Coach Erin is beginning her second year as Head Coach of MSA. During MSA’s 2023-2024 season she was an assistant coach. In her first year as head coach for the 2024-2025 season, 35+ athletes qualified for Southeastern’s and she trained 36 athletes for Southeastern's in Huntsville, AL. She also had multiple athletes attend Best of the South in Atlanta, GA. Coach Erin is committed to building a team culture that values support, healthy competition, clear goals, and technical growth. She currently enjoys master’s swimming and open-water swims. 

Prior to being an assistant coach, Coach Erin graduated as a student-athlete from Florida Southern College in May 2023 with a double major in Elementary Education and Interpersonal & Organizational Communication. She began swimming at 12 years old competitively and swam on MSA from age 13 to 18 (2013-2018). She was also a member of the JP2 Swim Team (2014-2018) and graduated from St. John Paul II in May 2018. During Coach Erin’s 5 years of collegiate swimming at Florida Southern College, she specialized in mid and distance freestyle. 

Coach Erin is committed to fostering a coaching environment that nurtures the mental, emotional, and physical development of every athlete. She believes that swimming is not only a sport but a platform to instill critical life skills such as resilience, discipline, and a strong work ethic. Through intentional guidance, she aims to motivate her athletes to push beyond perceived limits, grow through adversity, and embrace the value of consistent effort. Her approach emphasizes the importance of mindset, self-belief, and emotional maturity—qualities that extend far beyond the pool.

Coach Erin’s ultimate goal is to help shape balanced and strong individuals who carry the lessons of sport into every area of life. She sees each practice as an opportunity to build confidence, develop character, and foster a lifelong love for growth and challenge. By prioritizing holistic development, she encourages athletes to take pride in their progress, respect the journey, and support those around them. Coach Erin is driven by the belief that great coaching leaves a lasting imprint—not just on performance, but on the person.

Coach Pam began her coaching journey in college, where she coached a recreational league team for a couple of summers. She returned to coaching in 2001 as an assistant with MSA and stepped into the Head Coach role in 2007. Coach Pam served as MSA’s Head Coach until May of 2023, when she retired from the full-time role and transitioned to a part-time assistant coach position.

During her tenure as Head Coach, Coach Pam played a pivotal role in MSA’s rise from 23rd place at the Southeastern Championships to consistent top-5 and top-6 team finishes for eight consecutive years. Under her leadership, MSA regularly sent around two swimmers per year into collegiate swimming programs, and between 2012 and 2021, the team produced four U.S. Olympic Trials qualifiers.

Coach Pam especially enjoys watching IM races due to their unpredictable and exciting nature as swimmers shift through the strokes. Her favorite strokes to coach are butterfly and breaststroke. Outside the pool, she loves playing challenging “Killer Sudoku” puzzles and watching mystery movies.

As an athlete, Coach Pam swam for Southern Illinois University (SIU), specializing in the 200 IM, along with breaststroke and freestyle events. Relays were always her favorite part of competition. Her standout achievements include placing 16th in the 200 IM at the 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials and finishing 7th in the same event at the 1983 U.S. Nationals. She also earned the honor of representing the United States at the 1983 World University Games in Edmonton, Canada. But her fondest memories from college swimming are the friendships she built — teammates who supported one another through tough practices and celebrated each other’s successes. Many of them still gather every few years.

Coach Pam met her husband, Coach Roger, at SIU — he was two years ahead of her. She jokes that he must have liked how hard she worked, since after dating for 18 months, he chose to stay at SIU for graduate school rather than move back to Seattle. They married shortly after Pam graduated and have now been married for 40 years. Together, they have three grown children and six grandchildren — with a seventh on the way — who keep their lives full of joy and activity.

Coach Roger has been a dedicated and passionate swim coach at MSA for 25 years, shaping generations of athletes with his deep knowledge of the sport and genuine care for each swimmer. For the past 13 years, he has also led the Westminster Christian Academy high school swim team, where his impact has been especially profound.

Under his leadership, the Westminster Christian Academy girls’ team has captured five Alabama State High School Championships. Despite the school’s small size, Coach Roger has helped develop some of the fastest swimmers in Alabama high school history—including Eboni McCarty and Rebekah Hamilton, who went on to swim in the SEC for the University of Georgia and Auburn University, respectively.

As an athlete, Coach Roger swam for Southern Illinois University from 1978 to 1982 and continued to train until the 1984 Olympic Trials. Throughout his competitive career, he earned top-six finishes at NCAA and U.S. Championships in multiple events, including the 100 and 200 Backstroke, 200 and 400 Individual Medley, and 200 Butterfly. A defining moment in his career came in 1980 when he broke the American Record in the 200 Yard Butterfly with a time of 1:45.05. Although he didn’t qualify for the Olympic Games—finishing 7th in the 200 Backstroke in 1980 and 4th in the 200 Butterfly in 1984—he represented the United States in international competitions across New Zealand, Sweden, Japan, Germany, and Canada. He was honored to be elected Captain of the U.S. Men’s Team at the 1983 World University Games in Edmonton, where he announced his engagement to Coach Pam in his captain’s speech.

