
Tom McRae
Head Coach
Coach Tom graduated from Ohio State University with a Physical Education degree specializing in developmental motor patterns in children. He was Assistant Coach for the Ohio State Women’s Swim Team in 1988-90, and Assistant Coach for the Stanford Women’s Swim Team in 1990-91. Coach Tom has worked with several 1992 & 1996 Olympic medalists from Stanford, and coached swimmers from the Mexican National Team for the 2000 Olympic Games. He is a Certified Level 4 member of American Swimming Coaches Association.
In 1990 he
started as an Age Group Coach for SOLO, and became the Head Coach
in 1992. Unlike many other Head Coaches, Coach Tom works with all
levels of swimmers. His daily activities included being in the
water teaching the youngest swimmers, helping Age Group swimmers
with their strokes, and running practices for National level
swimmers.
Coach Tom was also the Head Coach for Menlo-Atherton High School’s swim team from 2000-11. While at the high school the student athlete numbers grew in size to over 125 and amazing improvements were enjoyed by all who participated. All students were welcomed into the program and many individuals shared in PAL League Championships and over 75 team records. Including swimmers capturing CCS Titles achieving All-American status.
Following his older brothers to the pool put Tom on his first swim team at the age of four. As a high school swimmer things really took off as a member of the Greater Columbus Swim Team. He was a walk-on swimmer at Ohio State as a freshman, which led to coaching the sport. As a masters swimmer Coach Tom broke the World Record in the February Fitness competition in 1995 and again in 1996 swimming over 725,000 yards in a month. The purpose of this exercise was to show the swimmers that if they wanted to achieve success, they needed to work toward a goal. For Tom that turned out to be 25,000 yards per day, which took seven hours. He now enjoys a daily mile or two before practice leading by example!