When Mel Nash goes into any situation he creates success. Mel is an innovator in stroke techniques and training methods. He has developed unknown swimmers into International champions.

MEL NASH SWIMMING CAREER: 

*World Champion

*NCAA Gold Medal

*Pan-American Games Gold Medal

*USA National Champion

*World ranked 7 consecutive years

*USA National Team. Mel was coached by virtually every top coach in the country. He trained under the generally-acknowledged greatest coach in the history of the sport of swimming, Doc Counsilman, and later, coached with him.

MEL NASH COACHING CAREER: 

*Head Coach - Texas A&M University - 25 years. 

*Head Coach of North Florida Swimming. 

*Olympians - Swimmers/Students in 10 of the last 12 Olympic Games

*NCAA All-American Swimmers 80+

*Youngest NCAA Division I Head Coach in the history in any sport - at age 22.

*ASCA Level 5 Coach - Highest Level (Top 2% of coaches)

*Private Stroke Coach with students from six continents.

*Florida High School State Champions, Florida Senior Champs Gold Medalists, FLAGS Champions.

Coach Mel's vision and involvement in the design of the Texas A&M University natatorium made it one of the fastest and most spectacular pools in collegiate history. He is a builder - college teams, club teams, camps, lesson programs and natatoriums. He built a college team from the bottom of the conference to Top 10 in the Nation.

Coaching Philosophy: Age-Appropriate Training and Excellent Stroke Technique.

Coach Mel successfully has developed a program where he can educate and where athletes want to keep swimming. In 40+ years of coaching there has never been a single swimming-injury related surgery. 

Coach Carol Nash fills the position that every swim team should have: an experienced coach who cares more about the long-term development and success of the swimmer than her own personal accolades.

She has experience coaching all levels and can walk on deck and coach any group. Coach Mel says, "Carol is the best teacher on the deck." She knows how to work uniquely with each person in just the right way. She is a stroke technique expert, working with college athletes, Masters swimmers, triathletes, Navy and Seal swimmers, and age group competitive athletes to improve their strokes. Coach Carol is a specialist at helping new swimmers, from small children to teens, feel welcome and capable in the new environment of a competitive swim team. Athletes she has introduced to the sport have become high school All-Americans, College Scholarship athletes, and National Qualifiers. 

At Texas A&M University Carol was Volunteer Assistant Coach and co-founder and director of Aggie Swim Camp, where she and husband Mel Nash built the camp from 27 to 650 campers. They also started Aggie Swim Club in College Station, Texas with 8 members and grew the team to over 270.

Coach Carol is Head Age Group Coach, Lessons Director, and Head Coach of our summer league swim team. She has developed the Nash Swim School where she teaches all levels how to swim well. 9 months to 83 years old is the age range so far!  She swam as a kid along with her 5 brothers and sisters; sometimes all four legs of the relays were "Reid" kids. At 18, she was head coach and continued to juggle swimming and her other career - music and theater - for years. 

 Side note: Coach Carol is a trained actor and vocalist and continues to perform.

Dennis is a Jacksonville native, and began his swimming career at the age of 7, for Beaches Aquatics.  He swam for Fletcher High School, and returned to coach at Beaches from 2009-2011.  Dennis enjoys working with all of the age groups, and mostly works with our Preteam, Blue and Green II groups.  He is an avid music lover, and has an amplifier collection not to be missed. He loves watching movies with his wife Coach Brit, and their two dogs, Loki and Milla.

Brittany is a native of Pennsylvania and has been swimming since she was 12 years old. She is a 7 time All-American and National Qualifier for Clarion University where she specialized in the sprint freestyle and butterfly events. While earning her Master’s degree at Duquesne University, she was named the Assistant Swim Coach for the Division 1 team. There, she worked mainly with the sprint groups and developed their dryland and strength and conditioning programs.  Brit will be heading up the dryland program for all our team group levels. She is excited to join NFS because she “believes a strong foundation with proper technique is paramount for the development of a swimmer and this team really strives for that.” When off the pool deck, Brittany is a Senior Admissions Coordinator in the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences at Campbell University, enjoys spending time with her husband, Coach Dennis and their doggos Loki and Milla.

Coach Katie started swimming summer league in 2008 and joined NFS in 2011, just as Coach Mel took over. She has been here ever since, also swimming for Jax Golf, Darnell Cookman, Stanton, Atlantic Coast, and UNF through the years. While she enjoys working with every age, she has found her niche in adult swimming, starting our Masters program in 2024. She currently heads the Masters program and can also still be found practicing with the senior group!

Off of the pool deck, Coach Katie has a BS in Biomedical Sciences and BSN in Nursing. She works as an emergency nurse at HCA and is currently working on obtaining her trauma certification. She plans on returning to school in the near future to obtain her NP or DNP to become a nurse practitioner. At home, Katie enjoys spending time with her boyfriend, Connor, and their English Bulldog, Meatball. Favorite stroke: Butterfly!

Coach Erin’s swimmers have finaled in JO Championship events (now FLAGS); and have competed at the Florida High School State Championship as well as at YMCA Nationals. She was the head coach of the Cypress Creek High School swim team near Orlando and assistant coach/business administrator for Swim Orlando. In Jacksonville, she coached at Bishop Kenny, and now is the Head Coach at Paxon SAS HS.  As a high school swimmer, Erin qualified for three years for High School States. She swam her first year in college at Florida Atlantic University, and then graduated from the University of South Florida with a degree in business management. After a few years working in the business world, Erin returned to her love of swimming first as a Masters swimmer and then as a coach. For eleven years she has coached and studied under the direction of Mel Nash and is thrilled to be in Jacksonville with North Florida Swimming. A true asset to our great staff of coaches, Coach Erin is attentive and excellent at correcting technique and training swimmers.

Coach Erin is also involved in FL Swimming, and has served as team manager, area rep and is on the Diversity and Inclusion committee.  She is an ASCA Level 2 Coach. 

In Jacksonville, Erin is the head coach for Paxon SAS HS, Springfield Middle, and Deerwood Torpedoes summer league.  She has also worked with the Navy Wounded Warrior swimmers.  

Coach Billy is fully immersed in all sides of the swimming world. He is a Nationally Certified Referee, Starter and Stroke and Turn Official and has been dedicated to helping swim meets run smoothly in NE and Central Florida for the last 5 years. He is a swim Dad to his two sons, Aedan 13, and Kieran 11, who have both been swimming with Coach Carol, HOOT and NFS since they were 2 and 4. He is also a swimmer himself! He was a founding member of the NFS Master's team in June of 2024, and continues to swim and coach alongside Coach Katie this year. He enjoys swimming freestyle, and has a goal to swim a 100 IM in January of 2026 at the Rowdy Gaines meet in Orlando.