Matt Franks - Head Coach 

Coach Franks comes to Frisco ISD with 20 years of high school and club coaching experience. He is an ASCA level 4 rated coach that has produced Olympic Trials qualifiers, Junior National finalists, high school State Champions as well as numerous TAGs & Sectionals finalists and champions. Coach Franks swam competitively as an age-group and high school swimmer in Northern New Jersey (New Jersey Wave and Ridgewood YMCA) and was a four year letterman at the Virigina Military Institute where he was a conference finalist in multiple events and an academic all-conference athlete as well as attaining leadership ranks in the Corps of Cadets throughout his cadetship. 

Upon graduation from VMI (B.A. Psychology with a minor in Leadership Studies) he moved to Dallas to begin his coaching career. Starting as the Head Age Group coach for the ATAC swim team he led over a dozen athletes to TAGs finals. Coach Franks moved out to East Texas in 2002 where he would spend 13 years as the Head Coach of Robert E Lee High School and the Assistant Head Coach of Metroplex Aquatics - Tyler.

While in Tyler his high school and club swimmers saw immense success, winning 22 district titles and 3 regional titles, producing 5 NISCA All-Americans, 12 TISCA All-State Swimmers, 8 6A State Qualifiers and 2 State medalists on the high school side of the sport. On the club side Coach Franks produced 2 Olympic Trials qualifiers, 5 Summer Junior National qualifiers and over 40 TAGs and Sectional qualifiers.

Coach Franks moved back to Dallas in 2015 to take the Head Coach position at Lovejoy High School and assistant senior coach for Metroplex Aquatics. The teams at Lovejoy saw immediate success upon Coach Franks arrival, winning 8 district titles and 1 regional title while producing dozens of regional finalists, 12 state qualifiers, and 2 state champions.

As a member of the Metro staff Coach Franks helped produced a dozen TAGs qualifiers, 24 sectional qualifiers, and 1 short course junior national qualifier. 

Coach Franks is looks forward to growing a team culture of enthusiasm, hard work and success. He is happily married to his wife Katie and they have one daugther Gabriella. 

Coach Franks will be Coaching Sr1 and Sr2 groups this season. 

Claudia Sunday - Head Coach Diving

Coach Sunday has over 20 years of experience in the sport of Diving. She is a Houston native and began her career as a gymnast and then transitioned to diving when she was 12. She dove for Bay Area Stars under Sven and Kuni Schultz. She dove varsity all 4-years at Clear Creek HS and shattered the HS record that had stood for over 20 years. After graduating high school, Sunday continued her diving career at Texas Christian University diving for Texas Hall of Fame diver, Wayne Chester, where she dove all 4 years while pursuing her degree in Psycho-social Kinesiology. Following her undergraduate degree, she furthered her education and received Master’s in Liberal Arts studies at TCU to pursue her love for teaching.

After finishing her Master's degree, Coach Sunday founded the North Texas Dive Team, a small club team in Plano which she coached for several years before moving to Frisco to take the Head District Diving Coach position. During her tenure as a head coach she has produced multiple Top 3 Divers in the State, State finalists, has helped multiple dives aquire college scholarships, and was named Coach of the Year in 2020. She is most excited for the opportunity to invest in and help lead Iron Horse Diving athletes to success.

Coach Daiki Sato - Head Age Group Coach

Daiki ("D") Sato was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, and started swimming as an 8-year-old for the YMCA and continued competing into college. He earned a spot to compete at the WSC Conference Championships in both the 400 IM and 200 Breaststroke. Out of college, he worked for the NFL Network, where he served as a Ticker Operator and sports writer for Sportsoutwest.

He has always loved coaching and decided to leave his job at the NFLN to pursue it full-time; he is now entering his 14th year of coaching, spanning developmental 6&under swimmers all the way up to US Open athletes. In his most recent stint, he was the National team coach for South Carolina Swim Club, where he had produced multiple futures swimmers, Jr national swimmers and helped the team capture their first back-to-back state title( 4 out of 6 total this season) in over 5 years.

During his tenure at Paseo Aquatics (Santa Clarita, CA) he helped the team capture many firsts. For example, their 11-12 boys relay finished number 1 in Southern California Swimming (SCS), one of the strongest LSCs in the country; set a new SCS age group record in the girls 50 free, and many more. In addition, he has coached multiple NAG Top 10 athletes. Among all these, he is most proud of becoming the first Head Age-Group coach in Paseo Aquatics and serving as the DEI rep for the Coastal Committee in SCS.

Daiki is an ASCA level 4. He is very excited to be a part of Iron Horse Aquatic Club and help in the team's future growth.

Coach Justin Bilgri - Associate Head Age-Group Coach/ Director of Junior Program

Coach Laudy-Jane Allam - Assistant Age Group Coach

Coach Laudy joined Iron Horse Aquatics in the fall of 2022 and has assumed coaching duties for the Silver and Blue training groups. 

