Head Coach - Taylor McCoy

Cougar Aquatics welcomes Taylor McCoy as our head coach beginning the summer of 2024.  While Taylor has MANY accomplishments in and out of the pool, there are two qualities that make us very lucky to have Taylor as our head coach: a passion for the sport and always wanting to better herself and push to new limits.

Taylor grew up swimming on the Palouse with Gold Medal Swim Club.  While on the club team, Taylor set numberous GMSC club records, and IES records - some that still stand to this day.  Taylor swam for Pullman High School where she still holds program records and helped lead PHS to their first ever state title for women in school history.  Taylor qualified to the highest levels of the sport while swimming club and high school as she was a junior national finalist, US Open qualifies, and a US Olympic Trials Qualifier in 2016 in the 200 backstroke.

Taylor swam for Washington State University from 2017-2022.In those five years, she set two program records for WSU in the 200 back and 400 IM, and Top 10 in the 100 back and 200 IM.  Taylor also holds the Long Course records in the 100 & 200 back and 200 & 400 IM.  Taylor competed in the 2021 Olympic Trials in the 100 back and 200 back.  Taylor also competed at the National Invitational Championships where she was a champion in the 200 back and 400 IM.  Taylor excelled in the classroom as well as earning many accolades including being a five time CSCAA Scholar All-American.  Tyalor also served as a Team Captain for the team her final two years.

Taylor went on the compete professionally for the Mission Viejo Nadadores and SoCal swimming in California where she contined to complete at prestigious meets from 2022 to 2023 such as the TYR pro series, US Open, National Championships, and the World Cup.  While training with Mission Viejo, Taylor was able to beging coaching and learning under a extremely prestigious and history team during her time there.

Age Group Coach - Emma Johnson

Bio coming soon!

Age Group Coach - Quincy Jones

Bio coming soon!

Age Group Coach  - Corrina Carras

Age Group Coach  - Catie Hamisch

Strength Coach - Drew Uy

Bio coming soon!

 WSU Head Coach - Russ Whitaker

Russell is the Head Coach of WSU Swimming. He graduated from the University of Wyoming in 2017 with a Bachelor’s in Physical Education and Graduated with his Master’s in Athletic Administration from Ohio University in 2020. He had been the Head Coach for Cougar Aquatics since the club was founded in 2018 and has now transitioned to our WSU Head Coach. 

In just his first few years as a head club coach for Cougar Aquatics, Russell has seen immediate success. To date – Cougar Aquatics has produced athletes that have qualified for local championships, Senior & Age Group Zones, Sectionals, Futures, Winter & Summer Junior Nationals, TYR Pro Swim Series, Winter & Summer National Qualifiers. Cougar Aquatics has also produced 4 Scholar All-Americans. Cougar Aquatics also had one swimmer selected to attend the prestigious  2022 National Select Camp. Cougar Aquatics also had it's first athlete qualify for the 2024 US Olympic Trials. For the clubs performances in 2023, Cougar Aquatics was recognized as a Bronze Medal Club through the USA Swimming club excellence program, recognizing the Top 200 clubs across the country (out of the nearly 3,000 member clubs). 

Due to his extensive work at the local and national level, Russell was recognized as the Inland Empire Swimming coach of the year in 2022. He also served on the USA Swimming National Select Camp staff for the 2022 women’s team as the Assistant Manager, and as the Head manager for the 2024 Boys National Select Camp, where he worked alongside some of the top swimmers and coaches across the country. Russell is a member of the American Swim Coaches Association where he is currently a Performance Level 4 certified coach – placing him within the top 10% of coaches in the country. Russell also serves as an ASCA Ambassador in promoting membership to the organization. 

Prior to coming to Cougar Aquatics, Russell served in a variety of coaching roles. To date he has worked with 3 different club teams, 5 high schools, and 2 university teams. He has worked with two different national high school coach of the year recipients from these past roles. 

Russell did not swim collegiately and began coaching immediately after graduating from high school. He swam for Evanston High School and Red Devil Aquatics in Wyoming under Jason Crompton & Pam Christensen. He was a four-year letterman, two time all state recipient, and two time WHSCA all state recipient. He is still a school record holder in the 4x100 freestyle relay.