Lauren M Hancock
Head Coach
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Lauren Hancock is beginning her fifth year at Conejo Simi Swim
Club. Her previous role as Head Age Group Coach allowed her
to work with CSSC's future Senior athletes and her successes
include coaching numerous JO finalists and champions, many SCS Top
16 swimmers, multiple Sectional and Junior National finalists,
National qualifiers, an Olympic Trials qualifer, and numerous team
record holders. She has also helped athletes reach the National
Diversity Select Camp and Western Zone Select Camp. She has
served on All Star staffs and was an assistant coach at the 2012
Western Zone Select Camp. As Head Coach Lauren works with
CSSC's advanced age group swimmers as well as the Senior I
athletes.
Upon finishing a successful swimming
career at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials, and a graduate of Duke
University, Hancock trained with former Head Coach Gardner Howland
for three years while completing her Master’s degree in
sports psychology at the University of Tennessee. A native of
South Carolina, Lauren was named high school swimmer of the year in
her home state, and achieved Academic All-American status.
She has competed at multiple Junior and U.S. National meets.
While at Duke, Hancock was a school record holder and was elected
team captain for her senior year. Additionally, Lauren was named to
the Academic All-ACC squad. She served as an assistant coach for
the Blue Devils after graduation, and has also worked successfully
as both a club and high school coach. A true student of the sport,
Lauren Hancock brings an excellent understanding of all aspects of
swimming and an outstanding work ethic to Conejo Simi Swim Club.
Kacy Vig Ota
Head Age Group Coach
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Kacy Ota is beginning his 3rd year
as Head Age Group at CSSC. He has helped swimmers qualify for
various Championship Meets, has lead the VCSC Summer League teams,
and has provided excellent leadership and brings a wealth of
experience in coaching to all of CSSC's groups. Kacy will
work with Green, White, and Blue Groups at the Rancho-Simi Site
this next season.
Coach Kacy is a Certified Level 3
Age Group Coach, a Certified Stroke Technician, and also coaches
the Grace Brethren High School Swim Team here in Simi Valley.
Kacy came to CSSC after spending 9
years with Raisin Country Aquatics (recently merged
with the Tule Nation Tritons) as an assistant age-group coach, head
age-group coach, and as head coach. Kacy has helped swimmers
qualify for Western Zones and Far Westerns, and in 2006 he was
named Central California's Age-Group
Coach of the Year. He spent 6 years as Head
Coach of both Selma High School Swim team and Selma Aqua
Bears, a summer recreational swim team. Kacy has also served
as Athlete Representative for Central California for two years and
was the 2010 Age-Group Vice-Chair for Central California Swimming
and Vice-President for Central Valley Recreational League.
Kacy swam for his father, Gary
Ota, on Raisin Country Aquatics and began his coaching career at
age 18. His coaches and mentors have been his father, who has
developed world ranked swimmers during his tenure, and Dr. Phil
Black, who coached a swimmer that later became NCAA Division I
champion in the 100 Backstroke
in 2009. He graduated from CSU Fresno in 2008 with a BA in Mass
Communications and Journalism with an emphasis in Electronic Media
Productions and Television.
Jen (Palmberg) Ota
Red & Blue (CLU); White (Rancho)
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Jen Palmberg is returning for her 2nd year as Head Site Coach at
California Lutheran University (CLU). Jen will be heading both the
Red and Blue Groups at the CLU site, and will also be working with
the Green and White groups at the Rancho-Simi Site.
Jen swam for CSSC (CSA at the time) and graduated from Royal
High School in 2001. Jen's prior coaching
experience includes 6 years of coaching at Clovis Swim Club (near
Fresno) where she attended school and competed on the NCAA Division
1 swim team at California State University,
Fresno. Jen has coached Clovis Swim Club's
Stroke Team, has taught at a Swim America Swim School, and has
worked with Clovis Swim Club's age groupers where she helped
develop a nationally ranked 8 and under athlete.
Jen truly understands age-group development coaching, from
learn-to-swim to advanced 12 and under training, and she absolutely
loves swimming and kids.
Nick Conrad
Senior Assistant, Senior II Coach
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Nick Conrad is beginning his first year with Conejo Simi Swim
Club and will take on roles as Senior Assistant to the Senior
I/National group and Head Senior II Coach.
Nick is from Olney, Maryland and for the last 3 years has been
an Assistant Coach of Rockville-Montgomery Swim Club's National
Training Group. At RMSC Nick helped athletes reach Junior
Olympics, Sectionals, Junior Nationals, Nationals and Olympic
Trials.
Prior to coaching at RMSC Nick attended and swam for University
of Connecticut and graduated in 2009. He was a Big East
finalist in the 50 Free and a US National qualifier in the same
event. He earned his degree in Political Science and was
named to the Dean's List and named a Big East Academic All-Star.
Nick grew up swimming for RMSC and was a Junior National
qualifier in the 50 and 100 freestyles, and helped his team to
Junior National wins in the 200 Medley and 400 Medley relays.
Nick brings enthusiasm, knowledge and a strong work ethic to
Conejo Simi.
Teri Berkel
Red Group (Rancho)
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Teri begins her second
year with CSSC as our Reg Group Coach at Simi. Teri worked
with CSSC's Green and White Group swimmers in her first year, and
looks forward to helping our swimmers progress through the Age
Group program. She has a long history in the sport of swimming,
starting as a child where she swam for the Torrance Dolphins and
was an age group record holder in breaststroke.
Teri also competed as a
teenager, focusing on the IM, and spent her collegiate career as a
runner for CSUN. She currently competes for CSSC Masters and
has completed many triathlons. Teri has been coaching
Swimming for Conditioning classes at CSUN as well as teaching swim
lessons for the last nine years. Her specialties
include working on the fundamentals - technique and stroke
refinement in all four strokes. Her goal is to help her
swimmers progress from novice to age groupers while having
fun. She fosters a strong work ethic and team
spirit.
Courtney Downing
Green & White (CLU)
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Courtney Downing is from Ventura
and has been a certified Life Guard and Swim Instructor at the
Ventura Aquatic Center for the last 5 years. She has been involved in competitive swimming for
the last 12 years, and swam club with the Antelope Valley Aquatics Team in
Palmdale, Buenaventura, and Channel Islands Aquatics. She was also
part of Buena High School's CIF team for 3 years. Most
recently Courtney represented CLU as an 400 IM-er. For 3
years she has been the Head Coach of the Ventura's’s
60-swimmer novice LA84 team, working mostly with the advanced
members. She is currently a Junior at
CLU, a Liberal Studies major with an emphasis on Physical Education
and working towards a minor in Spanish and hopes to teach
kindergarten. We know Courtney well from her previous stint as
one of CSSC’s Masters coaches, and we are so pleased to have
her on our Age-Group staff as a Green and White group coach at
CLU. Feel free to contact her with any
questions at cdowning91@live.com.
Janine M Yoder
Green Group (Rancho)
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Janine is beginning her first year of coaching with CSSC
beginning February of 2013. She has many years of experience in
coaching Learn to Swim Lessons and Competitive Stroke Type Lessons.
She has operated her own Swim Lesson business since 2006.
