Coaches and Directors

Coaches and Directors
Coaching Staff
Shane Ryan Program Director, Head Coach

Shane Ryan has been coaching swimming for 20 years in the State of Wisconsin. In his career Shane has coached 100's of Wisconsin State Champions and has had swimmers hold over 50 Wisconsin State Records. Shane won Wisconsin Swimming Age Group and Senior Coach of the Year in 2017 and Senior Coach of the Year in 2019. He has coached numerous Junior National and National Finalists, Olympic Trial qualifiers, National Age Group Top Ten Rankings and National Age Group Record Holders.  One of Shane's most recognized successes is developing National Age Group Record Holder, American Record Holder and three time NCAA Champion Beata Nelson. Nelson started swimming with Shane when she was a 10 years old at the Madison West YMCA and was MAC's first official swimmer until she graduated high school and went on to swim for the University of Wisconsin- Madison.

Prior to founding MAC, Shane was the Program Director at the YMCA of Dane County (MWY- Madison West YMCA from 2006-2010 and YDC - YMCA of Dane County 2010-2012) for six years. While at the YMCA, they won five consecutive YMCA State Championships (2008-2012), won USA 12 & Under State D2 in 2008, were runner-ups at the USA 12&Under State in 2012, and produced State Champions, State Record Holders, Top 16 swimmers, YMCA National Finalists, YMCA National Record Holders and National Age Group Record Holders. 

Shane was the Program Director for the Southwest Aquatic Team from 2012-2015, which is a Milwaukee Area based team and started a Madison Branch in 2013. Shane led SWAT to a second place at the 13&Over State Meet in 2014. While at SWAT he produced numerous State Champions, State Record Holders, National Qualifiers, National Finalists, Olympic Trial Qualifiers and a National Record Holder.

Since founding MAC in 2015, in just two years of existence, MAC took 2nd Place at both 12&U and 13&O Short Course State Championships. Then again took 2nd place in 2018 both 12&U and 13&O Short Course State Championships. In 2019 MAC won their first Wisconsin State 12&U Short Course State Championship and 13&O Short Course State Championship. MAC was also recognized by USA Swimming's Club Excellence Program in 2016 and 2017.

 

Janis Katz Business Manager

Janis has been involved in club sports for over ten years.  She has volunteered in numerous roles including Volunteer Coordinator, Fundraising Chair, Meet Director, Official and Treasurer, and in 2019, she became a USA Swimming Nationally Certified Administrative Official.  She enjoys working with families to help make their involvement in the sport the best experience she can and works on inclusiveness for all.  She was the WI Swimming 2018 Disability Acheivement Award recipient and was elected as the WI Swimming Financing Chair for two terms. She has a Bachelor's degree in accounting from UW-Milwaukee and has worked extensively in both public and private accounting.  She has two sons who were both club swimmers.  When she's not at her computer, she enjoys reading, kayaking and hangin out with her dog Max.

 

Amy Silvestri Lead Age Group Coach

I am originally from Madison and moved back with my husband and 4 children. I was a competitive swimmer and turned my love of the sport into coaching. I have coached a variety of levels from beginner 8 and Unders to State and National Champions.

Jake Shackelford Associate Performance Coach
Jake Shackelford, a native of Wauwatosa, WI, comes to MAC from the Jersey Wahoos where he spent the last 3 years as the Associate Head Coach. He assisted the National Team and Age Group program focusing on overall team development from novice to elite athletes. During his time in New Jersey, the Wahoos developed into one of the premiere swim teams in the country, ranking 52nd (2020), 35th (2021), 27th (2022) in USA Swimming’s Club Excellence Program, as well as being named the #6 age group team in the country for 2022. At Wahoos, Jake has coached numerous athletes to Top 10 National Rankings, Olympic Trials, Junior Nationals, including an 11-12 National Age Group Record (100 Fly), National Junior Team selection (1500 Free), and a Junior World Record (4 x 100 FR-Relay) at the recent Junior Pan Pacs.
 
