Coaches
Sean Kelly
Winter Head Coach/Summer Assistant Coach
Coach Kelly is excited to begin his third year with the Pennridge Gators. His life has been centered on the sport of swimming that includes 12 years as a swimmer and 32 years of coaching. His coaching timeline includes Somerton Spring Swim Club, Lower Moreland Aquatic Club, Central Bucks Aquatic Club, and 25 summers with the PSC High Point Stingrays. Currently, he is ASCA (American Swim Coaches Association) Level II.
Sean and his wife, Kate, live in Perkasie, PA. He is the proud father of Kevin, Caroline, Brendan, and Olivia. He is currently employed by the Central Bucks School District as a sixth-grade teacher at Simon Butler Elementary where he has taught for 26 years. When away from the pool, Coach Kelly enjoys spending time with his family, barbecuing food, and exercising early in the mornings.
His main purpose for coaching is to provide the knowledge and excitement that his coaches gave to him and to share in his love for the sport. Coach Kelly emphasizes stroke technique and mechanics (understanding) integrated within the training. He views every practice as a valuable piece of a puzzle with the finished result showing a knowledgeable and spirited swimmer who learns to be a team contributor. He hopes to instill confidence in children to set goals and believe they can “Make a Difference and Be a Difference” for both themselves and our team.
Jenna Anselmo
Winter Assistant Coach/Summer Head Coach
Coach Jenna is excited to return for her 13th season with the Gators! This year she will be having fun as an assistant coach but you can still count on her to be the loudest coach on deck!
Coach Jenna has been a Gator all her life. She started swimming for the summer PAC team in 1994 and fell in love with the sport. She would spend the rest of her career swimming for Pennridge in the summer and Souderton in the winter. She also was a four year varsity swimmer for the Pennridge High School. She excelled in breaststroke, backstroke, and the IM.
In 2018, Jenna returned to her alma mater to be the head coach of the men’s swim team. And in 2019 began a new adventure by becoming the assistant coach for the women’s water polo team. While coaching the high school teams is a lot of fun and allows her to do the thing she loves most as a career, her heart belongs to the Gator Gang.
When Jenna has a free moment away from the chlorine she loves spending time with her husband John and their pit-bull Apollo, reading, cooking and planning her next trip to Walt Disney World.
There’s a quote that sums up Jenna’s coaching style: “The strongest people are not always the ones who win, but the people who don’t give up when they lose”. It’s one of the core values that she strives to instill in all of her athletes along with finding the joy in everything you do!
Jacob Grant
Winter Assistant Coach
Kevin Whelan
Winter Assistant Coach
Coach Whelan is thrilled to join the PAC coaching staff this upcoming season. He has a long history with the sport of swimming, both as an athlete and a coach. He started his career as a summer swimmer at Hideaway Swim Club where his love for the sport began. He attended and swam for Archbishop Wood high school, and then went on to swim at LaSalle University.
After his competitive career ended in 2007, Kevin looked forward to beginning the next phase of his swimming life as a coach. He first served as assistant coach at CB East for five years, then went on to become head coach of both the CB South girls and boys swim teams for nearly a decade. The last two years, he assisted at CB South as his own family was growing. He was also a head coach at Fanny Chapman for three years.
Kevin has also been teaching math in the Central Bucks School District for 16 years, at Holicong Middle School and currently at CB South. His wife, Amanda, teaches blind and visually impaired students through the Bucks County Intermediate Unit. His oldest, Shalane (Laney), will turn six this year and is a proud PAC gator. His youngest, Connor, will be three this winter.
Coach Whelan has a deep love for the sport of swimming, and is equally grateful for the life lessons instilled in him by this sport and the great coaches he had throughout his life. He is thrilled to start a new chapter in his coaching career and to continue to give back to the sport that has given him so much. He is also grateful to be able to give back to the community that his young family has come to love.
Liz Muller
Winter Assistant Coach
Coach Liz is excited to join the PAC coaching staff for this upcoming winter season. She has dedicated 12 years of her life, passionately swimming for CBST/SWAC, CB West High School, Germantown Academy, and took her passion on at Albright College.
She retired competitive swimming after she graduated Albright in 2015, but quickly got back on the pool deck to be an assistant swim coach for CBST-USA and occasionally on the CBST-SAL team for six years.
Recently moving to the Perkasie area Liz took some time to focus on her career as Medical Biller, it didn’t take long before she missed motivating and guiding the younger swimming generations.
Coach Liz values the many lessons she has learned through all her mentors and strives to channel them through her coaching. She idolizes a hard working ethic which leads to her coaching style: “Perfect practice makes perfect performance”.
Joey Ruggiero
Winter Assistant Coach
Joey will be entering his freshman year at Bucks County Community College. He swam at PAC for 12 years in both the winter and summer. He was a member of both the Pennridge High School Swim team, and Water Polo team where he served as a team captain. Joey is looking forward to helping the young gators make memories and motivate them to get better each and every day.
Allyson Ricciardi
Winter Assistant Coach/Summer Assistant Coach
Timur Akman
Winter Assistant Coach/Summer Assistant Coach
Ryan Christie
Winter Assistant Coach
Lori Zimmerman
Summer & Winter Head Diving Coach
Coach Lori grew up as a PAC gator way back when... She dove with PAC over the summer, Souderton Aquatic club over the winter and competed in US Diving meets as an independent athlete. Pennridge HS started their first swimming and diving team just before she graduated high school. "The team was so small that the divers sometimes had to participate in the relay races so that we could have two relay teams! It wasn't pretty, but we got it done and had fun at the same time!"
Favorite Dive: Hmm, it now seems a life time ago...probably the back somersault layout, the front somersault full twist, and the reverse dive layout. They were definitely not the most challenging dives on my list, but they were so fun and felt effortless!
Lori took a break from coaching as she pursued her career first as an athletic trainer for colleges in PA, ME and FL, and then eventually as a school psychologist. In 2017, she returned to coaching as the head diving coach for the PAC summer program and then stayed on as the head diving coach for the winter program as well. "It is so much fun being a part of the PAC program again! I grew up with this club, and the sport of diving was a very important part of my life. Now I have the amazing opportunity to give back to the sport and to the community. Over these past few years with PAC, I have met some outstanding young athletes and families. PAC truly is a family that works to help support, encourage and develop young people to be the best version of themselves. I am very thankful to be able to be a part of PAC once again!"
Carly Files
Winter Assistant Dive Coach
My friends at diving were always so close, mostly because we spent more time in the pool than we did at home during the season. As a coach it is interesting seeing the team becoming close friends and how more kids are participating in both swimming and diving. Since she took a break from coaching last year she is excited to see how old members improved and to meet the members.
