Coach Chris Kaplan (ASCA Level 4)

Coach Chris Kaplan Chris grew up swimming for North Baltimore Aquatic Club where he was a Top 16 age group swimmer and a Junior National Qualifier.  He graduated from Fairmont State College as a NCAA Division II All American, Academic All American and school record holder in the 500, 1000, 1650 Free and 400 IM.

His coaching career began at Fairmont Area Swim Team and as an assistant coach at Fairmont State College were he coached multiple NCAA Division II All Americans.  In 2001 he became the head coach at the Beckley-Raleigh County YMCA in Beckley, WV for one year until he was offered a position in Frederick with MAC.  Chris was an assistant with Hood College and MAC until 2004.

From 2004-2007 Chris was the Lead Site coach for North Baltimore Aquatic Club in York, PA.  While at NBAC Chris developed multiple Top 16 age group swimmers as well as Junior and Senior national qualifiers.  Chris returned to MAC in 2009 as an assistant until he and Coach Jeb became the head coaches in 2012.  In 2019 Chris took over as the full-time Head Coach and Executive Director at MAC.

During his tenure at MAC, the team has grown to over 200 competitive swimmers, 200 Pre-Team swimmers, become a consistent top 2-3 club in MD Swimming, and a top 100 USA Swimming Team in the Virtual Club (VCC) Rankings.

Coach Chris lives with his wife Kiersten, daughter Emmie and son Tanner in New Market.

Jeb Beaver (ASCA Level 4)

Coach Jeb Beaver began coaching at MAC during the 2004 season.

Before beginning his coaching career, he swam for Walkersville High School.  After Walkersville, Jeb swam for Towson University and served as a team captain in 2002 and 2003--a year in which he was also a student-intern for the program--he set three Towson University school records during his career. He was also an America East Conference champion in 2001, an Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference champion in 2003, and set a Colonial Athletic Association record in 2003.  Jeb later was an assistant coach at Towson University and helped the women’s team win four straight CAA conference championships (2008-2012).

Coach Gian Polignano (ASCA Level 3)

Gian Polignano comes to MAC with an extensive coaching and swimming background in the Maryland and Potomac Valley areas. Over his coaching career, Coach Gian has coached several Junior Olympic, Zone, and Sectional swimmers as well as a handful of Top 10 and Junior National qualifiers. Gian has been elected to serve numerous times on the Potomac Valley Zone coaching staff. Most recently, Gian was Head Site Coach for Barracuda Swim Club in Kingsport TN where he led swimmers to Sectionals and Junior National qualifying times.

Gian was born in Sioux Falls South Dakota, and his family moved to Italy for a short period and then settled in the Frederick Maryland area . Gian, like many others in this part of the country, fell in love with the fun and team spirit involved in competitive swimming through being part of his community team.   Gian then chose to swim year-round at age 9 and was truly fortunate, as he swam for many great coaches, including a former MAC coach who has been elected to the Maryland Swimming Hall Of Fame, Don Feinberg. Through standing on the shoulders of Coach Feinberg and other outstanding mentors like Coach John Mason, Gian began to understand that the best coaches (and swimmers) are consummate students of the sport. There is absolutely no substitute for good old-fashioned hard work, executed with impeccable thought and precision! Gian is thankful for received his first opportunity to coach when he was still swimming competitively working with beginning 8-Under swimmers.

Gian has experience coaching with several club and Montgomery County Swim League programs within various age groups, including All Star Aquatics, National Capital Swim Club, Sea Devils Swimming, and Tollefson Swimming. 

When Gian is away from the pool, he enjoys all kinds of music, yoga, nature, reading, and the game of chess. Gian earned his Bachelors of Science at the University of Maryland and his Master of Arts in Secondary Science education from Johns Hopkins University.  

Gian looks forward to continual collaboration with his fellow coaches, parents, and swimmers.  Gian is thrilled to come back home to MAC, and during the fall/winter/spring, Gian works as a high school Chemistry and Biology teacher at South Hagerstown High School.

