2004 Ohio Zone Team Coaches

Mark Davis wtrcsharks@earthlink.net Club Affiliation: WTRC Sharks Years Coaching:18

Bio: Mark is the Head coach of WTRC Sharks for the last 12 years and previously coached with the Kettering YMCA team.  He also coached the Centerville Girls to 2004 High School State Championships - a first for the Elk girls!  Mark, the 2002 USA-Swimming Ohio Senior Coach of the Year, has coached swimmers to NAG Records, Olympic Trials cuts, and several Ohio Records.  Team Ohio is very fortunate to have Coach Davis on this year's Zone staff.  Mark grew up in St. Mary's, Ohio and is a Graduate of  University of Dayton.  Mark and his wife, Michelle, have three children: Morgan, Mason, and McKinley, and they reside in Centerville, Ohio.  All three boys swim for WTRC.  Mark hopes that everyone has fun and swims fast this weekend.

Susan Tonjes coachsuze@sbcglobal.net Club Affiliation:  GCSTO Years Coaching: 5

Bio: Coach Susan is beginning her 6th season of coaching with Greater Columbus primarily with athletes in the 10 & under and 11-12 year old age groups.  She swam with Head Coach Steve Nye @ GCST more than 20 years ago, as Steve puts it 'one of his original bunch'.  As a swimmer she was primarily a freesylist, both sprint and long distance, and breastroker.  When Coach Susan's oldest daughter developed an interest in the sport, Susan brought her to Greater Columbus.  During her second season, she volunteered to help out with a couple of the groups, feel in love with coaching, and she has been doing so year round ever since.  Recently she returned to Ohio state University to pursue Licensure for middle childhood education, as well as coursework in athletic training & coaching.  Coach Susan has no time for hobbies, unless you include chauffering a teen (Ashlee) or chasing after a two year old (Arden).

Jen Hazel jmelzak@hotmail.com Club Affiliation:  GTAC Years Coaching: 4

Bio: Coach Jen has been coaching USA-Swimming for 4 years, with the Greater Toledo Aquatic Club (GTAC) and last year, Jen was the volunteer assistant coach for the University of Toledo Women’s Swim Team.  Among the many distinctions that swimmers under Jen’s direction have achieved are the following: Ohio “AA” times, Central Zone times, Quad times, National “Top-16” times, Ohio Northwest Regional Champions, Ohio Mini-Meet Champions, Ohio LSC (AA) Champions, and just this past March Jen’s 10 & under Boys were the 1st place Ohio AA Champions for small teams.  Jen served as GTAC’s assistant coach for the team at the USA Swimming Senior National Championships in Ft Lauderdale in August 2002 and as GTAC’s assistant coach for the team at the US Paralympic Trials in April 2004.  She also serves as the Ohio LSC Club Development Liaison for Ohio Swimming, Inc. and has achieved ASCA Level 3 certification. Jen thoroughly relishes coaching swimmers of any age and any level and she is full of spunk and life. Jen graduated from the University of Toledo with a B.A. in Creative Writing and a B.S. in Mathematics. She also earned her M.A. in Literature from Eastern Michigan University. She currently is an adjunct professor in English at Southern Ohio College in Findlay and is the author of several critical articles and works of poetry.  When Jen has free time, she likes to go water-skiing, roller-blading, running, and especially backpacking in Europe (She has been to 13 countries so far.).  Jen was married in 1999 to her awesome husband, Keevan.  They currently live in Toledo, OH with three puppy dogs.

George Leatherman geoswimcat@yahoo.com Club Affiliation:  FAST Years Coaching: 5

Bio: Bio: George swam for Findlay Area Swim Team under Rock Snow as an age group swimmer.  George has been the Head Coach of his alma mater, FAST, since 2003 and plans to grow the program into a strong Ohio team under his guidance.  He was a 3-time state qualifier in high school.  After high school, George swam for the University of Kentucky, then the University of Findlay where he also wrote practices and played water polo.  Previously, George coached for 4 years at New Albany, is a 5-year Red Cross WSI, and has worked stroke clinics with Olympic swimmers Amanda Adkins and Shaun Jordan.   This is George's 3rd Zone trip of his career and was previously the Ohio Team "Head Coach" in 2002.

