Coaches
Carrie Stolar
Masters Lead Coach
Originally from Naperville, Illinois, Carrie swam for a YMCA team and won numerous state championships; she also was a top eight finisher at Nationals in the 100 and 200 fly and 200 IM. Carrie competed for Naperville Central High School, where she held school records in the 100-200-500 free, 100 fly and 200 IM and placed at state.
While at Vanderbilt University, Carrie was a Division II All-American in the 200 fly and 400 IM and four-year letter winner and was Vanderbilt’s Academic Athlete of the Year in 1986. She graduated from Vanderbilt with a double major in Economics and European Studies. Carrie also has her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Carrie gained coaching experience by coaching park district teams in her hometown. She is a Minnesota Masters swimmer, competing in open water and pool competitions on the locally and national level. She currently serves as chair of Minnesota Masters swimming and is on the board of directors of USMS where she serves as secretary, giving back to the sport that has given so much to her.
Doug Helm
Masters Coach
Doug moved to Minnesota in the Spring of 2016 with his wife Marsha and daughters Penelope and Nadia. He is a project manager at General Mills, a swimmer, a masters coach, as well as an age group coach.
His swimming career began at age 10 in the Naperville, IL park district conference and continued year-round swimming at age 12. He attended and swam for the University of Iowa where he earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering.
Doug began his coaching career in Iowa City as the City High and West High boys coach during his 5th year at Iowa. He continued coaching with Maverick Swim Club in Naperville IL, becoming the head age group coach from 1998-2016. In addition to head coach activities, he lead 12 and over groups of differing ability throughout the years.
Gerry Vandam
Masters Coach
Gerry is from Albuquerque, NM where he swam age group, high school, and then continued to swim for the University of New Mexico. While swimming at UNM, he started an AAU club team, Valley Swim Club, and was head coach for 4 years. After graduating from UNM, he joined the United States Navy were he flew off aircraft carriers for 20 Years (A-6s, A-4s, EA6Bs, F-4s, FA-18s, E-2Bs, T-2s, T-34s and T-38s) When not at sea, he earned two additional degrees, a Master of Arts in International Relations Salve Regina University and a Masters of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies, Naval War College. During his career in the Navy, he started a masters swim program at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fl. When his kids began swimming at the ages of 7, 5, and 4, he began officiating, continued for 13 years and was certified up to National Referee. In 1996, he retired from the USN after my Squadron Command Tour at the rank of Commander. After the Navy, he started working for Northwest Airlines/Delta airlines and moved to Minneapolis. He retired as a Delta Captain in 2015 after flying DC-9s, MD-88/90, A320's and 747's.
Gerry started swimming masters during the summer of 1993 and has continued until today. He competed in many Masters Nationals finishing in the top 10 numerous times. He missed coaching and after retiring, he was lucky and got a chance again to work with Minnetonka Masters.
Elizabeth Hansen
Masters Coach
Elizabeth began her swimming career at age seven for Mach 3 Flyers. She later swam for Minnetonka High School and finished her swimming career in college for University of Wisconsin – La Crosse. Her favorite events were the fun ones: 200 fly, 400 IM and the mile. Elizabeth started her coaching career in college by helping on deck at Mach 3 over the summers. She has been coaching the Wayzata High School Girls Swim and Dive team since 2006 but she still bleeds a bit of blue and white when it comes to helping the Minnetonka Masters swim program. When not on the pool deck, Elizabeth can either be found teaching social studies at Wayzata High School or going on adventures with her family.
