Life Time Michigan 

Our team is a year-round competitive USA Swimming team offering high quality, professional coaching and technique instruction for all ages and abilities. The goal of our team is to promote a lifetime of wellness through the sport of swimming in a safe and inclusive environment. 

Life Time - Troy

4700 Investment Dr

Troy, MI 48908

Coach Mike [email protected]

 

Coaches

Lead Senior & Gold Coach -> Coach Mike

Michael Kavanaugh Troy

Life Time Michigan Senior Head Coach: Michael Kavanaugh ([email protected])
Aquatics Leader:  Jim Hinkson ([email protected])

 

Mike has been coaching for over 18 years, spending time between Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois coaching swimmers from novices to Olympic Trials and everywhere in-between.

Mike currently holds a Master's Degree in Applied Exercise Science from Concordia University - Chicago and holds a Bachelor's Degree from UW-Oshkosh. Mike started sharing his passion for Coaching in 2003.

While attending UW-Oshkosh, Mike coached at the Fox Cities YMCA. Upon graduating, Mike relocated with his wife to Chicago and joined Mundelein Mustang Swim Club as an Assistant Coach working his way up to Head Age Group Coach. Next, as a Head Coach in 2012 with the Beloit Aquatic Team, he produced their first National Level swimmer in over 20 years! Mike spent 3 years with the Woodstock Dolphins. While at Woodstock, he guided the program to produce its first Senior State Medalist, its first Speedo Sectional Qualifiers, and its first swimmers at NASA Jr National Cup!! Mike also produced many Age Group State Qualifiers, Zone Qualifiers, and rewrote the majority of the club’s swimming records. Most recently, Mike spent the last four and a half years as the Head Coach for AQUA Club. While at AQUA, he oversaw growth in the program and guided the program to consistently producing qualifying swimmers to State, Zone, Sectional, Futures, and above. Numerous swimming records were established at AQUA.

As a Coach, Mike is 100% committed to helping every swimmer on the team achieve their dream in swimming. Whether that is just getting better strokes and having fun or training to be on the podium at the Olympic Games. Coach Mike makes sure every Life Time Teammate feels welcome to our Lifetime swimming Family. 

 

Fun Fact: Mike has a small obsession for Star Wars. Mike loves to spend time with his wife Rachel, daughter Isabelle, and his Black Lab Charlie :)

Jonas Cantrell

Lead Developmental 2 Coach

Troy

Jonas began swimming at Holt Junior High in 7th grade. His love for the sport grew from the pursuit of constant improvement and being with his teammates. Following his middle school years, Jonas went on to Mason High School, where he was coached for 4 years by his parents, Mike and Connie.

 
Mike and Connie helped Jonas understand the sport of swimming from both a coaching and swimming perspective. In high school, he began to help coach the local area's swim club, where he found a passion for helping others along in the journey of competitive swimming. His mother coached technique and endurance, and his father coached strength and top-end speed. It was this balance that allowed Jonas to develop his love for both sides of the sport. During these years, he found his main success in middle distance to long distance freestyle, winning 3 MHSAA State titles. Following his years as an All American swimmer in high school, Jonas decided to take his swimming career to Oakland University, where he studied Mechanical Engineering.
 
In his first year at Oakland, Jonas earned both the Horizon League Freshman of the Year Award and the Oakland Athletics Newcomer of the Year Award. From there, Jonas continued his success, growing both as a leader and a teammate. Jonas graduated from Oakland with 8 Horizon League Titles in swimming and an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering.
 
Jonas began coaching private lessons following his graduation, where he continued to develop his passion for coaching. He has joined Life Time Aquatics, hoping to continue helping the next generation of athletes become better in and out of the pool. 

 

Garret Hemsing

Lead Developmental 1 & Copper Coach

Troy

 

Swim Team:  Village Swim Club, Lathrup Village, Summer Team several years.  Mainly Backstroke and Freestyle.

Swim Instructor/Swim Team Coach:  Thirteen years combined training children and adults (nearly six years at Life Time Troy).  Two years as Swim Team Coach, Life Time Troy.

Fitness Program:  Swim six miles per week; lift weights six days per week and teach water aerobics two times per week.

Sports Participation:  Swimming, Tennis, Football, Hockey, Bowling, Basketball, and others.

Hobbies:  Music Composition; some Poetry Recitation; Writing; Reading of History, Lincoln, Warfare, Space Vehicles, Astronomy, Physics Theory; Web Illustration and Photography.

Author:  Will publish novel and short story online.

Academics:  BA, Associates, and Certificate.  English, Anthropology, Engineering, Art (OU); Automotive Clay Modeling (CCS).

Career:  About 35 years chiefly in Technical Documentation/Media as  Writer, Trainer, Editor, Proofreader, some  Supervision in Automation field (Automotive related).

Website Production:  One on Detroit Entertainment and another on Michigan Beaches.

 

Assistant Developmental 1 & Developmental 2 Coach -> Coach Noah

Coach Noah has been coaching for five years, starting as a swim instructor before becoming an assistant coach for his summer league team. For the past three summers, he has served as the head coach. Noah has also been a swimmer for the past 18 years, beginning with his summer league team, Boar’s Head Swim Club. He started year-round swimming with CYAC (now known as CAV Aquatics) at the age of eight and continued until he swam for Kenyon College for four years. He also competed for his high school team, Western Albemarle.

