A graduate from Morrow High School in 1997, Denis was a member of the Morrow Mustangs Swim Team for 4 years, winning several county medals. Because of his outstanding performance with the team, he was awarded “The Coaches' Award” for two years. Denis was a member of the Tara Tarpons Swim Team for 6 years and was awarded the 2nd place High-Point trophy in 1996 and the 1st place High-Point trophy in 1997,  for the Tara Tarpons Swim Team and continued his swimming career with ABSC in Athens while attending UGA. With a B.A. in Studio Art from the University of Georgia he is currently working as an illustrator. Denis is an accomplished artist having sold two of his works to Clayton College and State University for their offices in the Student Building. A coach for our summer league for since 2001, he began coaching with the Tara Tarpons as a year round coach in 2002. We are pleased to have him on board as one of our coaches.

Judy Burdette began coaching for the Tarpons in 1995. Presently, she is employed full time on the Physical Therapy Staff at Henry Medical Center and specializes in Aquatic Therapy. The physical therapy and competitive swimming background has enabled her to teach swimming with the Blaze sports program and assist athletics with disabilities. Personal Swimming background includes USA swimming from age 10-19 in the Washington D.C. area as well as being a successful high school swimmer. Her personal philosophy is to teach the swimmers that how they perform in practice will reflect how their performance will turn out. If they try to have fun and try their best each time, even if it does not work out, they should accept it graciously and move on to their next challenge.

Kim is a new Coach for the Tara Tarpons. Kim comes to us with many years of experience as a swimmer and a USA Swimming official.