Head Coach of the Rays Program; Site Director FMAC; Lead Senior 1 Coach and Senior Program Lead for the Rays 

Name: Jon Mengering aka Big Show

It is my privilege to be the Head Coach and Executive Director of Competitive Aquatics for the YMCA of Upper Palmetto Rays. As a coach in the South Carolina LSC for more than 17 years now; I’ve been able to observe the proud tradition of the Rays swim program from afar, the excitement is very real to be able to engage with the team, community and all of the YMCA of Upper Palmetto members.

It is my goal to help the Rays program, its swimmers and coaches strive for and achieve their goals in and out of the pool. The swimmer is a complex and multifaceted student athlete, the goal for academic and athletic success can be accomplished while competing at the highest levels in both arenas. The critical piece is balance in all things, greatness is not a myth, it is available to us all should we be brave enough to strive for it and believe in ourselves enough to reach out for it.

My mission is to empower the athletes, the coaches and everyone that supports the Rays and this program to achieve that end. We can be great, each and every one of us. Will it be easy, absolutely not; but I guarantee it will be worth it, if you’re brave enough to take the journey.

Appreciate the work, trust the process and believe in yourself; through these three things nothing can stand in our way. I believe in team; teamwork, teammates and the philosophy that brings them both together. There is nothing we cannot achieve if we commit to ourselves, our sport and our team. Hard work can be fun too! The goal is to enjoy the process, be with our teammates and learn from each other.

I’ve been in and around swimming my entire life. Starting with lessons when I was four years old at my neighborhood pool to NCAA Division 1 swimming as a member of the Clemson University Men’s Swimming Team. I began coaching with the university program in the winter of 2006 and began as head coach for Clemson Aquatic Team in the fall of 2007. I have learned from some of the best coaches in many levels of the sport, I was fortunate to swim for and gain insight from these mentors of mine and I bring that knowledge, energy and passion with me to the Rays.

Now entering the fourth year of my tenure here at the Rays I have seen incredible things in this swim community we have at the Rays. We have come so far, such a long way from where we started; we did that only by working TOGETHER and doing the hard work needed to make this program what the community deserves. I fully believe, as well as we have done; the best is yet to come. Let's get after it.

#RaysAsOne

And as always...Stay Frosty.

Cindy has been coaching the sport of competitive swimming for twenty years. Cindy joined the Rays coaching staff in 2005.  She has coached many levels for the Rays team, from age group to interim senior coach for the 2012-2013 season. Cindy started coaching the Manta and Blue Rays groups in 2016. Every high School season Coach Cindy leads the Fort Mill HS team from August 1st to Mid October. After HS Cindy will be stepping on deck at our FMAC location to lead the Pre-Senior 1 group and assist with others.  

Cindy was head coach of the Tega Cay Breakers summer league team from 2001-2014.   She coached the team to consecutive Metrolina League Championships from 2010-2014. 

Cindy is Head Coach of the Fort Mill High School Boys and Girls Swim Team.  She has been coach of these teams since 2008.  She has led the FMHS boys and girls team to 10 consecutive Region Champion titles, the girls team to five state team silver medals (2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016) the boys team to back-to-back team state championships in 2010 and 2011 and two state team silver medals in 2014 and 2018.

Cindy has been awarded:

·     National Federation of High Schools 2014 State Boys Team Swim Coach of the Year

·     High School Sports Report 2014 AAAA Boys Swim Coach of the Year 

·     National Federation of High Schools 2016-2017 Boys Team Swim Coach of the Year

·     National Federation of High Schools 2016-2017 Girls Team Swim Coach of the Year

·     National Federation of High Schools 2016-2017 Girls Team Sectional Swim Coach of the Year (Sectional 8 states: AL, FL, GA, LA, MS, NC, SC TN) 

·     SCACA/SCHSL 2016-2017 South Carolina Boys and Girls Swim Coach of the Year

Cindy swam competitively from the age of 8 through high school in Waterloo, Iowa. She participated in YMCA, AAU and high school swimming. Cindy is a graduate of Iowa State University (Go Cyclones!!) with a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. Cindy has loved participating in many sports over the years, however, her true passion is competitive swimming! She loves to come to practice every day and hopes to encourage all her swimmers to find success and a continued love for competitive swimming.  Cindy has three children, Alex and twins Julia and Sam, who all swam for the Rays Swim Team. 

