Coaching Staff
Jeff was born and raised in Canton, Ohio. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Construction Management from Eastern Michigan University.
Jeff is Executive Director and Senior Group Head Coach. Jeff was the Head Coach for the Gahanna YMCA Gators from 2016-2020, after being an assistant coach from 2014-2016. He has been the Head Coach at Gahanna Lincoln High School since 2014. Prior to coaching with the Gators, Jeff was an Assistant Coach with the Ohio State Swim Club 2009-2014. He was the head swim coach at Westerville North High School from 2000–2014, Westerville South High School in 2014, and head senior coach with the Highlands Otters of the Greater Columbus Swim League 2004-2014.
As a high school coach, Jeff has coached over 70 Ohio state meet qualifiers, 56 All Americans, was voted the 2022 Ohio Division 1 Women's State Coach of the Year, 2022 This Week News/Columbus Dispatch Central Ohio Coach of the Year for Girl's swimming, 2007 and 2022 Central District Women’s Swim Coach of the Year, and was the 2020 recipient of the State of Ohio Sportsmanship, Ethics, and Integrity award for Girl’s Swimming.
As Gators Head Coach, he coached 15 YMCA National Qualifiers, including the team’s first ever female relay qualifiers (2017), first ever individual male qualifier (2018), and first ever male relay qualifiers (2019). Gator swimmers broke 159 team records during his tenure as Head Coach, including 55 in 2019 and 44 in 2020.
Jeff competed for Eastern Michigan University and is a former National High School record holder and US Masters Swimming National Champion. Jeff is a Realtor with e-Merge Real Estate Premium in Gahanna and resides in New Albany with his wife, Rachel, and their three sons, McCord, Eli, and Ezra.
Hayden has been swim coaching since 2016. He previously coached with the Gahanna YMCA Gators (2016-2020) before joining Hydra for its first season in 2020. His favorite aspects of coaching are building relationships with all the swimmers, guiding them to achieve their goals, and of course making the sport of swimming fun.
Hayden started swimming at 12 for the Summer Gahanna Sea Lions. He ended up competing all 4 years of High School where he became a State Meet Qualifier and 4 years of college where he achieved Scholar All-American and multiple school record holder. Hayden still competes with a Masters team in New Albany and goes to the national meet every year.
Hayden is a 2011 HS graduate of St Charles Preparatory School in Columbus as well as a 2015 undergraduate at the University of Mount Union with a major in Sports Business/Management. Hayden works full time in New Albany as the Aquatics Coordinator of New Albany High School.
Coach Luke will be heading into his 6th year of coaching this fall. He previously coached at the Gahanna YMCA for 4 seasons, was a lifeguard for 3 years and an Aquatics Coordinator for 1 year. As a swim coach at the Gahanna YMCA, Luke primarily coached "Swamp Monsters," the teams 9-10 year age group. He attended and graduated Bishop Hartley High School from 2011-2015, and was on the school's swim team all 4 years. Luke has been competitively swimming since he was 12 years old and still continues to competitively swim for the New Albany Masters Program. His favorite stroke is backstroke, and his favorite event to race is the 100 yard backstroke.
For Coach Luke, the best part about coaching is getting to watch his swimmers grow and improve. He is very excited to get this season underway and can't wait to see what great things come out of it!
Matt grew up in the Detroit, Michigan area where he was an age group swimmer for the South Oakland YMCA. While a senior at Berkley High school Matt was a 2X MI State Champion and a YMCA Nationals Champion. After high school Matt attended and swam at The Ohio State University where he was a team captain, team record holder and All-American.
Matt has coaching experience that spans clubs, YMCA’s, and the collegiate level. Currently Matt is entering a fourth year on the Hydra coaching staff. Along with coaching, Matt has been on the Board of Directors with Hydra Aquatics since pre- day one.
Matt lives locally in Gahanna with his wife, Kelly and their three kids, all who swim for Hydra. Taylor, Samantha, and Justin.
Rob Bey Assistant Coach Senior Hydra
Email: [email protected]
Mr. Bey was born and raised here in Columbus and graduated from Brookhaven HS in 1972. A year later he entered the Marine Corps where he became a navigator on KC130F’s. After being discharged from the service he went to work for Ohio Bell, which later became SBC, Ameritech, and lastly AT&T. He worked as a service representative, processed billing in the data department, and the last 17 years was a Design Engineer, retiring in 2012 after 33.5 years.
Rob grew up in Cincinnati and graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. He swam for OSU and was a two-year captain.
Rob brings 8+ years of coaching experience to Hydra across summer league, high school, YMCA, and USA swim teams. As head coach at Jerry Garver YMCA, Rob coached Ohio High School State, YMCA National, Central Zone, and JO qualifiers. His favorite part of coaching is the joy in all of the “first time” moments associated with swimming.
In his swimming career, Rob was a Senior National and NCAA qualifier in the breaststroke events. He was a Ohio High School, YMCA National, and Masters National champion.
Rob is a logistics manager for Cardinal Health and lives in Gahanna with his wife Brittany and sons Henry and Jack
Brittany Kauscher Assistant Coach
Email: [email protected]
Brittany grew up in Fremont, Ohio and graduated from Bowling Green State University with Bachelor of Science in Education and Masters in Mental Health Counseling. While at BGSU Brittany was a member of the of the Women’s Swimming and Diving team and was team captain her senior year. Brittany brings over ten years of coaching experience across summer league, high school and USA swim teams. In her swimming career Brittany was a MAC finalist in the 100 and 200 backstroke while swimming at BG. She was a three-year state qualifier in multiple events for Fremont Ross High School. Brittany has worked at The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center as a Behavior Specialist for the past 13 years.
She is married to Rob and has two sons Henry and Jack.
Rich Morris Assistant Coach
Email: [email protected]
Rich was born in Montreal, Canada and raised in Plantation, Florida. He is a Domestic Relations Attorney in Private Practice in Gahanna, Ohio. He resides in Gahanna, Ohio with his wife, Dakeena and has 2 daughters, Morgan and Marissa.
Rich has been coaching club swimming since 2013 and coached masters prior to that. He was the Head Swim Coach at Westerville North from 2015-2019
He was previously the Coach Chair for Ohio Swimming.
As a coach, Rich has coached Multiple State High School Champions including a State Record Holder in the 200 IM, Olympic Trials Qualifiers, Age Group State Champions and NCSA qualifiers and Champions.
He has been a Lead Coach of Age group swimmers and has coached IM for High school swimmers the past 4 years.
As a swimmer, Rich swam for Canada including winning a British Age Group Championship in 1979, winning multiple medals at the Maccabiah Games in 1981 and won a Florida High School State Championship in the 200 IM and was a US Junior National Champion in the 200 Back and 400 Medley Relay in 1982. Rich still swims Masters and competes at Masters Nationals each year.
Rich loves swimming and is passionate about the sport and his belief is that swimming should be fun.
Ethan Jacko Assistant Coach
Email: [email protected]
Stephanie Allman Assistant Coach
Email: [email protected]
