Dear NBA Families,

Two months ago, upon the retirement of NBA Founder and Head Coach Ken DeMont, NBA began a national search for a new Head Coach of the NBA Youth Team. After reviewing resumes and cover letters and references for 28 candidates, engaging in search firm interviews of 16 of those candidates and then proceeding with Search Committee interviews with five candidates and hosting two of them for full-day in-person assessments, we have completed the process. Today we are excited to announce to the whole NBA community that Max Byers of WAVE Aquatics in Seattle, Washington has accepted our offer to become the new Youth Head Coach of NBA. Max will formally begin the position when our fall swim season commences, on August 23, 2021. In the next two months, the NBA Board and Don Swartz, who was named as acting Head Coach last fall, will help Max transition to his new role. After August 23, 2021 Don will continue with NBA as a Senior Team Coach. We would like to thank Don for his dedication and leadership as interim Head Coach while we completed this search.

Max Byers is a swimmer. Born and raised in Southern Illinois, he began swimming as a youth for a local summer league team before making the leap to a year-round team as an age-group swimmer at the local YMCA in Edwardsville, IL. Max went on to become an Illinois state champion, a 3-time USA Swimming Scholastic All-American and a finalist at the U.S. Junior National Swimming Championships. Max continued his swimming at the Division 1 collegiate level at Pennsylvania State University, where he also graduated from their highly-ranked School of Kinesiology.

Max’s coaching tenure over the last eight years includes coaching age-group and senior level swimmers on multiple club teams on the West and East Coast. His experiences firmly demonstrate a wealth of responsibilities in areas that are important to the growth of the NBA youth swim team at all age levels. Currently in his fourth year as Head Age Group Coach at WAVE Aquatics, Max has helped grow the WAVE team, where he now oversees the development of over 180 swimmers in the age-group program. At the same time, Max directly coaches between 25-50 swimmers in the Senior group of the WAVE program six days a week. Max is involved in the dryland training program for the senior swimmers and he has reconstructed the team’s coaching curriculum. Prior to WAVE, Max’s coaching experience included working at Nittany Lion Aquatics Club in Pennsylvania, where he coached State, Sectional, and Junior National Qualifiers for the teams’ Senior group and where he created and ran a dryland training program. Max also spent two years with Metro Aquatics in Tacoma, Washington as the team’s Head Age Group Team. At Metro, Max coached two groups of age-group swimmers and oversaw the growth of the age group program from 45 swimmers to over 100 swimmers training at multiple practice sites. All along the way, Max has handled an array of the administrative tasks necessary to run a team, ranging from coordinating practice times, meet schedules and season plans to managing communications for teams.

Max is excited to relocate to Marin County, which he plans to do this summer, as his parents and sister live in the Bay Area. While Max is very much a student of swimming, he also is an avid reader and enjoys long bike rides (think 100 miles long). As a two-time Iron Man, he understands what it takes to commit and train for lofty goals.

Setting aside Max’s specific skill sets and experiences, our Search Committee and the NBA Board of Directors appreciate Max’s overall approach to coaching and look forward to him bringing this approach to NBA. First, Max has a personal coaching philosophy of developing a team culture centered on the holistic development of the athletes, encouraging swimmers to become the best versions of themselves in and out of the pool. He has had a significant hand in developing this culture at WAVE. Second, Max believes that being a great swimmer requires grit, which entails working hard every day but which also encompasses having the ability to use one’s previous experiences to be better in the future. Max is of the strong mind that it is the coaching staff’s job to create a team culture to assist athletes in developing this grit and that this process necessarily includes the staff’s communicating with each swimmer to understand his/her long-term plan and to develop a plan for how to get there. Finally, Max is a firm believer in communication, not just with the swimmer but the larger community. He believes one of his responsibilities as the Head Coach is to educate parents on club goals and expectations. We eagerly anticipate Max’s ability to thoughtfully communicate and build relationships and to foster connections across swimmers, families and coaches alike. We believe Max understands the importance of these connections and brings an entrepreneurial and growth mindset to his coaching and performance-building that we think will be refreshing for everyone around the pool.

We officially announce Max as the newest member of our NBA Community. As Max has expressed a strong interest in hosting a community Zoom in the near future to meet and speak with the NBA community, we will be in touch with everyone when this is scheduled.

Sincerely,

Ken Brakebill

Chair, NBA Head Coach Search Committee

NBA Board of Directors

Dear NBA Community,

With both sadness and gratitude, we are announcing that Ken DeMont will be resigning as Head Coach of the NBA Youth team. Six months ago, Ken stepped away from NBA Youth coaching to take a break and allow himself to heal physically and mentally and he has decided to make this change permanent.