Prior to his stop in New Jersey, Jake also spent time at the Northern Kentucky Clippers as a lead age group and senior coach where they achieved Gold Medal Status in Club excellence twice in 2017 & 2020. Jake focused on overall team development as well as recruitment from local Country Club and Summer League teams.
 
Jake swam 4 years at UW-Whitewater specializing in IM, Backstroke and Distance Freestyle being named captain twice. During this time, he began his coaching career at the J-Hawk with the age group and senior program. Following his college career, he coached age group with Southwest Aquatic Team (SWAT) as the lead Junior (13-14) coach until 2017.
Jim Lohmeier Lead Coach Bronze & Blue

Jim Lohmeier began coaching swimming when his summer coach brought him on to train the 6 and Under group at the ripe old age of 13 back in 1977. In 1983 he became the head coach of Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. He stayed with DMAFB for 4 summers, growing the team from 40 members up to 110. Along the way he started and trained a small group of athletes at a year round team he cofounded at La Mariposa Country Club. 

 
After graduating from the University of Arizona in the mid ‘80’s, he put coaching on pause and served in the United States Army. In 1990 he returned to the University of Arizona and became a K-8 certified teacher with the goal of teaching 8th grade and restarting his coaching career. He coached at Flowing Wells HS and then moved to his alma mater, Sahuaro HS where he was fortunate to coach a back to back state champion in the 500 free, who he learned a ton from. He also coached the summer team, Eastern Hills Orcas, from the fourth tier up to 3 peat winners at the top level of the Southern Arizona Aquatic Association. Eastern Hills had future state record holders, NCAA champions and even a 2012 Olympic bronze medalist in the ranks. 
 
In 2000 he moved with his family to Waunakee, Wisconsin, continued teaching and coached the boys and girls teams for 7 seasons each. He also founded the Waunakee Orca Warriors, WOW, which since evolved into the Waunakee Wave. In 2010 he took the helm of the Waterloo Swim Team where he coached for 5 years. H2OLOO had four individual state champions during that period. In 2015 he moved to Oregon as the co-head coach of OCSC. He became the Head Coach in the spring of 2016. In his 9 years in Oregon the Tigersharks won three Division 2 team titles, dozens of individual championships, three individual high point trophies and had swimmers set 6 state records. At the Junior Nationals meet in Irvine, California, he saw one of his swimmers get the Olympic Trials cut and finish the year as the top 15-16 year old 100 Meter Breaststroker in the country. 
 
Jim loves the adventures he’s had and striving to help the kids he coaches grow towards becoming women and men of excellence, in and out of the pool. He stays current on trends and technique through his involvement with the American Swimming Coaches Association but insists he’s learned the most from his swimmers and his mistakes along the way. 
 
He is ecstatic to join the MAC coaching staff to continue this adventure. 
Joseph Decker Assistant Coach
Joseph was born in Milwaukee, WI and raised in Brookfield, WI. Just recently rounding off his bachelor's degree as a double major in Psychology and Spanish at the University of Iowa, he now attends graduate school at UW pursuing a Master of Science in education and an EdS in School Psychology. Graduating from Brookfield East High School in 2019, he also swam competitively for 11 years, 8 of those being for Waukesha Express Swim Team (2008-2016) and the latter for Elmbrook Swim Club (2017-2019). Throughout his swimming career, he hasqualified for state, speedo sectionals, and NCSAs.
 
After leaving the sport competitively in 2019, he was offered a temporary coaching job at Elmbrook Swim Club for 3 months during the summer before leaving for college that upcoming fall, this sparked his passion for coaching competitive swimming. Beginning in the fall of 2020, he began coaching at the Iowa Flyers Swim Club as the lead Junior/Senior coach until 2023. There he led multiple swimmers to many lifetime firsts, such as state qualifying times and many personal bests. At IFLY, he was mentored by Nathan Mundt, who is now the University of Iowa women's swimming and diving head coach. There he learned many of his coaching skills through Coach Mundt and by watching how he connected with his swimmers.
 
Unlocking each swimmers full potential is very important to him; Joseph believes that swimming is a gateway to success, as the discipline taught implicitly and explicitly to swimmers garner positive outcomes in and out of the water.
Alyssa Silvestri Assistant Coach
Board of Directors