Head Coach John Fodell has been with the Grosse Pointe Gators for nearly as long as anyone can remember there being a club. His swimmers have won numerous State, Sectional, NCSA and Junior National titles, and dozens have continued their swimming careers at Division I, II and III universities and colleges throughout the country. 

In 2016, John had two swimmers qualify for the Olympic Trials, and one of those swimmers went to the semi-finals in the 200 Breast and moved on to swim for Team USA in the 2016 Junior Pan Pacific Championships, winning the 100 breast. 

As Head Coach of the Gators, John has grown the number of Regional, State, Sectional, Junior National and National level swimmers each year and was named Michigan Swimming Coach of the Year in 2016.

With a coaching career spanning more than a decade, John has served as the head coach of the Grosse Pointe Shores Sharks in the LFSA League, where he was also the Parks and Recreation Director and then moved on to Head Coach at the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club in the MICSA League. He worked with Andy Montague in the early years of the Grosse Pointe Gators, eventually taking over as head coach in 2006 and adding the head coaching duties for both the girls’ and boys’ swim teams at Grosse Pointe South High School in 2018, after assisting those teams for ten years. That same year, he was named MISCA Coach of the Year for the South Girls. 

John earned his master’s degree in adaptive physical education from Western Michigan University in 2007 after completing his bachelor’s degree in Physical Education from Albion College the year before. While at Albion, he earned four varsity letters in swimming [along with three in tennis], held five school records, served as a team captain and was named MVP for the 2005-06 season. He was a three-time, All-MIAA swimmer and was honored as a NCAA Division III All-American swimmer in 2006. John also served as a graduate assistant at Albion, teaching college recreation classes as well as overseeing the healthy lifestyles program for the developmentally impaired.

A Grosse Pointe South High School graduate, John was a member of the National Honors Society and was Student Athlete of the Year in 2002. 

John is the Lead Coach for our Masters, Core and High School groups.

A USA Swim Coach since 2012, Stacy joined the Gators in 2019 and has been coaching intermediate swimmers on how to bridge from stroke development to racing. At the same time, she also served as a Michigan Zone and Mid States [Team Michigan] coach in 2019 and 2020. 

Stacy started swimming when she was eight years old in Plovdiv, Bulgaria [if you’re trying to pin down her accent, now you know] and continued there for most of her swim career, earning a bachelor’s degree in Physical Education from the University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Throughout her career, Stacy has developed numerous State, Zone, ISCA, Sectional, and Futures qualifiers, including Top 8 finalists and overall champions. 

Stacy has two goals as a coach: competence in all strokes and mental health. She wants her swimmers to train and compete in all events, including the individual medley, but she also wants them to build confidence in themselves. At the end of the day, what’s most important to this coach is that all of her swimmers are enjoying every moment in the water. 

Stacy is the Lead Coach for our Supersonic and Carbon Pro groups.

Ben  has been part of the Gators family since 2014, first as a swimmer and later joining the coaching staff in 2019. Since stepping into the role of Lead Age Group Coach in 2022, he has helped guide and develop many swimmers into regional and state qualifiers.

In addition to his work with the Gators, he brings experience from across the Grosse Pointe swim community. He has served as an assistant coach for the Country Club of Detroit in the MICSA league, has been the head coach of Parcells Middle School since 2022, and took on the role of head coach at Grosse Pointe Shores in the Lakefront league in 2025.

Ben strives to share his passion for the sport and loves seeing hard work and dedication pay off. As an age group developmental coach, his belief is that young swimmers should be having fun in addition to challenging themselves every practice.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Wayne State University in 2024.

Ben is the Lead Coach for our Green, Pink, and Sonic groups.

Khalib is a long familiar face on the pool deck at South. He may have seemed like a new one when he started coaching for Gators in 2022 as an assistant age-group coach, but he actually joined the team as a swimmer in 2011 at the age of 12.

An All-State Swimmer at Grosse Pointe South, Khalib was also a member of a 400 Freestyle relay team that set a school record. You might think it’s still up there, but his little brother Keiran [also K. Rahmaan] was later on a team that broke it.

Before and during high school, Khalib swam for the Grosse Pointe Park Mutants in the Lakefront Swimming Association and was the 12U Boys Breaststroke Champion in 2013. He went on to coach the Mutants and was part of the team that won back-to-back championships in 2018 and 2019, the latter also being an undefeated season.

Khalib earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical sciences from Grand Valley State University in 2022. When he’s not on deck coaching for Gators, he can also be found on deck - officiating high school meets.

Khalib is the co-lead Coach for Green, Pink, and Sonic.

Patrick returned to Gators in the spring of 2022, as he spent two years on staff from September 2013 to September 2015. But that’s not all! Patrick was one of the original Gators, swimming for the team under Coaches Andy Montague and John Fodell when the club was started. 

Patrick started swimming when he was eight years old as a Grosse Pointe Farms Barracuda in the Lakefront League. After swimming with the Gators, he swam for Grosse Pointe South High School and continued his career at Albion College where he specialized in the 100 and 200 breaststroke, and “somehow” ended with the 1650 free. 

As if swimming wasn’t enough of a water sport, Patrick was president of Albion’s Canoe Club and was an American Canoe Association national collegiate champion in the OC2 [open canoe, two person] in 2013. 

After college, he came back to Grosse Pointe and was an assistant coach at the Country Club of Detroit in the MICSA league in 2014. 

While at Albion, he earned at B.A. in physics and math while minoring in Spanish, graduating in 2013. He earned a B.S.E. In electrical engineering from the University of Michigan - Dearborn in 2016 and is currently back, working on his M.S.E, also in electrical engineering. His career path has taken him all the way to Japan, where he lived for 1.5 years working for DENSO as an application engineer. 

Liz Nelson is a USA Age Group Developmental Swim Coach with over 40 years of professional coaching experience. During her 43+ yr tenure, Liz has trained and developed numerous State and Zone Qualifiers, Finalists and Champions as well as Junior National, Senior National and Olympic Trial Cut Qualifiers.

She specializes in assessing new swimmers and establishes progressions and criteria for advancement to higher groups. She implements the latest in technical drills and provides full season workout planning, meet preparation and taper training for age group swimmers up to 18 years but especially for swimmers 12 years and under.

She maintains on-going professional training with coursework from USA Swimming and has a wide network of seasoned USA Swimming Coaches as peers and advocates.

Her philosophy of coaching involves firm but loving support in helping swimmers to challenge themselves with more complex techniques, speed and endurance training.

Encouraging the love of swimming is something Liz has perfected, and she attributes her affinity for age group developmental swimmers to her experience as both a mother a Grandmother.

It’s not uncommon for her to surprise a young swimmer with the fact that she coached their mother or father – and sometimes both!