North Suburban Aquatic Club (NSAC) Makos

Tuesday, January 6 2009
	17° F - Fair
Senior AM	5:30 AM - 7:00 AM	Chippewa
Senior PM	3:45 PM - 6:00 PM	Irondale
Junior PM	6:00 PM - 7:45 PM	Irondale
Gold PM	6:45 PM - 8:15 PM	Chippewa
Silver PM	5:30 PM - 6:45 PM	Chippewa
Bronze PM	5:30 PM - 6:30 PM	Chippewa
Masters AM	5:30 AM - 7:00 AM	Chippewa
Masters PM	6:45 PM - 8:15 PM	Chippewa

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Coaching Staff

Craig Charlson
Head Coach
Senior & Master Teams

Craig Charlson joined North Suburban Makos as Head Coach in 2006. Craig swam competitively for 10 years and has been a USA Swimming Coach for nine years.

Coach Charlson came to North Suburban from Blackline Aquatics, where he spent three years as Head Senior Coach. Craig’s swimmers achieved significant success - from State Champions to National qualifiers. Along with coaching club swimming at Blackline, he also was Head Coach for the Apple Valley High School Women's Swim Team and the assistant coach at St. Thomas Academy.

Charlson has strong ties to the University of Minnesota, having served as the volunteer Coach for the Golden Gopher Men’s Swimming Team. In his four years as the volunteer coach, Charlson helped assist the Gophers winning two Big Ten Championships and place in the Top Ten at the NCAA Championships. While a volunteer coach with the Gophers. Craig started his USA Swimming coaching career at Twin Cities Swim Team for four years.

Craig believes in a strong IM/distance based training program. He believes with this type of training, the Mako swimmers can compete in any event offered. He is a firm believer in the long-term development of all swimmers. The Mako swimmer's under his direction have achieved new successes - from State Champions to Junior National Qualifiers.

The Wisconsin native graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Communications. He is a resident of St. Paul and is active in the Twin Cities Marathon. It is his goal as our Head Coach to provide all swimmers the best opportunity to reach their highest level academically, athletically and socially.

Keaghan Winterhof
Junior Team

Coach Keaghan began swimming in Iowa when she was 8 and loved swimming every event. She continued swimming with her local club through high school and was part of a state record breaking relay team. Coach Keaghan also swam distance freestyle for Cedar Falls High School, winning districts and placing at state. The high school team won the state meet her senior year!

Coach Keaghan has spent many years teaching swim lessons and lifeguarding. When she's not around the pool, Keaghan enjoys biking, reading, movies, and baking. She is a recent graduate from St. Thomas with degrees in Human Resource Management and Business Communications.

Adam Larson
Head Age Group Coach
Gold & Silver Teams

Coach Adam began swimming for Falls High School in International Falls, MN. After high school, he attended and swam for the University of Wisconsin at River Falls prior to moving to the Twin Cities. He transferred to the University of Minnesota to continue his post-graduate education and is currently working on his doctorate.

His coaching career also started in International Falls as the assistant coach for the high school girl's swim team. While coaching the high school girls, he taught swimming lessons and competitive swim clinics on the side. Coach Adam is an excellent multi-tasker which makes him an excellent Age Group Coach and Registrar for our club.

Coach Adam started coaching for the club in 2001, and has been with NSAC ever since it became a 501c-3 organization. His amazing stability and skills have helped our club over the year; it is an honor to have him on our staff!

Emily Firkus
Bronze Team

Coach Emily began her swimming career with MVSC (now NSAC) as an 8 and under swimmer. After a few years living in and swimming in Pittsburgh, PA, her family moved back to Minnesota during her junior year of high school where she graduated from Irondale High School in 1999. Attending UW-Eau Claire, Emily was hired as the 8 & Under coach for the Eau Claire YMCA. Two years later, due to a coaching staff turnover, Emily found herself coaching for the Chippewa Valley YMCA in Chippewa Falls, WI. There she was the head 9-12 year old coach and eventually followed those swimmers up to the senior group as the senior head coach. After college, Emily began coaching at North High School where she just finished her third season with the Girls' team. This is Coach Emily's 3rd year with NSAC and she is looking forward to many more!

Along with coaching swimming, Emily's other passion is teaching junior high school. She is in her second year teaching math at Ramsey Jr. High in St. Paul. Coaching swimming is something that Emily has a hard time living without. It's rewarding because a coach gets to see growth daily during practice and see that growth put to use when competing. It's one of the few "jobs" out there where you get to see all the time and hard work actually pay off. Coaching swimming is a rejuvenating experience and one that is positive in Emily's life.

Katherine White
Assistant Coach - Bronze, Silver, and Gold Teams

Coach Katherine started swimming competitively at the age of 8 on the MVSC (now NSAC). She swam on her Mounds View high school swim team and enjoyed being a captain her senior year. Coach Katherine also had a great time swimming with the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire swim team. Her favorite strokes to swim were backstroke and butterfly.

