Coaches and Directors
Coaches and Directors
Coaching Staff
Cliff Murray is the Head Coach and owner of Northern Lights
Swim Club. Coach Cliff has been the head coach of NLSC since
August of 1998. In that time he has seen the club nearly
double in size and has coached the club to dozens of state
championships. Coach Cliff is the 4 time winner of Alaska
Swimming's Senior Coach of the Year award and the 2 time winner of
Alaska Swimming's Age Group Coach of the Year award. Cliff is
currently working as the Silver Coach and assistant Gold coach.
Cliff was born in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1970. In 1977 he
began swimming competitively on the Eielson Flyers near his
mother's job as a teacher on Eielson Air Force Base. At 12 he
moved to the North Pole Aquatics Club which was closer to his North
Pole home. During his 8th grade year he began swimming on the
Fairbanks Arctic Swim Team in Fairbanks. Cliff competed for
North Pole High School all four years of high school and was
captain for the last three. Cliff retired from swimming after
the Alaska Junior Olympics his senior year in 1988.
Cliff began coaching in Fairbanks in 1991. His first
coaching job was as assistant coach at West Valley High
School. In November of 1991 he became the assistant coach of
Midnight Sun Swim Team in Fairbanks. In August of 1993 he
became the Head Coach for both West Valley and Midnight Sun Swim
Team.
Since becoming NLSC's head coach, Cliff has also served as the
Head Coach of East Anchorage High School Swim/Dive team
(2007-2012), and South Anchorage High School Swim/Dive
(2015-2020). Under his leadership the East High Thunderbirds
won their first men's state title in fall of 2007.
In his spare time Coach Cliff enjoys spending time with his wife, Sarah, and daughter, Dagny. Cliff enjoys hiking, fishing, camping, and scuba diving.
In his spare time Coach Cliff enjoys spending time with his wife, Sarah, and daughter, Dagny. Cliff enjoys hiking, fishing, camping, and scuba diving.
Coach Ben Kitchen has been coaching with Northern Lights Swim
Club since 1996. He has worked with every level of the team
during his tenure. Ben has been leading the Anchorage Gold group
the last 15 years, winning Alaska senior coach of the year 5 times
including this year. He also had the honor of coaching Olympic gold
medalist Lydia Jacoby of Seward Alaska who joined our team to
boost her training opportunities during the pandemic and
beyond.
Coaching started early for Ben. As a Senior in high school he
moved from a powerhouse team in Kansas City to a small team in St.
Louis Missouri. That season he helped his coach who was an
inexperienced coach (excellent algebra teacher), coach the
team. Ben’s coach won Coach of the year at the Missouri
State high school championship that year, an award he admits
willingly belongs to Ben.
After a successful club and college career swimming, he moved
to Alaska and started teaching lessons for Northern Lights to make
some spare change while finishing up some studies. The rest is
history. He stuck around after falling in love with the
state, producing many collegiate swimmers. As a high school coach
he has won 9 state titles and counting for Service High School in
addition to his work with Northern Lights.
With 35+ years experience in the sport of swimming Ben gets to
work with some of Alaska’s best swimmers. “It never
gets old, helping kids seek and become the best version of
themselves.”
Ben and his wife of 21 years, Vanessa are raising two boys
Gavin and Duncan who are both on the swim team.
Coach Grant Gamblin was born in Anchorage, Alaska and began swimming competitively on NLSC in 1991, and continued through High School. After starting his coaching career in 2005 as the Service High School Assistant Coach, and realizing coaching was a serious passion, he joined the NLSC coaching staff in 2006 and started coaching adults in 2007 at The Alaska Club South.
Taking the Head Coach position of KNIK Aquatics, Eagle River High School and Bartlett High School in 2014 he continued to grow as a coach, developing learn to swim programs for all ages, age group and adult competitive programs.
Returning to NLSC in 2016 to build a dream of his, NLATS (Northern Lights Adult Training Squad)! Within the first year of NLATS creation it was top 10 for growth in U.S. Masters Swimming, bringing the team to just over 100 members. Grant brings a plethora of adult coaching experience, tremendous energy, and passion to our program.
If you’re reading this and are curious about adult swimming please contact Coach Grant to find out which practice best suits you. ALL skill levels are welcome!
Jerry Godden is the Mat-Su Gold Coach. Coach Godden has been
with NLSC since May of 2017. He started out with the Bronze group
for 2 years and moved to the Gold group in January of 2019.
Jerry began coaching youth soccer in 2001 when his oldest
daughters U8 team needed a coach. He continued this annual
volunteer soccer coaching until Fall of 2009 and his middle
daughter joined Palmer High School Swim and Dive team. At this time
Palmer high school was in need of a diving coach; having been a
swimmer and diver in high school himself he volunteered to coach
their dive team. In from 2011 thru 2020 he was co/head coach
for Palmer High School and from 2016 thru 2020 he was the Region
III Swim and dive coaches representative for ASAA.
After watching the 1984 Olympics Jerry decided to join the
Palmer High School swim and dive team to try out diving. To be able
to Dive, the coach required him to swim also. He competed in
diving, freestyle and fly events and eventually came to enjoy
swimming. His swimming and diving career ended for a while after he
graduated High school in 1988 until 2009 when he started coaching
at Palmer High School.
Jerry was raised in Lowell, Michigan until age 13 when he
moved to Palmer, Alaska. He graduated from Palmer High school and
traveled around the east coast returning to Palmer in 1990. He met
his wife, Carrie, in 1991 and they were married in October of 1993.
They proceeded to have three children Taneisha, Katarina, and Reed.
Katarina and Reed both swam for Palmer High School. In the
Godden’s spare time they enjoy the great Alaska outdoor
experience of hunting, fishing, camping. He is active as the Region
III coaches representative for the ASAA.
Coach Jeorge was born in 2000 and raised
primarily in Palmer, Alaska. Jeorge moved to Gulf Port, Mississippi
in 2006 and joined the local SURF swim team in 2007, before
returning to Alaska in 2008 and Joining NLSC in 2009. Jeorge worked
his way up through the groups before joining the Gold group in
2014. Jeorge was primarily focused on his education during high
school and did not compete consistently apart from his time with
the Palmer Swim Team in 2015. From 2017-2022, Jeorge worked at the
Palmer Pool as a Lifeguard and Swim Lesson Instructor.
From 2018-2022, Jeorge attended
Collage at UAA (University of Alaska Anchorage) and graduated with
a bachelor's degree in Biology in December 2022. Jeorge is not
certain what he wants to do with his degree, (whether it be in the
biological field, law enforcement, EMS, etc..) but he knows that he
wants to help and protect people.
Apart from swimming, Jeorge enjoys
being outside, spending time with people, all things
cars/motorsports, building Legos, and playing/writing music.
Board of Directors
