Coach John joined the CBR YMCA Swim Team Family in 2017 as a parent, joining the coaching staff in 2021 working primarily with the Senior & Pre-Senior Groups at the Doylestown YMCA branch. He is also the Head Coach for the CB West High School Boys Swim Team and one of the Senior Assistant Coaches at the Fanny Chapman pool since 2021. 

Coach John has been a lifelong swimmer, athlete and member of the YMCA. He learned to swim at the age of two through the Abington YMCA lessons program. In the years that followed his athletic & swimming career went down many paths, playing soccer, football, basketball, baseball and track. He swam with Hatboro-Horsham High School, Abington Dolphins, UDAC, HHAA, GA and Hatboro YMCA, where he was fortunate enough to represent the community at YMCA Nationals. 

AfterCoach John graduated from Gettysburg College 2002, where he continued his athletic career, playing both Football and Swimming, he married and moved to Charlottesville, VA. In Virginia, he and his amazing wife Erin, had two children, Louden & Eliot, who started their swimming career at the Piedmont YMCA.

Coach John, continues to compete in open water swims, triathlons and ironman races. He is a believer in taking a positive approach to sports and life, understanding that life is made up of a series of moments, each of which give us an opportunity to get better. 

Sarah is a local product, having grown up in Milford Square, PA and graduating from Quakertown Community High School in 2007.  She began competitive swimming with the Quakertown Summer Swim Team in 1998 and continued until her senior year in 2007.  Sarah also swam for the Upper Bucks YMCA from 1999-2005 and for the Quakertown High School Swim Team from 2003-2007.  She has been involved with UBY Aquatics in many other forms, having worked for UBY since 2004 as a lifeguard and swim instructor.  For several members of the UBY Swim Team, their first swim lessons were with Sarah.  After high school, Sarah attended Montgomery County Community College, earning an Associate's Degree in Liberal Arts and serving as a camp counselor for School House Learning Center from 2007-2008.  

Sarah started coaching with the Upper Bucks YMCA Swim Team in 2012.  Sarah also formally served as an assistant coach and then Co-Head Coach of the Quakertown Community High School Swim Team 2013-2015 and as an assistant with the SOLECO Summer Swim Team 2014-2015. Sarah became the Assistant Aquatics Director in January 2016 and became the Head Coach of UBR, 2016-2022.

I don't really remember a time not being in the water.  At a young age my mother had myself and my siblings in swim lessons which then turned into swim team.  Her logic was we were all tired out and cleaned on a regular basis!  Growing up in North Carolina we belonged to the AAU swimming organization, swimming full winter seasons.  Carpooling was the way to go.  Tumbling down the driveway in the early morning hours, pop-tart in hand, we met our friend's mom who took us to AM workout.  My mom picked up and drove us to school.  On the way we ate the breakfast she had prepared for us.   Summers we joined an outdoor swim club, swimming and competing with friends from the winter program.  We basically lived at the pool, starting with the chilly early morning practice then playing all day in and out of the pool followed by afternoon practice then home.  With NC heat being what it is, it was the best place to be and besides, what kid doesn't want to hang out all day with their friends?!  Along the way I also studied dance and gymnastics, but swimming always remained a constant.  In high school I swam for our high school team.

Upon entering the University of NC, I took a break from swimming.  However, having always been an active person and one who enjoyed group activities, I searched for something to fill that void.  It was there I had the opportunity to explore the Korean martial art of TaeKwonDo.  The self-discipline and perseverance I learned from swimming lent itself to my martial art study.  TaeKwonDo I found also ev

oked the same life lessons I had learned by being part of a swim team.  Both disciplines allowed me to grow and challenge myself on an individual level as well as on a communal level.  Both stressed the importance of attention to the process –that it was from the journey that we learned, not the medal at the end. It also brought about my passion for teaching and working with children.  As a second degree black belt, I worked with both children and adults for 7 years – each age group bringing their own set of challenges and opportunities for me to grow from as a person.

With the many twists and turns life has brought, I am happy to once again have the opportunity to work with children in a sport I love.   I always tell people swimming is the one sport you will always be able to come back too, no matter how old you are or what condition your body is in.  I feel fortunate to be a part of this coaching team here at CBFYMCA and am dedicated to developing a healthy and comprehensive swimming program for your children.

I am also an ASCA Level 1 certified coach.