Coach Roger’s favorite races to coach and swim are the 400 IM and the 200 Backstroke. Away from the pool, he enjoys fishing whenever he gets the chance and finds great joy in teaching from the Bible and sharing about God’s deep and transformative love. His journey of faith began in his early swimming years—starting as an atheist at age 10, he came to know Jesus Christ through the faithful witness of fellow swimmers throughout middle school, high school, and college.

Coach Roger continues to be a source of inspiration, discipline, and faith to the swimmers he coaches—helping them pursue excellence both in the pool and in life.

Coach Doug is a dedicated multi-sport coach with over a decade of experience in youth athletics. He has been coaching soccer and baseball since 2014, basketball on and off since 2015, and competitive swimming since the 2019–2020 season. Doug has worked at NASA for over 25 years after attending the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), where he played on the tennis team and rowed on the crew team, while also contributing at the Propulsion Research Center. Currently, he coaches year-round with Madison Swimming Association (MSA), where his swimmers consistently qualify for Southeastern (SES) Winter and Summer Championships, as well as the Best of the South meet. Since 2018, he has served as an active member of the MSA Board and as Meet Director for MSA, frequently directing meets for the Madison Dolphins as well. During the summer, he assists with the Madison Dolphins, helping maintain their strong tradition of success at ARPA District and State competitions. Before that, he volunteered with the Redstone Launchers and Sherwood Sharks, contributing to both teams’ promotions to higher Rocket City League divisions through sustained team success.

Outside of coaching, Coach Doug enjoys spending quality time with his family, often supporting their activities, including coaching and mentoring his kids’ robotics team. He is a proud father of three wonderful boys who swim with MSA and participate in multiple sports that he coaches and a devoted husband to his wife, Amy. In his free time, he likes tinkering with cars and mountain biking when time permits. His favorite swim stroke is freestyle. Coach Doug’s Christian faith is a guiding influence in his life, shaping his values on and off the fields, courts, and pool deck.

Coach Doug’s coaching philosophy centers on fundamental skill development, a strong work ethic, and fostering personal growth. His broad coaching background enables him to connect with athletes across multiple sports, encouraging resilience, confidence, and teamwork. Whether on the pool deck, court, or field, Coach Doug is committed to shaping confident, capable athletes who carry lifelong lessons from sports.

Coach Cara will be entering her second season as an assistant coach with MSA this fall. A versatile, year-round coach, she has been coaching for three years and brings a wide range of experience to the pool. She has worked with swimmers at all levels—from beginners just learning the strokes to high school athletes competing at the state level.

This summer marks her third season coaching the Sherwood Sharks, and in the fall, she will also begin her third season as an assistant coach for the JP2 Swim & Dive team. Additionally, Coach Cara will be joining Coach Derek, her husband, in coaching Lindsey Lane the fall alongside with JP2. Her continued involvement with multiple teams reflects her strong dedication to the sport she loves and her desire to invest deeply in the development of young athletes.

Outside of coaching, Coach Cara stays active in the sport as a Masters swimmer for the Madison Titans, the MSA Masters team. Her favorite events include the 500 Free, 1650 Free, and 200 Fly. When she’s not at the pool, she enjoys reading, running, and spending time with her family. Having grown up playing a variety of sports, with softball as her primary focus, Coach Cara knows firsthand the value athletics can bring to a young person's life. She firmly believes that a great coach can instill lifelong values, and her ultimate goal is to make a meaningful, lasting impact on every swimmer she coaches.

This is Coach Derek’s fifth year coaching swim. He began his coaching journey in 2021 with the Sherwood Swim Club when his children joined the team. Since then, he has served as Sherwood’s head coach for five seasons and is entering his fourth season as the head swim and dive coach at St. John Paul II Catholic High School. Additionally, this marks his second season coaching with MSA.

At St. John Paul II, Coach Derek has had the privilege of coaching some outstanding athletes. During the most recent season, the Boys' team broke the school record in the 200 Medley Relay, and the Men’s dive team earned 1st and 3rd place at the State Championship in the 1-meter Springboard event. Under his leadership, the team has increased its point total at the State Championships every year. More importantly, Coach Derek emphasizes that the team is a family — united by their love of the sport and the joy of swimming together.

Coach Derek’s favorite strokes are breaststroke and butterfly, and his favorite events to swim are the 200 fly and 400 IM. In his free time, he trains with the Madison Titans masters team, coached by Roger and Erin. He also enjoys gardening in his free time.

Coach Derek was a breaststroke specialist in high school and age group swimming. He continued his passion for the sport even while attending a small engineering college in Tennessee that didn’t have a swim team. In recent years, he has finished in the top 20 nationally in the 200 fly and 400 IM in two of the last three short course seasons. While swimming doesn’t get easier with age, he says it remains incredibly fun.

The highlights of Coach Derek’s swimming journey have been coaching his three children and introducing new swimmers to the sport. He loved swimming as a youth and still loves it today. His number one goal as a coach is to foster a lifelong love of swimming in every athlete he works with.