Coach Lauren Brenneman Nolke (ASCA Level 2)

Coach Lauren Brenneman Nolke’s time with MAC dates back to 1990 when she began her swimming career and proceeded to progress through the Senior program with then head coach Don Feinberg.

Upon graduation from East Carolina University in 2004 with a BS in Exercise Science, Lauren was recruited back to MAC as a coach with the Senior program and also helped to start the MAC's Masters program.

In 2012, Lauren transitioned to coaching the age group and novice groups, and discovered a passion for developing young swimmers through a strong foundation of stroke technique along with more rigorous training and discipline to achieve success at the state level.

Lauren holds a Master's degree in School Counseling from McDaniel College.  When she's not coaching, Lauren is teaching preschool, riding her Peloton, or taxing her kids around town.

Lauren lives in New Market with her husband Brandon and their two girls Ada and Nora.

Coach Reilly Willoughby

Coach Reilly Willoughly is entering his tenth year with MAC. Reilly started swimming for the Aspen Hill Dolphins in the Montgomery County Swim League at age 3 and was known for complaining that the water was too cold. At age 4, he started with a club team and decided that he no longer needed ice cream as a motivator to finish his races. 

Reilly swam through High School, but attended a college without a swim team, and as such did not swim in college.

When he was in high school, he started teaching swim lessons at the Frederick Y coaching the youngest group on the team. He quickly worked his way up to the coach of the 14 and under groups. After several years of coaching for the Y, Reilly decided that he wanted a change of pace and joined MAC in 2015. 

Coach Reilly loves sharing his passion for swimming with his swim-kids and loves... helping them into the cold water that plagued him so much as a child. 

In his coaching career he has had swimmers achieve every level of success from qualifying for their first state champs meet to those achieving national top 10 rankings. Coach Reilly loves helping kids get to the next level in their swimming and enjoys seeing them succeed in the pool and in life. His goal is to make every swimmer fall in love with the process of swimming and learn to enjoy the challenges that they are presented with. 

When he is not at the pool, he works in the Biotech industry. When he is not working, he enjoys reading, hiking, playing video games, playing Dungeons and Dragons, and swimming in every body of water he comes across.

Dylan’s family moved to Lake Linganore when he was 7 years old, living on the lake and not being able to swim, his parents put him in lessons at the community pool. The following summer his neighbors convinced him to join the Lake Linganore Dolphins where he swam for twelve years and began coaching as a junior coach. 

With his love of the sport, he worked his way from Junior Coach to Assistant Coach, and then was promoted to Head Coach of the Lake Linganore team.  He has now been Head Coach  of the Lake Linganore Dolphins for the past two seasons.

He graduated from Oakdale high school in 2019 where he also swam and won four County Championships.   Dylan’s favorite strokes as a swimmer were  butterfly and freestyle.   As a swimmer his biggest accomplishment was swimming the 100 fly at Regionals.

This will be Dylan’s first season with MAC. He loves working with the Pre-Team and younger swimmers to develop their stroke technique.  He also loves seeing the enjoyment swimmers get as they improve in the water.  His goal is for swimmers to love the sport as much as he does. 

When not at the pool he enjoys spending time with friends and family. He also loves playing with his Great Dane “Tucker”.  Although, Coach Dylan would probably rather be somewhere swimming!

Coach Jackie Greeves

Coach Jackie Greeves was born in Frederick, Maryland and started swimming as a young child with lessons at Hood College.

As she grew older, she joined her neighborhood summer swim team, the Clover Hill Hurricanes. At six years old, she joined Monocacy Aquatic Club and swam with both the Hurricanes and MAC until she graduated in 2019.

As a MAC swimmer, her biggest accomplishment was qualifying for Winter Junior Nationals. Her favorite events were the 100 and 200 back.

