Swim Coaches
Neil Costello, Head Coach
Head Coach Neil Costello has been around the sport of swimming his
entire life, from US swimmer, Summer League, Club Swimming, and
Triathlete. Coach Costello has been in education for 18 years and is
currently a teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools. For fun Coach
Costello enjoys bringing his passion of teaching to the swimming pool
and has coached swimmers of all ages and all abilities.
"Competitive swimming is a process of setting realistic objectives, to
meet your final goals, but most importantly have a good time doing
it"---Coach Costello
Theresa Forsyth, Assistant Coach
Theresa Forsyth has been a swimmer most of her life starting swim team at 8 years old and later in life with Masters in Arkansas. She has been teaching pofessionally for over 13 years in Arkansas and VA and coaching summer swim league in Leesburg. Coach Theresa loves to fine tune strokes and has a positive passion for the sport of swimming.
Water Polo Coaches
porter.timothym@gmail.com
Coach Tim Porter has over ten years of aquatics coaching experience. He has coached both swimming and water polo at the high school and club levels. He started his coaching career in San Diego coaching high school swimming and water polo at Monte Vista High School. After moving to the east coast, he was the head age group coach for Ashburn Village Swim Team and assisted at the Senior and Pre-Senior levels. A number of athletes Tim coached went on to participate in NCAA Division I Championships as well as Olympic Trials.
As an athlete Tim was a high school and collegiate All-American in Water Polo and was selected to participate as a member of the Senior National Team. He was a member of the first San Diego Shores water polo team. Coach Porter participated in and was named to all tournament teams at numerous water polo tournaments including Junior Olympics.
Drew Zirkelbach, Assistant Coach
Assistant Coach Drew Zirkelbach began playing water polo at the age of 14 in Lincolnshire, Illinois, for Stevenson High School, becoming a goalie quickly thereafter; not only did he play for high school by for the Northern Illinois Polo Club, which had different age groups and played year round. After his sophomore year, his head coach nominated him to go out to Colorado Springs to the US Olympic training center where they were holding training for goalies. After that, he became the Varsity goalie at his high school and was voted first team all-state and second team all-national his senior year.
Although he was recruited by many schools, Drew chose to go to Virginia Tech where their program was only club. While there, he was nominated to the all-conference team twice and the team did better than it ever had before by going to Nationals and finishing 11th. Drew currently participates with two teams in the area; Rockville and Northern Virginia, in addition to helping coach.
Volunteer Water Polo Coaches
La Salle High School, a small high school in Southern California, and
named MVP his last 2 years. He then went to the University of
California, Davis, where he made the team as a walk-on goalie, playing
all four years on the varsity squad. Steve played in the Western
Athletic Conference against other teams such as Fresno State, and the
University of the Pacific. He also played non-conference games
against powerhouse teams like Stanford and Cal Berkeley.
Steve was named All-Conference in his final 3 years of playing. Steve will tell people that he learned a lot along the way, both about how to play the game, how to play as a team, and how to improve and motivate himself and others and that he's hoping to instill a love and passion for the game in young kids on the East Coast, so that water polo can become as popular as it is on the West Coast.
Jay Smith, Volunteer Coach
Jay Smith started swimming at the age of 5 and finished once he graduated high school. He swam every summer and upon reaching high school, swam for Herndon High School and a Stint with of year round program in Reston. Jay spent two summers teaching Red Cross swimming for the Herndon Community Center in the late eighties. Jay gets his knowledge and continues to gain knowledge of swimming from family members; His father, Joe Smith, who has been coaching for 40 + years and founded the Herndon Commanders, and brother, David Smith who has coached swimming for many years around the Northern VA area. Over the past 5 years Jay has been a volunteer coach, either as head or assistant, for his kids’ activities; soccer, basketball, softball, and swimming. Jay, watching his daughter play Water Polo, began asking questions about various techniques and this interest has prompted him to become a volunteer water polo coach, working with the Cadet team.