 

At Kenyon, Noah double-majored in Mathematics and Economics with a concentration in Computer Science. While in the pool, he qualified for the NCAA championships for all three years that Division III athletes were eligible. During his senior year, Noah placed fifth in the 400 IM and earned the CSCAA Academic All-American Man of the Year award for Division III. In addition to the 400 IM, he swam the 200 IM, 200 Fly, 200 Free, and 200 Breast.

 

Noah currently works at Ford Motor Company in the treasury department. He is part of a capital markets rotational program and plans to pursue his MBA. He is stationed on a trading desk, focusing on liquidity for the company.

 

Throughout his time coaching summer league, Noah developed a passion for sharing his love of the sport and helping younger swimmers and athletes improve both in the pool and beyond. He emphasizes connecting with each athlete to help them become their best selves.

 

Lead Bronze Coach -> Matthew Perham

 

Coach Matt has been swimming since 2000. He grew up in Birmingham Michigan and swam for the Birmingham Blue Dolphins, Beachwood Barracudas, and Seaholm High school. He was a member of the 2011 and 2014 State Championship Teams and accomplished all American marks in his 2014 season. In 2013 Matt competed the YMCA national meet where is relay team earned 14th place. 

After high school, Matt took some time off where he volunteered and worked part-time at Tweak: The Athletes Edge, coaching amateur and accomplished swimmers on technique at a very granular level, working with Peter Vanderkaay and other accomplished swimmers from the University of Michigan.  He then attended Grand Valley State University and Northwood University, earning a Bachelor’s in Business Administration. In Matt’s post-grad life, he has been working in software sales since 2021 and is currently a Franchise Sales Manager for ADP. 

In Matt’s spare time he enjoys, cooking, working in his garden with his Fiancé Nicole, spending time with his Dachshund puppy, and playing cards with his friends. 

 

Nick Rancillio

Developmental 1 & Developmental 2

Troy

Nick began his swimming career in 2006 at the age of 10 on his local summer team, the SCS Sea Serpents. He quickly grew six feet tall as a sixth grader, which helped improve his athleticism and led to swimming success. He was proficient in the Backstroke and Freestyle events and fairly successful during my time in the Lakefront Swimming Association. Over the next years through high school, he continued to swim each summer and for local club teams here and there. At De La Salle Collegiate High School, he was recognized as the Freshman of the Year for the swim team in 2015, an All-American and All-State Academic honors, and set the school’s medley relay record in 2012. Unfortunately, Nick was diagnosed with mononucleosis in his junior year and felt burnt out with swimming. Although this halted his personal swimming career, it allowed him to view swimming from a different perspective: coaching.


Nick's first coaching job was with SCS from the summer of 2014 to 2016. SCS was always a smaller team, and the years taught him an important lesson in the sport of swimming: creating a competitive and enjoyable environment is the key to success. From 2017-2019 and 2021-2024, he coached two other teams in the league, GPW Warriors and GPS Sharks, and helped both teams achieve second place overall at the championship meet over those years. These second-place finishes were firsts for the GPS Sharks. Nick has coached various high school and middle school teams over the years as well. He has coached within USA Swimming since 2017 with the Grosse Pointe Gators and Lakers Aquatic Club. He have been a part of sending swimmers to the Junior Olympics/Regionals, State, Sectional, and National meets.

Nick would describe his coaching style as tough but fair, with open-minded, caring, and effective communication. When swimmers need to be pushed, he will push them. When swimmers need to be reeled in, he will reel them in. When swimmers need to be comforted, he will comfort them. When swimmers need to be acknowledged, he will acknowledge them. Each athlete has different needs in order for them to be successful. Not everyone’s path will be the same in both direction and velocity, but Nick will guide them towards what they and the team want to achieve.

 

Ben Miller

Lead Silver Coach

Troy

Ben has been swimming since he was seven years old, growing up in Oregon and eventually making his way to Northwestern University in Chicago, where he set a school record and raced at the 2023 NCAA Division I Championships. Along the way, he competed at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials and the 2023 Canadian World Trials, where he earned a spot at the Pan Am Games in Chile. He also holds the Oregon state record in the 200y fly. While he loves racing at a high level, Ben’s favorite swim meet memory is still the 8 & under 4x25 watermelon relay in Bend, Oregon.

Over the years, he’s been lucky to work with more than ten incredible coaches who shaped not just his swimming but his life—and he hopes to have the same kind of positive impact on the athletes he works with. Ben has coached with Tigard Tualatin Swim Club in Oregon, led clinics on butterfly, race prep, and college swimming, and spent several years coaching for Special Olympics Oregon.

Outside the pool, Ben is a Product Design Engineer with a degree in Design Engineering. He just got married in May, and his wife Carolyn is in medical school. He grew up with two brothers (both of whom swam!) and a labradoodle named Freddy. When he’s not swimming, you can usually find him baking, playing sports, or enjoying some good BBQ.