Coach Lynn Williams is from Kershaw, SC.  She coaches the Senior 2 athletes at FMAC.  Coach Lynn started her coaching career in 1974 when she started coaching summer league Kershaw, S.C. while in college.  In 1977 she began coaching the Fort Mill Swim team for summer league, which lead to her starting her career as a year round coach in 1978.  Coach Lynn has been with the Rays program since the year it started in 1988 (she was the founding coach), even though the Upper Palmetto YMCA Stingrays name was not established until 2002.

Coach Lynn is qualified as a ASCA level 3 coach.  She was honored as the South Carolina Age Group Coach of the Year in 1992.  Coach Lynn will tell you the most rewarding part of being a coach is seeing the success of the athletes that she has coached, not only in the water but as adults as well.

The most important thing Coach Lynn hopes to instill in her athletes is hard work and doing things the right way brings great success in every endeavor of life, not just swimming. Swimming is about life, not just what happens in the pool.  It is a mechanism for learning how to be successful at your ability level in athletic competition, which leads to learning how to be successful in life. It is learning how to work with many different people to bring success to the group, not just the individual.

Coach Lynn has two sons, two grandsons and 1 grand dogs.  She retired as Rural Letter Carrier.  Coach Lynn’s grandfather, grandmother, and father were all Rural Letter Carriers.  Coach Lynn was honored as the 2015 South Carolina Rural Letter Carrier Member of the year.  As a child Coach Lynn played basketball, took ballet and baton.  She also played piano and trumpet, which she played in the Andrew Jackson High School Band.  Coach Lynn was a member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority at Appalachian State University. Another fun fact about Coach Lynn is she remembers paying $0.10 for swim lessons!

Coach Alyssa McAllister is from Exton, Pennsylvania. She will be coaching the Electric Rays at the FMAC site.  She has been coaching swimming for a total of six years.  Alyssa has coaching her old club team Lionville Community YMCA Riptides located in Exton for 2 years.  She was the head coach for the Northwestern Swim Team for 3 years.  Coach Alyssa is currently the assistant coach for the Nation Ford swim team.  In the summertime, she coaches for the Rock Hill Country Club.  This will be her third year coaching for the Rays.

Coach Alyssa swam competitively at the age of seven through high school for both her club and high school teams.  During this time, she qualified for both District and State Championship meets.  She also swam for Penn State’s Club swim team for two years and qualified for club Nationals in Georgia.

Coach Alyssa hopes to foster strong relationships with the swimmers in her group.  She hopes to teach her swimmers to love and appreciate the sport of swimming, to encourage and support their teammates and to understanc the importance of hard work and determination.

A fun fact about Coach Alyssa:  She loves to scuba dive and has been a certified diver since she was 10 years old.

Randy is a fourth year coach with the Rays and a lifelong swimmer.  He started swimming competitively at age 9 for his local YMCA team and swam for his high school in Pennsylvania where he grew up.  After a long hiatus from routine swimming he reentered the sport joining US Masters Swimming in 2018 and has been competing at regional meets. He graduated from Penn State with a degree in MIS and currently works in the health industry supporting technology.

This will be Coach Randy’s 5th season working with the Rays.  He started swimming for his local YMCA team at age 9 and was a state level swimmer for the Y and his high school in Pennsylvania. After a long break from the pool, he decided to come back to swimming in 2018 and joined US Masters Swimming that year. Since then, he has been swimming almost daily and he compete in several meets a year.  He does have a family (wife, son, daughter, dog) and a day job, working in Information Technology for a large health insurance company.  Randy is also a great assistant for Nations Ford High School.

