About Shaker Swimming
The Shaker Sharks are a part of USA Swimming. USA Swimming boasts America's largest program of guided fitness activity for children. The Shaker Sharks is the largest USA Swimming team in Northeast Ohio.
Contact Information
| Email: shakerswimming@msn.com |  |
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| Telephone: (216) 295-4163 | |||||
| Fax: (216) 295-4353 | |||||
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Pool Locations
| Woodbury Pool 15400 South Woodland Shaker Hts., OH 44120 |
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| Middle School Pool 20600 Shaker Blvd. Shaker Hts., OH 44122 |
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| Thornton Park 3301 Warrensville Center Rd. Shaker Hts., OH 44122 |
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Why Choose Shaker Swimming?
There are lots of different swim teams around. What is it that makes Shaker Swimming different from the rest? Here are just a few reasons why you should choose us:
- Low coach to swimmer ratios maximize individual instruction
- Flexible practice schedules that allow young swimmers to participate in other activities
- Practices prioritize stroke development and technique
- Professional, highly educated, and experienced coaches and staff
- Affordable and straight-forward billing
Our Mission And Values
To guide swimmers of all abilities to reach their goals
- Lifelong Fitness: We believe physical fitness is an essential part of health, and swimming is the best way to get fit and stay fit for life.
- A Way of Life: We believe in teaching swimmers how to be reflective and set goals which supports their successes both in the pool and in life.
- Interdependence: We believe that nurturing positive relationships between the Sharks, swimmers, families, and communities is critical to our mission.
- Teamwork and Sportsmanship: We believe that swimming is a team sport. When swimmers work together and support each other, they achieve greatness.
- Safety, Responsibility, and Respect: We believe that character development is essential to swimmer development. We expect Shaker Sharks to make the right choices in and out of the water.
- Determination and Motivation: We believe that learning to swim efficiently is a demanding lifelong process; there are no shortcuts. Self-esteem is generated by real achievements both in and out of the pool.
Meet the Coaches
Eric Peterson
Eric is entering his eighth year with the Shaker program. He is also the head coach for the Shaker Heights High School program. He was the Lake Erie League coach of the year from 2002 - 2009. Eric graduated from Kent State University. Prior to coming to Shaker, Eric was the head coach for the Kent Roosevelt High School team and the Western Reserve Seariders. Eric has served as the head counselor for Richard Quick and Skip Kenney's National Stanford University Swim Camp. Currently, Eric is a swim instructor at Woodbury Elementary School.
Rob Fellinger
Rob was an All-American Hawken High School swimmer and an All-American swimmer at Ohio Wesleyan. Rob has a master's degree in Education. Rob coached the Shaker Sharks and High School swimmers for ten years. For seven years, he taught in Shaker as an elementary school teacher. Rob will be working with the high school swim program.
Brendan Pham
Brendan has been with the Shaker Sharks since its inception twenty two years ago. He is a graduate of Cleveland State University. Brendan will work with the youth sharks and Middle School swim team throughout the year.
Bryan Wamsley
Bryan (sixth year as a shark coach) swam with the Shaker Sharks from 1988 through 1997. Bryan was an All-American Shaker High School swimmer. Bryan graduated from Princeton University in 2001. He also holds a master's degree in Education from John Carroll University. Bryan was a 2007 and 2008 Lake Erie Zone Coach. For the past four years, Bryan has been a teacher at Hawken Lower School. Bryan also developed and continues to run the Shaker Swimming website. He will work with the select youth swimmers.
Grace DuGar
This is Grace's second year with the Sharks. She is a graduate of Denison University. Grace was a four year member of the Cleveland Heights High School Varsity Swim Team. Grace will be working with the youth Sharks again this season.
Irena Mazi
Irena is in her first year with the Shaker Sharks. Her coaching experience began at Cleveland State University as the Assistant Women's Swimming Coach from 1995 - 1998. Irena was the head coach of the Willoughby South and Eastlake North Swim teams from 2002 - 2005. In 2004 and 2005 Irena was named the Premier Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in Boys Swimming. She has also held assistant coaching positions at Westlake High School (1999) and Saint Ignatius (2009). Irena holds master's degrees in Sports Management from Cleveland State and in Education from Ursuline College. She is currently an 8th grade science teacher in Willoughby-Eastlake Schools. Irena will be working with the select youth and high school swimmers.
Mike Larsen
This is Mike's first year with the Sharks. Mike was a four year member of the Cleveland Heights High School Varsity Swim Team where he earned All Lake Erie League Honors in 2001. He graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in English from Ohio University in 2007, and recently received his teaching license in Middle and High School Language Arts from Cleveland State University. In addition to coaching with the Sharks, Mike will be a substitute teacher in Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights school districts.
Sarah Tobin
This is Sarah's eleventh year with the Sharks. Sarah was the head coach at Cleveland Heights High School and Notre Dame Cathedral Latin. Also, Sarah was the swim coach at Forest Hill Swim Club. Sarah manages the Sharks; she takes care of all the fees and paper work for the Shaker swimming program. Currently, Sarah is a swim instructor at Woodbury Elementary School and is the pool manager for the City of Mayfield Heights in the summer. She is also the current Administrative Vice Chair for Lake Erie Swimming.
Ernest Welsch
Mr. Welsch founded and still directs the Shaker Sharks Swimming Program. He is a graduate from Temple Universtiy, Penn State and Cleveland State University with a variety of degrees in recreation, health, physical education and exercise physiology. Welsch, the head Shaker High School Swimming Coach from 1982 to 2002, was voted Northeast Ohio Women's or Men's High School Swimming Coach of the Year ten times. Mr. Welsch was also voted State High School Coach of the year for women in 1995 and for men in 1998. Mr. Welsch was inducted into The Ohio High School Swimming Coaches Hall of Fame in 2005. "King" Welsch has been teaching Physical Education in the Shaker School District for twenty nine years.