Coach Emily Frasco-Smith - Assistant Age Group Coach

Emily Frasco-Smith is so excited to be coaching for Iron Horse Aquatics! She began her club swim career at the age of 7 in the Dallas area and has loved being a part of the swimming community ever since. She attended Ursuline Academy of Dallas and then went on to swim NCAA Division 1 for Ohio University. During her career there, she won 9 MAC titles in sprint freestyle, was named First Team All-MAC, was team captain, and was an NCAA Academic All-American. Upon returning to the Dallas area, she began coaching for other club swim teams and country clubs in the area.

She holds an early childhood education degree from Ohio University, and a master’s degree in education from the University of Texas-Arlington. She currently resides in the Frisco area with her husband and two children and teaches Gifted and Talented at a private school in Plano.

Coach Emily will be coaching AG2 & AG4 groups for Iron Horse.

Coach Amber Craver - Assistant Age Group Coach 

Amber Craver is thrilled to be coaching for Iron Horse Aquatics! She began her club swim career at the age of 7 in Illinois and continued swimming in Texas with the Dallas Mustangs. She attended Ursuline Academy of Dallas and then went on to swim NCAA Division 3 for Springfield College. She began volunteer coaching and giving swim lessons while living in Oregon for the Oregon City Swim Team. There she fell in love with the sport again is happy to assist in growing a new team with strong foundations in the sport.

Amber holds a BS and Master’s degree in Physical Therapy from Springfield College. She currently resides in the Mckinney area with her husband and three girls (Cora, Cayna and Callie) who are excited to be part of a growing new team.

Coach Amber will be coaching the AG3 Groups for Iron Horse as well as assisting with other groups.

Coach Matt Donaldson - Assistant Senior Coach

Coach Matt started his swimming career when he was 8, swimming for Mid-Cities Arlington Swimming (MARS). He would then go on to swim for Martin High School, where he was 3-time Most Valuable Swimmer.

He then began coaching for MARS while also competing in triathlons, which he did for 4 years before he started coaching high school. As a high school coach, he has spent 2 years at Lufkin High School and 2 years at Richland high school before landing in Frisco as the Emerson High School coach.

Coach Matt will be coaching Sr3 for Iron Horse this year. 

Coach DJ McKenna - Assistant Age Group Coach

DJ McKenna draws upon her extensive experience as a Masters-level swimmer, triathlete, RRCA-certified running coach, trail ultra-marathoner, and weighted ruck-sack competitor to inform her coaching. Outside athletics, as a former kindergarten teacher, PHR-certified human resources generalist, community volunteer, active Scouts BSA leader for almost a decade, and former long-time PTA Vice President, DJ thrives when serving others and helping individuals and communities reach their full potential.

DJ grew up in an Army family, earned her B.S. in Early Childhood Education from Auburn University, and then married an Army officer. All three of her sons competed extensively in club swimming. Her two oldest enjoyed distinguished high school varsity swim careers, earning spots on the West Point and Princeton NCAA swim teams, respectively, and her youngest currently dives for Wakeland High School.

A passionate competitive athlete in her own right, Coach DJ brings grit, discipline, and a deliberate, process-focused approach to Iron Horse Aquatics, where she will coach our Engine group swimmers this year.

Coach Bryan Bookhammer - Strength & Conditioning / Dryland Coach

Bryan Bookhammer is in his first season as the head strength and conditioning coach for the Iron Horse swimming team. Coach Bryan has extensive knowledge and experience with functional movement – combined with mobility/flexibility, speed/agility, and conditioning – each student-athlete will be able to develop, increase, and control their bodies which in turn improves their performance in the water.

Being an avid soccer player of 30-plus years, Bryan understands what it takes to compete at a high-level from an individual perspective. Although prepared in diverse bodies of knowledge, Bryan specializes in movement as they pertain to program design, corrective exercises and athletic performance enhancement.

Coach Bryan has extensive coaching experience from working with an array of individuals from the youth level to professional athletes during his stint at The Lakes at Castle Hills Golf Club.

Bookhammer earned his Bachelor of Arts in chemistry in 2012 from the University of North Texas. After a few years of lab work, Bryan found his passion for helping others in hopes of impacting lives and leading individuals to make better health choices through strength training and nutrition selection.

Coach Bryan received his Level 1 strength coach certification through USA Weightlifting in 2017. He also holds the PN and FMS Level 1 certifications.

Coach Mark McHam - Assistant Dive Coach

Mark began his diving career in high school at the Woodlands Athletic Club under Kenny Armstrong. Mark earned a scholarship to dive at Texas Christan University his freshman year. After finishing his diving career, he transfered to Texas A&M in 1996 to finish is undergraduate degree. While he has been out of the sport for 25 years, he has always enjoyed it and when his son Pierce joined Iron Horse, Mark jumped at the opportunity to get involved. His philosophy when working tiwth your kids is to always fun - then courage - then pretty! This means he will always encourage them to do the dives they enjoy, try the next ones they are capable of, and then work on getting scores!