Coach Doug Fleck is from Elkhart, Indiana.  He will be the lead coach of  Pre Senior 2 and Asst with Manta and other Senior Groups at our Clover site.  Coach Doug has over 55 years of coaching and swimming experience.  He started coaching summer league swimming at the age of 16 and year round swimming at 26 years old.  He has coached at the Johnston YMCA in Charlotte, Palm Springs, Texas Swim Camp, Team Charlotte Swimming and Charlotte Swim Masters.

Coach Doug has had tremendous success as a coach.  Coach Doug coached the first ever 12 year old to go under a minute in the 100 back in North Carolina.  He coached athletes to Olympic Trial cuts in 04”, 08’ and 12’.   Coach Doug played a strategic part in having an athlete place 2^ndat Senior Nationals in the 200 breaststroke.  He also coached the World Record holder in 100 Fly for masters.

Coach Doug is a level 3 ASCA certified coach.   He also took 1^stplace in the 50-yard backstroke at North Carolina State his 1^styear swimming.  In college he was a NAIA qualifier for 3 years.  As a masters swimmer he placed 3^rdin the 50 fly at the World Championship and took a 1^stplace finish in the 400 IM at YMCA Master Nationals.

Coach Doug believes technique is critical for improvement as an athlete develops mentally and physically. He knows a strong kick promotes a strong fluid stroke that will in turn instill a strong swimming game!  He believes an athlete needs to enjoy what the sport brings to you and to appreciate and respect the process.  Coach Doug says circle swimming is life; it is full of angles, decisions, memories, challenges, failures, success and treasured friendships.

When Doug isn’t on the pool deck, he is at home with his wife, Beth, and his two dogs, Gracie and Koors.

Some interesting facts about Coach Doug:  He played tennis, soccer, basketball, baseball, rugby, ran cross-country and swam in college!  He also has the same birthday as his father and grandmother.

Heather grew up in and around Wichita, Kansas and moved to the Carolinas in 2002.  She’s a regular at the former ASCG, now Fort Mill UPYMCA Complex, pool where’s she’s taught all age groups of swimmers: from preschool, swim team, adults, and triathletes over the last the last three years.  She’ll be coaching the Mini Rays and Atlantic teams.  She’s excited to see so many familiar faces from the Complex joining the Rays!
Fun fact: Heather once bribed pool attendants to allow her to swim in the outdoor Moscow Olympic pool in the middle of winter!

Coach Olivia May grew up in Knightdale North Carolina.  This will be her 2nd  1st year coaching with the Rays. She will be lead coach of the Mini Rays at CSD this year.  Coach Olivia previously coached for the Greensboro Swimming Association, Champs Swim Club of Chicago and many Open Water and Triathletes in the Chicagoland area and most recently the Catawba Ridge HS in Fort Mill.  

As an athlete she competed in the 70.3 distance triathlon and represented the US in the 2015 World Championships in Zel AM Zee Austria. Coach Olivia hopes to always share her love of the sport along with a strong understanding of swimming mechanics with her athletes. 

Fun Fact: She earned a BFA in Dance and performed as a Professional Dancer with the Dance COLEctive in Chicago for 8 years.

Coach Annika Akins is originally from Fort Wayne, IN, and has been part of the Rays coaching staff since 2018. She is currently the lead coach for the Manta group at RHAC and has previously led the Minis/Atlantic and Electric groups, as well as co-led the Senior groups.

Annika began swimming competitively at the age of 5 and has been connected to the sport in some way ever since.

As a coach, Annika believes that everything counts — the habits and effort you bring to practice are what you’ll carry into meets. Her goal is to create an environment where swimmers are challenged, supported, and motivated to reach their potential.

A fun fact about Annika: she’s met Michael Phelps… twice!

Cheryl is returning to age-group coaching after 10+ years. Her coaching backgrounds includes coaching age-group swimming at Galion Community Center YMCA and Shelby YMCA Community Center in the 1980s, Mini-Rays in 2006, and South Pointe High School this year.  In 2009 she started the master swimming group at the RHAC which included open water swimming in Lake Wylie.

