You walk into a pool and it becomes home - the chlorine smell to the splashing on the pool deck, to the loud deafening sounds of parents and coaches all yelling to swim faster. This environment is a place that most swimmers learn to love. Coach Kim Berndt has made her love of this atmosphere a lifelong career.

Kim started her swimming career in upstate New York. She quickly learned that competitive swimming takes commitment and training.  In addition to her technique and endurance training in the pool, she learned the importance of the mental game needed to achieve one’s goals.  Swimming at the collegiate level, Coach Kim competed at the Division 1 NCAA Swimming Championships. She still holds several school’s records at the University of Miami. Additionally, she has swam all over the world as part of the USA National team competing, placing at many different International meets.

Following her competitive career and graduating from the University of Miami, she transitioned her passion and love for swimming into coaching. She began her coaching career in Miami, Florida. She has vast experience coaching swimmers of all ages, novice to high school. Coach Kim relates to swimmers, bringing her background and experiences to help the swimmers succeed in achieving their goals.

Kim started with the Aquatic Club of Elkhorn simply as a “swim parent” when two of her three children began swimming with the team in 2015.  Upon request of the former ACE head coach, Jay Thiltgen, she joined the ACE coaching staff in 2016. She has coached nearly every ACE group through the years. She has been integral in helping to developing a strong base for team of athletes  in order to help to guide the ACE swimmers through the beginning progressions of competitive age group swimming all the way through the elite levels of competition.

In addition to building a strong developmental base for our swimmers, Coach Kim helps each athlete learn how to work through the struggles and roadblocks that come from competing at a high level no matter the event.  From the pool deck to the real world, Coach Kim believes that there are lots of life skills that come from competitive swimming for kids of all ages.

In March 2020, Kim was asked to take over the team as the interim ACE head coach upon the announcement that the former ACE Head coach awas stepping away from swimming. Coach Kim successfully guided the club and swimmers through the challenging aspects of the pandemic. In the Fall of 2020, the ACE Board of Directors offered Coach Kim the position of the ACE Head Coach. 

In addition to her responsibilities as the ACE head coach, Coach Kim is also the coaching director for the Elite group, as well as for the White and Novice groups.

Kim and her husband, live in the Bennington area and have three children.

Growing up, Ally has always loved the sport of swimming and enjoyed the variety that it offered. Coach Ally began her swimming career at GNST, Greater Nebraska Swim Team, in Lincoln; and continued her swimming as a student athlete with the University of Indianapolis swim team.

Going into her Junior year of college Ally’s family moved to the Omaha area and had the opportunity to train with ACE in the summers. Throughout her club years, and college swimming, Coach Ally learned to love both butterfly and freestyle, with an occasional mix of the other strokes.  She mainly gravitated to the 200 fly group, and 100 - 200 freestyle.

Outside of the pool, she is a a fifth grade teacher at Blue Sage Elementary School, in the Elkhorn school district.   Go Otters!

Matthew is from Hastings, Nebraska. He started swimming his freshman year of high school and fell in love with the sport. He swam at Midland University for 4 years and was a scholar athlete as well as a member of the national team. After he graduates this Spring  he’ll be working at the Munroe - Meyer Institute Austin Care for Toddlers. He is excited to still be a part of the swimming world and loves working with the ACE swimmers!

Leslie has been actively involved with ACE since 2010. Initially as a swim parent, she served on the ACE Board of Directors. In the Fall 2014, Leslie joined the Aquatic Club of Elkhorn staff as the club administrator overseeing all aspects of the “dry side” administrative duties of the team such as billing, team registration, general communications, ACE website and managing the behind the scenes details of our hosted swim meets so the coaching staff can focus on coaching our swimmers.

Leslie and her husband, Scott, live in the West Omaha area and have two "swammers" in college.