an athlete of the month or year and have some athletes go to states, “This is going to be one heck of a season for you guys.”
Gulickson hopes that this year T.C. swim will “kickstart a new tradition” and create a new community. He hopes that each year the membership on the team will build in numbers.
Bethany Ellis will be a new assistant coach for T.C. Swim. Ellis was a swimmer in high school, where her best strokes were long distance freestyle and butterfly. She attended University of West Florida, then went to work with the Navy SEAL program in California on the Coast Guard base. Ellis was an assistant coach for a high school swim team there. Ellis has enjoyed working with Gullickson at Bishop Ireton and on the Belle Haven Country Club swim team where he is her assistant coach. Ellis said “My goals are to create a love and excitement for the sport in any of our new swimmers, but also to work to inspire a drive to improve for those who have been involved in the sport for a while.”
Courtney Horwat is also a new assistant coach for T.C. Swim. Horwat is currently a AP Psychology and Honors US History teacher at T.C. Horwat was a swimmer on her high school swim team at Robert E. Lee High School. This will be her first year coaching. T.C. Swim has a meet against Robert E. Lee and Horwat is very excited to compete against them. Horwat attended Ohio University where she majored in history.
She is most excited to encourage and help the T.C. team. Her favorite part of high school swim was the bus rides going to meets. Horwat is excited for the many bus rides to come.
All of the coaches encourage anybody who is curious about T.C. swim to come try out. They plan to accommodate for all skill levels.
