I swam competitively for many years, first with the Gainesville, GA Swim Team and then with the Starlit Swim Team in Northern VA, competing for at least 3 years at the national level. I started coaching my neighborhood league team at age 14 and continued until going away to college. I began teaching swimming at Walnut Creek YMCA in 1994 and after 2 years was asked to start the Walnut Creek Y Dolphins Swim Team, in 1996. We started with 13 kids and grew to over 100 swimmers within 3 years, improving and becoming more successful each year. In the last 3 years, more than 75% of our swimmers have qualified for the State Championship Meet. I enjoy watching and helping each swimmer grow in skill, confidence, and individuality.

I am a long time competitive swimmer starting at Hyperion Country Club, YWCA Aquaducks, AAU summer swim teams, and Hoover High School coached under Mark Wagner and Dave Linder. I taught swim lessons for 6 years in high school and college summers. I have 3 adult children; all of whom were swimmers and lifeguards. I am a co-owner with my husband of mail order company and a current volunteer at the Des Moines Community Playhouse, Sacred Heart Catholic Church (pastoral council president and choir member). I have worked 15 years as volunteer in many capacities and many boards of my children's schools from Montessori pre-school, grade school, middle school, high schools, and religious education. I also worked for 3 years with the Project Connect Mentoring program, and am a 25+ year member of the Walnut Creek YMCA. I believe that my best time investment is in giving to children...our future. I love the sport of swimming, and support the values of the YMCA...so here I am!

I have been an assistant coach for the Dolphins since the 2009-2010 season. I began swimming for the Newton YMCA swim team at the age of 7. As an 8 & Under, my freestyle and medley relays were the teams to beat at State. Our adrenaline got the best of us, however, and both relays were disqualified. (Our nickname: The DQ Queens!) So I’ve had experience. I swam until high school when I decided to add other sports to my repertoire. My summers through college were spent lifeguarding and teaching lessons. The smell of chlorine has always triggered warm memories, so as I sat watching my two daughters swim lap after lap at practice I decided I needed to be more involved. By day, I work full time as SuperMom to Layne and Ryleigh and Wife to Jeff. I also work part-time as an assistant at Northwestern Mutual and as a freelance proofreader. When not working, I sing in a quartet at church, read mysteries, cycle on RAGBRAI, and hit the gym at least 5 times per week. I LOVE coaching the Dolphins and am so glad I was led to Walnut Creek!

Jeannie Blazek
Assistant Swim Team Coach

I LOVE SWIMMING! I love everything about it; the team camaraderie, the competition, the self discipline, the ability to control your destiny (if you work hard you will improve - go for those PR’s), the phenomenal conditioning, and oddly enough even the smell of chlorine... well, maybe not the early morning workouts. When I was growing up, my parents used to say that I swam before I walked. I was fortunate to be able to compete from age 8 through high school and enjoyed the thrill of placing at state my sophomore - senior years in freestyle and butterfly. In college I chose to take a break to focus on studies (and fun), majoring in HRI at ISU. I spent a majority of my career traveling the world as a meeting planner & travel director but am blessed to be able to spend more time at home now with my family. As a family we are very focused on promoting healthy living and have a very active lifestyle from our two boys, Beau and Pierce, who are Walnut Creek swimmers, to my husband Steve who is a USAT certified triathlon coach. My passion to promote this incredible sport started in high school teaching swim lessons. I feel privileged to have the opportunity to share my love & knowledge of such an amazing life-long healthy sport/activity with your great kids --and truly hope that my enthusiasm is contagious!

Lydia Clark
Head Wavemakers Coach, Assistant Swim Team Coach

I grew up and have spent much of my swimming career here in Des Moines. I started swimming competitively at Wakonda Country Club, East High School League Team. Then moving through to the Roosevelt Storm Riders, Des Moines Swim Federation, Central Iowa Aquatics and Roosevelt High School Varsity Team with my favorite event being the 500 Free. When I wasn’t swimming, I was synchronized swimming at Wakonda and competing nationally with the Des Moines Aquamaids. My coaching career began in 2000 at Des Moines Golf and Country Club where I taught synchronized swimming for 5 years. After high school, swimming took me to Granville, Ohio and Denison University where I learned that my idea of a “distance swimming” was what most would call warm-up. I found my event in the mile and have never looked back. When I moved back to Des Moines after college, I felt something missing. It didn’t take long to find out what that was…swimming! My first season with the Walnut Creek Dolphins was the summer of 2010 and I have continued to enjoy getting to know all of the swimmers and watching their personalities come out in the water.

The 2011-2012 swim season is my first season with the Walnut Creek YMCA as a coach. I am very excited to get back to coaching and swimming after a few years away from it! I have been around pools forever; I grew up swimming competitively for clubs around Des Moines and swam varsity for 4 years at Valley High School under Mark Wagner. My strokes of choice were butterfly and backstroke. I taught swim lessons and coached the swim team at Wakonda Country Club for 4 years prior to college. I then taught swim lessons through Swim America in Ames, under Trip Hedrick. I have learned a lot from my former coaches and mentors around the pool and hope I can extend that to my swimmers at the Y! I attended Iowa State (Go Cyclones!) and graduated with a degree in MIS December 2010. I currently work for Becker Underwood in Ames as a Database Administrator and live in West Des Moines. I am very glad this swim season is here and hope to see great improvements throughout the entire season, and most importantly, HAVE FUN!

I took swim lessons from the time I was six years old until the age of sixteen. At that point I became a certified lifeguard. I was a lifeguard at the Clarion Pool in Clarion, Iowa, from 1987 to 1993. During that time I did group lessons for the pool and also gave private lessons. My next experience with swimming came in 1995 when I was hired by the Ankeny School District. I was asked to consider being the assistant high school boys and girls swim coach. I ended up doing that for 5 years and loved it. During that time I also spent 3 summers helping with the Ankeny YMCA swim team. I learned a great deal about competitive swimming from those experiences. I have been in the teaching field for fifteen years. I was also in the National Guard for nine years and now I am in the Army Reserves. I am currently going back to school to become a nurse. I am looking forward to coaching and working with the swimmers this year. It has been something I have missed doing.

I have always had a passion for swimming, which came from my dad, who was a competitive swimmer. I am now passing that along to my kids and the kids at the Walnut Creek YMCA and I love doing it. I began competitively swimming at the age of 7 on the Davenport AAU Swim Team. My 8 & under relays were always undefeated with my best strokes being breaststroke and freestyle. I eventually moved on to volleyball, which I played through college, but have never lost my passion for swimming. Now, I am a stay-at-home mom of three. Allison and Ben now compete on the DMWC swim team with Andrew hot on their heels. I am also involved volunteering at Jordan Creek Elementary, where Allison attends 2nd grade, and am on the Advisory Board at Shepherd Flock, where Ben attends Kindergarten. I am looking forward to many years of coaching with these amazing and talented kids.