Sonya Avramovich Sunn63@aol.com Club Affiliation:  DR Years Coaching: 6

Bio: Sonya, formerly from Cincinnati, has over 16 years experience in swimming competitively, including USS, YMCA, and Ohio High School. She has completed her 5th year coaching for the USA Dayton Raiders.  She has swam for Countryside YMCA for 7 years and Powel Crosley YMCA for 5 years. She was also a 3-year letterman at Lakota High School. Sonya specializes in all aspects of the swimming program. She has even placed 15th in the mile at the 1995 YMCA Long Course Nationals. Sonya has been an assistant coach for Lakota High School and also for Beckett Ridge Country Club. Sonya has recently graduated from Wright State University with a bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education, along with her masters in Intervention Specialist.   Coach Sonya will begin her new teaching career in the fall.  Sonya is an organizer, motivator, and loves to work with young swimmers of all ages and ability.  This will be Sonya's first Zone trip.

Chris Pierson cpierson@sev.org Club Affiliation:  GTAC Years Coaching: 2 winter, 6 summer

Bio: I started swimming on my summer league team (Sylvania Jewish Community Center) when I was 8 years old.  I was very adamant with my mother that I did not want to swim competitively, but here I am 14 years later still involved with the same summer league team (as the head coach now) and with a serious case of the swimming bug.  (It’s infectious too, watch out!)  I started becoming more involved with swimming at 10 years old when I joined the Sylvania Tsunami swim team.  I continued on to high school where I was a 4 year varsity letter winner at St. John’s Jesuit High School in Toledo.  This will be my first zone trip ever because when I was a swimmer, I dropped 54 seconds at the state meet in my 1500m free, and missed the zone cut by a second.  (I was a distance swimmer, and as we are painfully aware, you have to wait until 13-14’s for zones to have a distance event.)  I began coaching when I was 13 years old by helping out at my summer league club, and got my first official coaching job there at 15 years old.  I started coaching with GTAC 2 years ago and have been on a whirlwind tour of the swimming world ever since.  I don’t know what else there is to say except that I am excited to cheer on all of our zone swimmers to Ohio’s next zone championship! =)

Ryan Beachner rbstud7@yahoo.com Club Affiliation:  GCSTO Years Coaching: 3

Bio: I am a young and very friendly coach. Perhaps my best talent is that I can easily relate to the kids and I know exactly where they are coming from when they experience challenges.  I graduated from St. Francis Desales in Columbus where I participated in High school swimming at the state meet as a swimmer and a coach. I have coached 11-18 yr olds ever since then and enjoy making the connections with the kids at that age. This also why my career plans have become teaching middle education to kids of this age group. I am currently in my last year of undergrad at Ohio State and hope to be enrolled in grad school to get my teaching certification after that. The biggest reason I am coaching Zones is because I enjoy working with the kids and all the challenges & rewards that come with it.

Brent Peaden - Coordinator bpeaden@woh.rr.com Club Affiliation: DR Years Coaching: 16

Bio:  Brent Peaden became the Dayton Raiders Head Age Group Coach in September 1999 after three years as the Raiders Senior Assistant. From 1989-1996, Brent was the Head Age Group Coach for the Wright-Patterson Flying Fish at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH. Brent has coached National Junior Qualifiers, National Age Group Top 16 swimmers, state record holders, Zone Qualifiers and record holders, and Ohio Junior Olympic State Champions. Brent has coached swimmers to more than 100 National "Top 16" rankings and 30 National "Top 3" rankings. Brent was awarded Ohio Age Group Coach of the Year in 1999 by the Ohio Coaches Association.  His Dayton Raider Age Group program won the 2004 long course Ohio State Championships, a first-ever achievement for a non-Cincinnati program since the meet's inception in the 1960's.  Coach Brent and his wife, Ann, had their first child, Connor Thomas, just 3 days after the conclusion of the 2003 "Mega" Zone meet in Indianapolis - which makes him real accurate with a stopwatch.  Brent's hobbies are shore and off-shore fishing in the gulf - his favorite is chasing the "Big Reds"!