Cheryl was a distance swimmer for Westlake High School and Wright State University in Ohio setting school records at both.  After 2 shoulder surgeries and a 20+ year hiatus she returned to swimming in 2006.  She is an avid marathon open water swimming.  Over the past several years she has worked with budding age-group open water swimmers.

She is a 2-time masters open water national champion, female masters champion at Round The Sound (a 10K in Bermuda), female champion of SCAR (a 4-day 42 mile open water stage race in Arizona) and Beaufort River Swim and overall champion at Swim Around Charleston (a 12.4 mile swim around the Charleston Peninsula), Cliff Backyard Ultra (Denver, CO) and 8 Bridges Hudson Swim (a 7-day 120 mile open water swim in the Hudson River). 

Cheryl has a degree in Biomedical Engineering and currently works as a contractor in the automation industry.

FMAC Coach/Assistant Coach Age Group 

Katie Wright is the Aquatics Director for the CSD Community YMCA. Katie will handle communication and scheduling for the CSD Rays swimmers until a new lead site coach can be hired.

Originally from Raleigh, North Carolina, Coach Katie moved to the area in 2005 when she and her sister joined the Rays.  After graduating from Northwestern High School in 2007, she attended Wingate University. Katie swam for two years with the Wingate Bulldogs, NCAA Division II. While at Wingate she was an all-conference performer. In 2008, she was a member of the conference champion 400 Free and Medley relay teams.

After completing two years at Wingate, she transferred to the College of Charleston in 2009. She graduated from the College of Charleston in May 2012 with a degree in Arts Management.

Coach Katie hopes to instill in each of her athletes that swimming is a sport that can not only save your life, but can lead into learning how to save someone else's life.  She hopes each athlete walks away from her with life lessons they will continue to use, and a love for swimming.

Fun fact about Coach Katie:  She met her husband, Blake, while swimming at Wingate. Katie and her husband welcome their first baby girl, Millie, in December of 2021. 

Director of Operations for the Rays and YMCA of Upper Palmetto Regional Vice President. Coach Tim will be available via email or phone call. [email protected] or 803-831-9622

Tim Conley was named brought to Rock Hill in 2013, named head coach of the Rays in May of that year.. The team flourished under his leadership, growing from about 80 swimmers to well over 300 in a matter of 4 years. Tim came to the Rays from YSSC in Greenville/Spartanburg where he was for 9 years. In those 9 years Tim was named Age Group Coach of the Year by the coaches of South Carolina 7 times. He was not only the first age group coach to receive the honor in back to back seasons, but 5 years in a row. In 9 years Tim and his colleagues at YSSC took the team from 75 swimmers in 2004 to 475+ swimmers currently. The team is nationally ranked in all levels of competition from Age Group to Senior.  His impact upon the teams he has worked for and the entire state has been felt at every meet his swimmers attend. Tim is a passionate coach who cares deeply about each and every swimmer he has the opportunity to work with. He prides himself on getting to know the swimmers both in the water and out. His attention to stroke technique and his ability to challenge young athletes mentally and physically has earned him the respect of swimmers and parents. Not one to EVER sit down on pool deck, Tim breaths electric energy into the Rays program. Tim has been a part of numerous South Carolina Zone Teams as both an asst and head coach. He was the age group chair for the board at South Carolina Swimming for 4 years and was the Coaches Rep for multiple years on the SC Swimming Board of directors. He was also named 2014-2015 South Carolina Coach of the Year in April of 2015 by his coaching peers in the state!

In the fall of 2017, Tim was promoted to Regional Vice President within the YMCA of Upper Palmetto. He is still involved with the RAYS swim team as Director of Operations. 

Tim hails from Drexel Hill, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia. Tim graduated from Shippensburg University with a degree in accounting. While attending college, Tim coached the Chambersburg YMCA and was the Head Coach of the James Buchanan HS. Tim is devout fan of the Philadelphia Phillies, Eagles, Flyers, and sometimes the Sixers. Tim, his wife Katie, son Charlie, Daughter Abigail, and son Campbell enjoy spending time with their dogs Ace and Chip.