Our Coaches
Our professional coaching staff is dedicated to providing high quality coaching and technique instruction to give each swimmer the best opportunity to achieve their goals. Our coaches bring years of experience coaching at the collegiate and international levels, including the Olympics. Our swimmers routinely qualify for the National Championships, World Championships and Olympic Trials.
Meet our Coaching Staff
- Mike Chasson – Head Coach
- Grant Griffith - Assistant Coach
- Joanna Woodward - Assistant Coach
- Sam Iida – Assistant Coach
- Kristine Nelson - Assistant Age Group Coach
- Steve Mancuso – Assistant Senior Coach
- Mich Litherland - Assistant Coach
- Katy Clausen - Assistant Coach
- Shawn O’Connell – Assistant Senior Coach
Personal Mission Statement: Age group swimming should promote technique, sportsmanship, and academic excellence. A successful program should help swimmers develop a passion for the sport and encourage them to compete through high school and college, depending on their academic interests and school choice.
Achievements: Mike Chasson has been involved in competitive swimming for over 45 years and has coached at every level of swimming. He began his career as an age group coach at Los Altos Aquatic Club in 1971. Since then, he has coached at Santa Barbara Swim Club, Stanford University, Harvard University, Mass Bay Marlins, Arizona State University, and Sun Devil Aquatics. He has coached Olympic Gold Medal winners, USA Swimming National Champions and Junior National Champions, NCAA Champions, and many NCAA and High School All Americans.
Mike coached swimmers at every Olympic Games from 1984 through 2008. He has been a USA National Team Coach for many international trips, including Head Men’s Coach at the 1997 World University Games and an assistant coach at the Olympic Games in 1988 and Pan Pacific Championships in 1993. He has had teams place in the top five at every major swimming competition in the United States. He has been a speaker at the American Swim Coaches Association Convention as well a number of regional clinics.
While at Stanford, Mike coached five different NCAA Champions, and helped coach the team to the NCAA Championship in 1989. While at Harvard, he won six Ivy League Championships and helped Harvard achieve an 11th place finish at the men’s NCAA’s in 1998, which is the highest finish ever for a non-scholarship school. While at Arizona State, the men’s team finished in the top 20 nine times, and the women’s team did so six times. This included three top ten finishes. Mike coached 52 All Americans and helped swimmers to 58 school records. His swimmers also achieved seven Pac-10 Championships and earned 165 Pac-10 All Academic honors.
Currently, Mike is the Head Coach of the Gold Medal Swim Club. His background in club swimming for 18 years before going into college swimming gave him great preparation for guiding Sun Devil Aquatics, which he started in 1998. He previously started two club programs and one masters program from scratch.
Personal Achievements: Mike is proud of the fact that he has remained in contact with swimmers he coached in the 70s, 80s, 90s and the 2000s. These swimmers went on to successful academic and professional careers. Mike has always encouraged his staff to have this same type of connection and interest in their athletes. Mike will continue to build a positive environment that encourages future athletic, academic and personal growth.
Grant Griffith - Assistant Coach
[email protected]
Coach Grant Griffith brings 10 years of coaching experience to Gold Medal with deep ties to Texas swimming and the Boston, MA area. Griffith comes to us from Crimson Aquatics in New England where he was a senior and high-level age group Coach. While coaching at Crimson, he coached both Senior and age group state champions as well as Future and Sectional level swimmers.
Prior to Crimson, he was the Head Coach at Odessa High School in Odessa, Texas. During his tenure in Odessa, he nearly tripled the size of the team and guided them to multiple top 10 finishes. Griffith began his coaching career as a Graduate Assistant at his alma mater The University of Texas of the Permian Basin where he coached the sprint and dryland programs for two years.
As a collegiate swimmer at UTPB, Griffith was a Captain, team record holder, and achieved NCAA B time standard qualifications. He received his B.S. in Kinesiology with a minor in Business. Coach Grant is looking forward to working with every individual daily and providing a challenging and fun environment that strives for excellence. He aims to help each individual within the team dynamic while using his extensive educational background to bring the “sports science” side into his coaching and groups.
Coach Grant works primarily with Blue and Senior 1.
Why I Coach: Coaching does not only teach skills and prepares athletes to be the best competitors possible, coaching also teaches skills and prepares athletes to be great people...I endeavor to do both.
Sam Iida – Assistant Age Group Coach
Steven Mancuso - Assistant Senior Coach
Awards while with Mountain Pointe Swimming include Region Swimming Coach of the Year, 2000-01, 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2009-10 and NISCA (National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association) State Swimming Coach of the Year in both 2000-01 and 2009-10.
Education: Northern Arizona University with a Bachelor of Science in Education with Distinction in 1996. Additional honors achieved at NAU during the time he was obtaining his bachelor’s degree include: Membership on the Student Athlete Advisory Board, 1994-95; Golden Eagle Award for Academic/Athletic Excellence, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1993-94; and Scholar Athlete of the Year, 1994-95. Obtained Masters in Educational Leadership with Distinction in 2002 from NAU Principal Certification, also through NAU, in 2004.
Coach Mick has primarily worked with age group swimmers. Before moving to Arizona, he coached summer clinics at the University of Georgia for the Bulldog Swim Club and with programs at the Dynamo Swim Club. Coach Mick hopes to inspire swimmers and create a positive environment for all swimmers on the team. Coach Mick is passionate about swimming at every level and loves how swimming can develop the whole person.
Coach Katy Clausen has been a swimmer for over 14 years beginning as an age group swimmer in Illinois and finishing her club swimming career with Coach Chasson and Cactus Aquatics. Katy decided to combine her love of running and swimming and during high school began competing in triathlons. She excelled quickly and is now part of the 6x NCAA Champion Arizona State Triathlon team (Division 1 sport) and is currently the team captain. She is finishing up her B.S. in Psychology and Counseling Applied Sciences. She has earned PAC 12 Academic Honor Roll all three years and continues to push herself in and out of the classroom. Prior to college, she attended Desert Vista High School where she was MVP for cross country and track and field.
Clausen's coaching background has focused on developing age group swimmers from the pre-competitive level though club. At the Ahwatukee YMCA, she coached and taught kids under 12 and created curriculum and taught free classes for the YMCA's Safety Around Water Week. She's excited to help build lifelong memories with swimmers while encouraging them to be the best athletes they can be.
Shawn O’Connell - Assistant Senior Coach
Achievements: Coached Desert Vista High School Swim Team 19 years to current. USA Swim Coach Mac West Aquatics
Personal Achievements: College Swimmer University of Wisconson Lacrosse
Education: Bachelors in Public Administraion and Economics, University of Wisconson LaCrosse
Bachelors in Education, University of Alaska
