Coaching Staff
Check out our JAC Coaching Staff!
Peter Barry - Head Coach Peter Barry began coaching in 1978. He served as Assistant Women's Coach for Columbia University from 1983-1986. Upon matriculating, from Columbia University, with a bachelor's degree in Architecture and Building and Development, he became Head Age Group at Morris Center YMCA, eventually becoming Head Coach from 1989-1993. In 1993, Peter took on the role as Junior Coach at the Somerset Hills YMCA, eventually becoming Director of Competitive Aquatics from 2001-2015. In 2012, he was named YMCA Coach of the Year, by his swimmers, parents and peers. In his tenure, he has coached Olympic Trial, USA Junior National, National qualifiers, and Junior Pan Pac's finalists, and YMCA National Champions.
Dave Kessel Dryland Coach (all ages) Age Group Coach 8th & 9th Grades Coach Dave's coaching highlights include training swimmers to NJ State Swimming records, YMCA and NAG top 16 swimmers, members on the US National Junior Team, USA National Team members, Olympic Trial qualifiers as well as being picked for a High Altitude Training Camp at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Dave has coached swimming in the NJ area for over 20 years and uses his experience on the pool deck to train athletes in the weight room, as well as in the pool. Dave’s goal is to give swimmers the competitive advantage by tapping into what makes them “an athlete who swims, rather than just a swimmer”.
Walter Mager Age Group Coach (Grades 6th & 7th) Bio Coming Soon...
Dan Dougher Coach (age groups: 13/over)
Coach Dan truly has a love and passion for the sport of swimming. He began swimming when he was 8 years old and continued to swim through college at TCNJ, where he attained both Academic and Athletic All-American Honors. The foundation of sound technique has anchored Dan throughout his career, which has included coaching at the renowned North Baltimore Aquatic Club and Johns Hopkins University. His athletes have gone on to numerous athletic achievements, including both the Olympics and Paralympics. Dan has coached many athletes to Top 100, Top 50, Top 20, Top 10, as well as #1 NAG times. During his career, Dan has become an ASCA Level 3 coach, with his athletes qualifying for State Champs, Zones, Sectionals, Futures, Junior Nationals and Olympic Trials.
In 2022 and 2023, Dan was recognized by ASCA as one of the 50 Best Age Group Coaches in the US. He is also a recipient of the Order of Ikkos, an award bestowed upon the coach of a US medal winner at the Olympics or Paralympics. Coach Dan lives in Summit with his wife, Carolina, and his two boys, Luke and Logan. They can often be found at Magic Fountain getting ice cream.
Carolina Dougher Coach (age groups: 12/under)
Coach Carolina, an ASCA Level 3 coach, has been coaching competitively for 18 years. She started the Princeton Tigers Aquatics Club in 2007. During her time at PTAC, the team grew significantly from 20 to over 200 swimmers. Coach Carolina's primary groups were the 12 and under where she coached countless NJ Gold States qualifiers as well as the North East Zone finalists. Coach Carolina also assisted the 13 and over groups which had multiple finalists at the North East Zone and Sectionals. Carolina was part of the coaching staff for the NJ All Star Team at the North Eastern Zone Championships from 2018 to 2022.
In 2021 Coach Carolina joined Life Time Metro, Princeton. During her time there she repeated the success at PTAC by having multiple NJ Gold States qualifiers as well as the North East Zone finalists and again assisting with the 13 and over swimmers which included multiple Sectionals Qualifiers.
Now in 2025 Coach Carolina joins the JERSEY AQUATIC CLUB. Her focus has always been to teach proper technique while providing a safe and positive environment for her swimmers that allows them to reach their maximum potential and help them grow as individuals. She has great skills in evaluating and monitoring the development of young swimmers.
Coach Carolina swam competitively for 15 years at the Santa Cecilia University in Brazil. As a Junior in high school she qualified for Winter and Summer Nationals. She has multiple Junior Nationals medals and was also a National Swimming Team qualifier.
Coach Carolina immigrated to the United States in 2005 to continue her education. She is fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish. She lives in Summit with her husband Dan and sons Logan and Luke and they all share a love for ice cream.
Marlene Curtis Assistant Coach (age groups: 11/12s and 13/over) Coach Marlene has more than 25 years of experience coaching atheletes of all ages. She is an ASCA Level II Coach and has been selected as a NJS All Star Zone Coach. Outside of JAC, Marlene is head coach at The Kent Place School and during the summer is head coach and pool director at Echo Lake Country Club. She is a Professor in the Health and Human Performance Department at Kean University. Marlene serves on the NJ Swimming Board of Directors as the Registration Chair and Safe Sport Chair. Marlene is also our in-house lifeguard certification trainer and Omega guru!