Ken founded the Senior level NBA team in 2001 and has worked tirelessly to build the organization to what it is today, a vibrant competitive swim program for youth and a complimentary program for masters. While many national level and college swimmers have trained at NBA, Ken is most proud of the NBA culture, the team-first attitude and enthusiasm for engaging in the process. Ken will always be a part of the fabric of North Bay Aquatics. We thank him and are grateful for his years of leadership and appreciate his dedication to our team.

While Ken may be stepping away from coaching the youth, he will remain an integral part of the NBA family, continuing on with operational duties for youth and masters, coaching masters and holding a position on the Board of Directors.

During the six-month sabbatical, Don Swartz ably stepped in to fill the shoes as Interim Head Coach. He has been a powerful force bringing our team together during these challenging Covid times. Don will continue to be acting Interim Head Coach until our permanent hire is in place and will lead our team of top-notch Youth coaches, Devon, Jeff, Mike and Katie.

The Board of Directors will oversee the process of permanently filling the position of Head Coach. The Board has engaged Stacy Nelson & Associates-Leadership Search Partners to support our search and transition process. (www.stacy-nelson-and-associates.com, stacyn@stacy-nelson-and-associates.com) The goal of the Board is to hire a new Head Coach and have her/him in place for the start of the fall training block in September.

We are confident that our coaching staff will make this a smooth transition for our community.

Please see the Head Coach job description attached. We welcome your input and your referrals for this opportunity.

Sincerely, NBA Board of Directors
Ken DeMont, Don Swartz, Andrea Salmi, Ken Brakebill, John Harlow

Search and Transition Team Contact Info
Ken Brakebill- Search and Transition Chair-k.brakebill@alumni.stanford.edu
Andrea Salmi- Search Assistant- andreasalmi@yahoo.com
Stephen Root- Parent Representative/Liason to Search-sroot101@gmail.com

Hello Tuna!

Team Meeting & Mini Meetings
Today’s team meeting at 3:45 will have a special NBA trivia – come ready to play a Kahoot game with us! (Some have told me having the Kahoot app on a phone is easiest or a split screen on a computer)
Mini meetings have been going great! They are a ton of fun and a great way to connect with our swimmers. On Wednesday’s and Thursday’s

Parent Meeting
We wanted to have the opportunity to connect with our parents and share where we are at during all of this. Join us this Wednesday at 7:00pm for a short Zoom meeting. Remember to complete the Safe Sport course if you can! (Info attached at very bottom of this email)
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Strength & Conditioning and Ab Circuits
Bridge routines below as well as Lily Ott’s ab circuit!
Click here to sign up to create your own ab circuit to share with the team!
Monday
Wednesday
Friday
Lily’s Ab workout

Wall Sit Challenge
We ended our pushup challenge (more on that below) and started a wall sit challenge! Check out what our athletes are doing:
48m Luca Gissendaner
45m Alanna Baker
40m Alisa Zhou
30m Annabelle Kilgore, Don Swartz
25m Brooke Bent
24m Alessia Root
22m Max Brown
21m Sydney Brakebill
20m Adeline Turner
15m Kate Lynch, Mia Solomon
12m Ben Bishop
10m Holly Tarantino, Sophie Keith Brown
9m Charlie Stewart
7m Ines Lovato
6m Zev Schuman
5m Micah Sher
3m Kallen Wank
2m 45s Amelia Loiacono
1m 35s Ana Roudebush
1m Brenda Lein

Push Up Challenge
We are seeing how many we can get up to 700 each week… go tuna!
700 Kallen Wank, Aliyah San Andreas, Luca Gissendaner, Justin Wong, Alanna Baker, Ana Roudebush, Mia Solomon, Cat Watrous, Henry Harlow
630 Maria Forney
600 Marion Woolf, Zev Schuman
560 Dean Gustavson
550 Lena Wang
534 Brooke Bent
511 Jack Dumbacher
510 Steve Clark
500 Alisa Gray, Alena Sharp, Bruno Coelho, Emily Fee, Ben Bishop, Gavin Green, Charlie Stewart
480 Sophie Lee
455 John Vreeland
425 Sophie Keith Brown
410 Chas Thorp
400 Micah Sher, Skyler Barnes, Jane Thompson
350 Holly Tarantino, Alessia Root
345 Esther Chang
340 Max Matthews
300 Sydney Brakebill, Nina Bonte, Jonah Lee, Cindy Clements
280 Shawn DeMont
250 Andre Ignoffo, Mark Lutzker
180 Ken DeMont
150 Harry Wait
100 Brenda Lein, Matthew Sessions
35 Catherine Nottage

