Per Teddy Clark, Board President: The WCST board is happy to announce Yvonne Rose (aka Miss Cookie) has accepted our head coaching position. Yvonne comes to us with a wealth of swimming knowledge. She has been a summer league coach in the past with Fox Den. She has also been the Whittington Creek pool manager, which allowed her to teach many of our neighborhood kids to swim. She does a lot of advance swim lessons (open water, swim safety, etc.) Yvonne is very excited to accept this role and is eager to get started, and bring lots of positive energy to the program.

I also wanted to announce that Annie Broome has accepted one of our assistant coaching positions. Annie is a former Bearden Bulldog swimmer, who went on to swim at the University of Georgia. At Georgia, she became an All-SEC and All-American swimmer! She was voted as Team Captain for her senior year and led her team to the SEC Championship and the team finished 2nd at the NCAA Championships. Annie has coaching experience in Georgia, as well as locally at the Knoxville Racquet Club. Annie is an accomplished Butterflyer and Freestyler, and will bring some great swimming knowledge to the pool deck.

Ally Hardesty will be stepping up to be an Assistant Coach this season. Ally is coming off of a great Freshman season at the University of North Carolina, where she won a gold medal at the Atlantic Coast Conference Swim Meet. Ally qualified to swim in 2 free relays at the NCAA Championship meet, where UNC finished 12th.

Jane Romano will return as a Junior Coach. Jane is finishing up her Freshman basketball season at Birmingham Southern. She is looking forward and excited to be working with some of our younger swimmers this season. Jane will also be swimming her last season with us this summer (Yea!). It will be great to have all of her meet points for one more season!

Cole Graham has been added to the staff as a Junior Coach. Cole just completed his 4th year of swimming for the Bearden High Aqua Dogs, where he has been the team captain for the past 2 seasons. Cole qualified for the state finals in all of his events this year!