Sam began his swimming career in NJ at age 7 and continued through the collegiate level as a member of the University of Tennessee team, specializing in distance freestyle events. Sam is an experienced swim coach with a background in both age group and collegiate-level coaching. He served as an Assistant Age Group Coach at Berkeley Aquatic Club in New Jersey, where he also previously held roles as Assistant Senior Team Coach and Assistant Director of the Berkeley Swim School. Sam was an Assistant Men’s and Women’s Swim Coach at New York University, supporting training, recruitment, and competition planning. He began his coaching career as a swim coach at Park City High School in Utah. Sam brings a passion for athlete development and a deep understanding of competitive swimming to every role.Laura Riddell Assistant Coach (age groups: 13/over) Swim Tutor Coach
Coach Laura started her swimming career at the Berkeley Swim Club. She joined Berkeley Aquatic Club as an 8-year-old and swam for Jim Wood. In High School Laura swam for Hank Buntin at the Summit YMCA. She started coaching during summer break in HS at Crestview swim club where she was both a swim and dive coach. She attended and swam for Lehigh University. After college she took a part time job to work as the 8/under coach for SAY. Over her 30-year career there she was an assistant coach, the assistant head coach and ultimately in 2009 she became the Head Coach. She retired from SAY in 2019 having coached over 100 YMCA National athletes. Many of her favorite memories include attending travel meets to both Y Nationals and Sunkissed Invite and the 2016 Olympic Trials. Four years later she missed the swimmers, so in 2023 she joined the JAC coaching staff. She currently helps at JAC with the Senior age group but loves to also help the younger swimmers when she can! If you want to get on her good side, just ask her about her grandson Anthony!
Stephanie Judge Coach (Ages 12/under) Swim Tutor Coach Coach Steph is co-head coach of our 10 and younger atheletes and assists with our older atheletes. Coach Steph began her swimming career at Scotch Plains Fanwood High School and the Jersey Gators. Steph continued on to swim for University of Mass. Amherst. Coach Steph also currently serves as assistant coach at The Kent Place school and Kean University.
Patrick Savidge Coach (age groups:10/under) Coach Pat is one of our two 10 and under age group head coaches. Outside of JAC, coach Pat can be found teaching math at The Delbarton School, as well as serving as head varsity swim coach. In his free time coach Pat enjoys living an active lifestyle including competing in Ironman Traithlons. Coach Pat graduated from University of Delaware with a degree in mathematics and competed on the swim team.
Aytug Akar Head Coach Stingrays Swim Tutor Coach
Aytug’s list of credentials and accomplishments are lengthy! Prepare to be impressed. When not crushing his personal goals he runs flexibility classes for our older swimmers and is the lead coach for our Stingrays. Here’s his bio. Mic drop!
-Federation Francaise De Triathlon Brevet Federal Niveau 4 (BF4)( 30 June 2023 )
-World Triathlon Level 2 Coach
-World Triathlon Level 2 Technical Official/Ass.Technical Delegate
-Turkish National Coach (European Triathlon Youth Festival La Baule France 2022)
-Head Coach Europe Triathlon Development Camp (2021 Alanya/Türkiye)
-DEJEPS Perfectionnement Sportif - Triathlon (2017)
-Attended Pearson BTEC Level 3 Certificate in PERSONAL TRAINING (QFC) (2014)
-Attended in Turkish Swimming Federation Improvement Seminar (2013)
(Jon URBANCHEK, Keenan ROBINSON, Dimitry MANCEVIC, Miha ROBNIK, Bob BOWMAN, Genadojus SOKOLOVAS)
-TTF (Turkish Triathlon Federation) Level 2 Triathlon Coach (2011)
-TSF (Turkish Swimming Federation) Level 2 Swimming Coach (1999)
"Scuba" Steve Husch Power-Velocity Trainer Coach "Scuba" Steve is our Power and Velocity Trainer. You will find him next to "Steve's power towers" on deck! He works with our older athletes in small groups focusing on their technique and power. Coach Steve began his swimming career at the Westfield YMCA, Cougar Aquatic Team, and Westfield High School, before continuing on to swim for Indiana University, where he specialized in breaststroke. While at Indiana, he majored in exercise science and was a research assistant for The Counsilman Center for The Science of Swimming for 4 years. The Counsilman Center has provided the swimming community with valuable research to advance the sport of competitive swimming.
Sylent Crawford Assistant Coach Swim Tutor Coach
Bio coming soon...
Coach Vlad began his coaching career after graduating from the Physical Culture and Sport University in Kiev – capital of Ukraine in 1981.
Vlad served as the age group coach for a variety of swim schools in East Ukraine and his swimmers became champions at the national age group level. His swimmers also represented the Ukranian National Team in international competitions at prestigious meets like the European Junior Swimming Championships.
From 1991, Vlad coached at the National Swim Center in Donetsk, Ukraine. Swimmers from this center went on to compete at the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain in 1992 and in Atlanta, GA (USA) in 1996. Vlad also served as the Head Coach for United Arab Emirates National Swim Team and as a coach-consultant for many teams across Asia and the Middle East.
Vlad’s coaching career in the United States:
1999-2002 Age Group Coach, Raritan Valley YMCA, East Brunswick, NJ.
2002-2004 Coach, X-Cel Swimming, Princeton, NJ.
2004-2010 Head Coach, Clifton Boys and Girls Club, Clifton, NJ.
2012-2023 Director Competitive Swim Team, Wayne YMCA, Wayne, NJ.
Many of Vlad’s swimmers have won medals at Eastern Zones Championships, NJ Junior Olympics, State YMCA Championships, National YMCA Championships, and Boys and Girls Club Nationals. He has coached swimmers who were in the top 10 of age groups swimmers in the country. Some of these swimmers then qualified for Junior and Senior National Championships. More than 20 of Vlad’s former swimmers are continuing his legacy by coaching at teams throughout New Jersey.
Coach Vlad is member of American Swimming Coaches Association and has Level 4 USA and Level 5 International Coach certifications.