Hello
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I hope everyone is hanging in there!
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TPC UPDATE - The pool is still closed (just waiting for us), but some of the lower tennis courts will be available for members to play tennis with their families. A step in the right direction! I’ll keep everyone abreast of any movement toward re-opening, and what that will look like.
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FAMILY - Go outside, play some Frisbee, go hiking, fly a kite, etc. To help maintain mental health, make sure you get up and go somewhere and do something (obeying all social distancing directives, of course)!
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SCHOOL - This week is Teacher Appreciation Week and Nurses Week! Thanks to all out there who are busting their butts teaching our kids (parent-teachers too!),and all of you nurses who are on the front lines or waiting for a possible surge in responsibilities. I am grateful for all you do! Show your gratitude this week!
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SWIM - Good swimmers are good athletes. Good athletes need to be diligent about their diet, flexibility, strength, cardio, and mental game. I challenge us all to make sure we are getting better in each category. You can tell from some of the photos on this email that the elite swimmers are pretty fit!
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DIVING - If you want to be a great sprinter, it all starts with a great dive! Here are a couple cool dive videos:
Physics of diving
Caeleb Dressel is one of the most explosive divers ever! Dressel Jump, Dressel Dives
Some FAST female swimmers:
Simone Manuel 100 Free – Stanford
Abbey Weitzel 50 Free – CAL
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QUOTE - We can’t touch things (on our walk)…because of the Corona. – Katelyn McDonald (6)
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See you at the pool! Coach Mike

Hi All

Team Meeting & Mini Meetings

Like normal copying our info below for todays 3:45 team zoom meeting. We are also starting to offer some mini meetings for chance for personal interaction with the coaches each week. We are starting with just 3 this week and will offer more if there is demand. Sign up for those HERE by 12:00 on Thursday! Meetings will be on Thursdays (for now) in the afternoon.

Topic: NBA Team Meeting

Time: Apr 20, 2020 03:45 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83333478778?pwd=amVndC9wejRyejBFeUFIYkM0NHFzUT09

Meeting ID: 833 3347 8778

Password: 030295

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Activity Logs

Keep them coming in – we know it is repetitive but its a good way to push yourself with new weekly challenges/improvements and to keep yourself accountable and connected with your coaches :) we love hearing from you!

Dryland & Ab Circuit

Monday HERE

Wednesday HERE

Friday HERE

We want our swimmers to create 10 minute ab circuits that can be shared with teammates – do it with your training buddies on zoom/facetime and keep each other accountable. Sign up to do one HERE and Devon will email you with more info. Hoping to send out at least 2 circuits each week starting next Monday

Pushup Challenge

We are continuing with this and have masters swimmers, parents, and coaches getting involved as we are one team! Lets keep making each week stronger!!! Working on a new challenge for the month of May… stay tuned :)

1750 Vincent De La Tour

1710 Bruno Coelho

1600 Sophia Bell

1560 Cat Watrous

1402 Maria Forney

1100 Alena Sharp

1050 Sydney Brakebill

1025 Axel Redemann

825 Kai Makino

751 Kallen Wank

730 Alanna Baker

725 Ken DeMont

715 Gavin Green

700 Luca Gissendaner, John Vreeland

680 David Cline

630 Maggie Hansen, Mia Solomon

605 Ines Lovato

600 Zev Schuman, Max Gilsenan

580 Cindy Clements

550 Jane Thompson

540 Katherine Wu

525 Marc Watrous

500 Kelsey Brakebill, McKenzie Kwei, Sophie Keith-Brown

495 Nina Lawson

490 Emma Keith-Brown

450 Holly Tarantino

441 Brooke Bent

400 Annabelle Kilgore

375 Alisa Zhou

370 Alessia Root

310 Sarani Puri

300 Skyler Barnes, Aliyah San Andreas, Alex Gershman, Alicia Brasch, Henry Harlow

255 Reese Dahlgren

240 Heather Flynn, Mike Green

210 Alisa Gray

200 Reese Burns

175 Matthew Sessions, Mark Lutzker

165 Tricia Wallace

160 Sophie Lee

150 Harry Wait

127 Nina Bonte

105 Peter Schoen

100 Kate Lynch, Tristan Lu

90 Miles Smith

85 Derek Thompson

80 William Tucker, Amy Thompson

70 Lara Zaman

64 Katie Kelly

60 Julia Thompson

45 Charlie Stewart

30 Catherine Nottage

6 Brenda Lein

Pump Up Songs

We have gathered the pump up songs and will be sharing our plan in the team meeting tonight/in a separate email later tonight. Be there!!!

Safe Sport

We have a few parents and swimmers who have completed this for us (thank you!!!) But we need more to become a Safe Sport verified team. Take any extra time you have to help us out – thank you in advance! Check out the instructions below