Coach Katherine recently graduated from Eau Claire with a major in psychology and family studies. She is currently getting her master’s degree in special education at the University of Minnesota. Coach Katherine has been working for the past two years at the YMCA as a swim instructor and lifeguard. She still loves competing in half marathons and triathlons. Coach Katherine also likes to spend time outdoors hiking and camping.

Kristen Ostendorf
Assistant Coach - Bronze, Silver, and Gold Teams

Back in 2006 Coach Kristen and Coach Belinda started up the first girl's high school team at Totino Grace High School. Kristen has been the assistant coach at Totino Grace the past two years. She loves it! Coach Kristen is also a teacher at Totino Grace High School. Kristen herself was a competitive swimmer through high school. In 1997 she became involved in coaching swimming at the Special Olympics. Kristen has been coaching with NSAC since 2006 on a year round basis. She loves coaching here at North Suburban!

Danelle Marsden
Assistant Coach - Bronze, Silver, and Gold Teams

Coach Danelle began swimming competitively at age 11 in Dubuque, Iowa. She swam for her local YWCA and USA team through high school. She swam for Dubuque Wahlert and qualified for state her junior year. She swam sprint freestyle and butterfly. She loved swim meets, pasta dinners, long bus rides through Iowa, and making life long friendships with her teammates. She also swam for the University of St. Thomas for three years in college.

Coach Danelle graduated for St. Thomas in May of 2006 with a degree in Marketing Management and works as Financial Planner is Minneapolis. She enjoys traveling, cooking, snow & water skiing, and boating. Danelle is very excited for her first year of coaching after many years of lifeguarding of teaching private swim lessons.

Belinda LeClair
Assistant Coach - Bronze, Silver and Gold Teams

Coach Belinda has been coaching with NSAC since 1999. She has primarily focused on coaching the younger swimmers preparing them to advance into the upper programs. Belinda takes the fall season off, because she is also the Head Coach for Totino-Grace High School Girls Swimming program, which is enjoying their second year as a team. Despite this you may see her on deck once in awhile this fall helping out with special programs.

Belinda started competitive swimming for Hastings Area Swim Team at age 9. She continued swimming throughout her childhood and went on to swim for Hastings High School. Her favorite events became 200 and 500 freestyle. During her freshman year the team became conference, section, and state champions. HAST was also where she got her start coaching, when she was a young teenager.

When Belinda isn’t on a pool deck (which isn’t often) you might find her leading a Cub Scout Den, at a church function or family gathering, catching a quick workout, or chasing one of the 6 children Belinda and her husband Mark of 10 years share together. Once in awhile she sleeps!

Coach Belinda believes that when a young or new swimmer is nurtured, encouraged, taught the basics, and have a little fun along the way, that they will be given a solid foundation to find success not only in the pool but also in other areas of life!

Diana Buck
Assistant Coach - Masters

Diana started her swimming career while attending Mounds View High School. During the off-season she swam with MVSC (NSAC). After finishing high school, Diana continued swimming at St. Cloud State University from 2000-2003. While swimming at SCSU, Diana was a letter winner and a member of the conference team. She swam butterfly and backstroke events. Diana graduated in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in Athletic Training, Bachelor of Science in Community Health and a coaching minor.

Diana has coached the swim team at North Junior High, St. Cloud, MN, and Mounds View High School girl’s swim team during their preseason. Currently Diana is the Aquatics Coordinator at the Shoreview Community Center, where she develops lifeguard training and swimming lesson programs. During the summer Diana is involved with competing in triathlons and 5k’s around the metro area with her husband Jeff.

Rachel Karel
Assistant Coach - Senior Team

Rachel Karel swam competitively for 10 years starting at age 9. She grew up in Cambridge and swam for the Cambridge-Isanti Bluejackets, graduating in 2001. During her senior year Rachel qualified for the State Meet in high school swimming. Her first coaching experience also came on the Cambridge pool deck in their summer maintenance program in 2004. She was active in Track and Field (2 time captain), Cross Country (Captain) and Basketball (state qualifying) in high school as well. Rachel attended Bethel University and competed in Cross Country and Track and Field for the Royals. (Bethel has no pool!!) She was a captain of the track and field team in 2004 and 2005. This past fall Rachel trained for and completed her first marathon, the Twin Cities Marathon. She enjoys competing in 5k road races, triathlons and other athletic competitions. Rachel is currently the head coach for Andover Huskies girls swimming and diving. This will be her second year as head coach. She also has coached high school cross country and track and field. Her experience in coaching several sports has taught Rachel a variety of coaching techniques and strategies. Her full time job is teaching high school Spanish at Andover and Champlin Park High Schools.