Coach Silva is originally from Wheaton, Illinois and moved to Southern CA in 2012.  She swam club for West Chicago Sharks from age 13-18 and High School at Wheaton North.  Coach Silva then swam for her college team, Carthage College, in Kenosha Wisconsin, where she majored in Biology and Chemistry.  After college she spent a year teaching English in Madrid, Spain to 3^rd grade Spanish students.  Upon returning to the US she worked in several labs completing quality control testing.  After realizing the lab world wasn’t for her, she completed graduate school at Louis University to get her Master’s in Education.  Shortly thereafter she moved to Santa Monica to take a teaching position at University High School Charter in West LA.  There she taught Biology, Chemistry and Nanotechnology while coaching swimteam and waterpolo.  In 2020 she moved to Manhattan Beach and began her teaching career in 2021 at Mira Costa as a science teacher and swim coach.  In her free time Coach Silva loves to scuba dive, bike, hike and travel.  

Coach Heidi grew up in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and started swimming competitively at age 4.  At 16 she switched clubs and drove 2 hours a day to swim for Seacoast Swim Association in New Hampshire alongside multi-gold medalist Jenny Thompson and coached by Mike Parratto (who also recently coached Olympian & World Record holder Regan Smith).  With Seacoast Heidi competed at Senior Nationals and Olympic Trials before committing to Div I Northwestern University.  At NU she was part of the All-American 800 Free Relay freshman year.  Following a back injury, Heidi transferred out to UCSB and graduated from the Honors Program with a degree in Environmental Science.  She became a LA County Ocean Lifeguard in 1994 and is still working today, usually teaching Junior Guards.  She competed extensively in Surf Lifesaving around the world, thanks to her swimming background.  She spent years coaching and swimming Masters in the South Bay, but now enjoys tennis (NOT pickleball!).  On her path to becoming a critical care RN, back in 2002 Coach Heidi attended and swam for El Camino College at age 28, swimming a lifetime best in the 100 fly by “swimming smarter, not harder.” This remains her coaching philosophy today. 

Mary started her competitive swimming career in Connecticut with her 4 brothers when she was 8 year old. She moved to CA in 1984 and swam all 4 years of high school as well as college.  In her 4 years of Div 1 collegiate swimming at University of San Diego, she was on scholarship, Captain of the team and named Athlete of the Year in her graduating year of 1992. Mary also taught swim lessons for over 10 years. She found ocean swimming in 2000 and has been a very competitive open water swimmer in the 2-mile Dwight Crum Pier 2 Pier Swim ever since. She is thrilled to join the Mira Costa Coaching Staff to support Coach Heidi.

Cindy joined her local swim team at age 7 enticed by her dad’s promise of her very own replica of the vintage 1972 U.S. Olympic Team suit. Her swim-wear fashion sense improved, and she continued to swim competitively for her age group, high school and college teams. She attended UC San Diego, swimming all 4 years, serving her team as Captain in her Senior year, and earning All-American honors in butterfly, breaststroke and IM events. After college graduation, Cindy joined the Rosebowl Aquatics Masters and after many, many miles of swimming in the pool with some of the funniest, smartest, most interesting people, she started training with some of these pals for the Maui Channel Swim Relay; and for years made the annual trip to swim with teams of 5 others through the beautiful waters between Lanai to Maui. She even swam a local Maui open water event when 7-months pregnant with her MCHS Senior daughter, Catalina, which may explain the younger Marian’s love of water sports. Cindy has taken on-again-off-again hiatuses from swimming since her 6th grade twins were born, but she has jumped back into the water recently and is excited to share her love of swimming in support of both the MCHS swim team and coaching staff.