This will be Jackie’s first-year coaching for MAC. She began her coaching journey as a pre-team coach for the Clover Hill Hurricanes, when she was 12 years old, and has been an assistant coach for the Hurricanes and a MAC pre-team coach, during her time swimming for MAC.

Jackie currently attends Hood College and is in her senior year studying Elementary/Special Education.

When she is not working or attending classes, she loves to hike and paint.

Jackie’s goal is to grow in her own coaching skills while helping MAC’s youngest swimmers develop their love for the sport of swimming.

Coach Rixey Hoult

Coach Rixey Hoult started competitive swimming in the 1970’s at the Frederick YMCA with MAC’s founder, Ed Hazlett. She continued to swim at Western Maryland College, now McDaniel College, until she graduated with a degree in English/history and a teaching certificate.  Rixey taught English for several years in Frederick County, and then entered her family’s insurance business where she worked until her children were born.  In the late 80’s, Rixey coached the novice group at MAC for several years under the direction of Don Feinberg, and was Coach Lauren Brenneman Nolke’s novice coach.  Rixey’s other claim to fame is that she coached Yuri Suguiyama who was Katie Ledecky’s youth coach. Rixey rejoined MAC as a novice coach in 2017. 

For the past twenty-three years, Rixey was a stay-at-home mom, volunteering at her children’s schools and her church.  She served as the interim Director of Children’s Formation for three years at her church and continues to volunteer there serving on the Truth and Reconciliation committee.  In her free time, Rixey enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, and exercising. 

Rixey has two adult children, Nick and Jessie, and resides in Frederick with her husband, Chris.

Coach Emma grew up in Frederick, Md. Growing up, Emma swam for the summer swim team, Hood Hammerheads, and at 6 years old, joined MAC where she continued to swim until she graduated from Frederick High in 2019.

After graduating, she went on to attend McDaniel College where she pursued a degree in English and Secondard Education. Emma swam on McDaniel Women's swim team all 4 years. Her favorite events were the 500 freestyle, the 1000 freestyle, occasionally the 16000 freestyle, and the 100 butterfly.

This will be Emma's second year with MAC. She loves working with the younger swimmers; developing their strokes. Emma's love for coaching started with Hood Hammerheads where she was a junior coach 10 years ago. 

Emma is currently teaching middle school English.

When Emma is not coaching or in the classroom, she loves to float in the pool and read.

I was born and raised in Salisbury, Maryland.

I started swimming at the age of 4 for Mid-Delmarva YMCA (MDY) in Salisbury, as my mother, who coached at the time, needed a place to keep me from getting in trouble. After swimming through High school, I went to swim in college at Florida State, where I majored in Biochemistry.

I began coaching as a teenager for MDY alongside my mother, where I began to find joy in sharing my passion for swimming. In Tallahassee, I reignited my joy for coaching the summer of my senior year at ATAC. After undergrad, I focused on graduate school, where I got my PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. There, I did my dissertation on Colorectal Cancer metastasis, specifically how the cells survive circulating in the blood and settling in different areas of the body.

After my PhD, I felt the need to serve my country, so as of 2023, I joined the army. This led me back to Maryland, where I work as a Science Officer at Fort Detrick in Frederick with the Congressionally Mandated Medical Research Programs.

Outside of work and the pool, I enjoy exploring new recipes and a good novel.

Coach Joe Hawkins

Coach Joe Hawkins is from Oil City, PA where he spent 12 years swimming for the Oil City YMCA swim team and 4 years for Oil City High School.

Coach Joe was a utility swimmer that his coach could plug anywhere into the line-up to score points but not a star swimmer. He took part in summer swim camps at Clarion and Grove City Universities where his  biggest accomplishment was swimming at the PIAA State Championship at Penn State in 1992.

Coach Joe began coaching in 2018 when he was named the Head Coach at Linganore High.  He joined MAC in 2019 as an assistant with Jeb's Senior group.  Joe is currently a substitute coach for MAC.

Besides coaching for Linganore and MAC, Coach Joe teaches social studies at Linganore High.