YMCA Stingrays Coaching Staff
Dan Vale, Head Coach
Coach Dan Vale grew up competing in summer league, club, and high school swimming in Northern California. He then went on to compete at the collegiate level for 4 years at Biola University while coaching his former summer league team and completing an internship with Irvine Novaquatics.
After graduating with a degree in Physical Education and a minor in Biblical Studies, Coach Dan became the Lead Senior Coach with Costa Mesa Aquatics Club (CMAC) and the Head Coach of the Pacifica Christian High School swim team. He then went on to receive his Master's in Sport Management through the University of Texas. Coach Dan was named one of the American Swim Coaches' Association 30 Under 30 Award recipients in the Spring of 2022.
Coach Dan joined the Rays in the Fall of 2020 and has helped build the team back from fewer than 60 swimmers to where it is now. The Rays have sent multiple individual swimmers and relays to the YMCA Short Course National Championships under Coach Dan and have become a top-5 YMCA team in Illinois.
Email: [email protected]
Rachel Rushing, Competitive Aquatics Coordinator, Masters Head Coach, Stingrays Assistant Coach
Coach Rachel has been a part of the Rays community since she was 8 years old first as a swimmer, and finally as a coach. She has three children: Phoenix, U'Ziya, and Asher. She currently coaches our USMS swim team and Stingrays. In addition, Coach Rachel serves as our Competitive Aquatics Coordinator managing administrative duties to ensure programming runs smoothly on and off the pool deck. She is a PhD student at Northern Illinois University in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology program with a focus on policy, metaperception, and change managememt. She welcomes every opportunity to love on the Rockford community and reinforce the core values of the Y through sports.
Email: [email protected]
Nolan Steingraeber, Assistant Coach
Email: [email protected]
Josh Martin, Assistant Coach
Coach Josh has been involved in YMCA aquatic programs since he was 3. He began swimming competitively at 6, and continued to do so until high school. He began coaching in 2013 for the Buehler YMCA Blue Marlins, and, later, the Lattof YMCA Neptune, with experience working with every level of swimmer. His move to Rockford in 2021 brought with it the chance to return to the pool deck, and he couldn’t be happier for the opportunity!
Josh graduated in 2020 from Northeastern Illinois University with a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature with a minor in Philosophy, and his M.A.T. in Secondary Education from the same school in 2022.
Off the pool deck, Josh is an English teacher at Hononegah Community High School, and spends his off time at home, enjoying spending time with his wife, Stephanie, and his daughters Bridget and Adalynne.
Email: jmartin@rockriverymca.org
Jacob Stroup, Assistant Coach
Hi, my name is Jacob Stroup and I was a competitive swimmer for about 10 years, and have been coaching now for about a year. A little bit about me I’ve spent my whole life here in Rockford. I graduated from Guilford in 2020. In my limited free time I enjoy watching movies and TV.
Email: [email protected]
Sawyer Watson, Assistant Coach
Email: [email protected]
John Cox, Assistant Coach
I first started swimming competitively in 8th grade at Harlem Middle School. Since swimming throughout my 4 years at Harlem High School and 2 years through Stingrays I've grown to love backstroke. I had the honor of being able to swim my senior year with our men's 400 free relay team that broke the record that has not been beating since 1979. My work I plan on doing outside of swimming is to start working at a carpenter apprenticeship program and become a carpenter. I look forward to coaching our stingrays team and getting to know everyone more.
Email: [email protected]
Emma Rich, Assistant Coach
Email: [email protected]
