Team Santa Monica : Coaches & Directors

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Dave Kelsheimer

CEO Head Coach

Coach Dave has enjoyed a successful international coaching career having coached swimmers at World Championships, Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games and Pan American Games. During his nearly 10 years at the helm, Coach Dave enjoyed outstanding success as the Stingray Swim Club and Cayman Islands National Coach, most notably developing three swimmers to qualify in six events for the Olympics - an amazing achievement given constraints of absence of 50m pool space as well as overcoming the inertia of competitive swimming not enjoying a high public profile. In the Caribbean Championships, tiny Cayman rose to second from last missing by just the last relay on the last night of the meet. Cayman won more events and broke more records than any other team including Olympic and Commonwealth medal producing nations Trinidad, Jamaica, and the combined French islands.

Two of his former Cayman Swimmers, Shaune and Brett Fraser are now University of Florida standouts with 3x NCAA champion Shaune receiving more All American honors than any other athlete in the history of Florida athletics.

Prior to joining TSM Dave was the Head Coach /General Manager for Surrey Park Swim Club in Melbourne, Australia for 4 1/2 years. He was instrumental in the structured development of club swimmers which has resulted in a marked improvement of the Club at State and National level championships with Swimmers earning 28 Junior National & 2 Senior National medals and breaking 17 state records in all four strokes and the individual medley. Under Coach Dave Surrey Park was named a Swimming Australia Gold Level Club (2008, 2009, 2010). Along with a FINA 10k World Cup medal in Roberval, Canada his open water swimmers have won the Australian National Championship for the last 3 years in a row.

Additionally, Dave has earned "Coach of the Year" awards 7 times in his career. In 2012, Coach Dave was named to the USA National Junior Team coaching staff after 3 of his swimmers qualified to represent the USA at the World Open Water Junior Championships in Canada.

Brian M Timmerman

Assistant Coach

Brian was born and raised in Santa Monica. He swam for Team Santa Monica from 1978-1991. Brian was a Junior National qualifier and finalist. He also swam at Long Beach State and UC Davis. He was a NCAA Division 2 National qualifier/finalist at UC Davis.

He is an ASCA certified level 3 swim coach. Brian has been coaching for seventeen years, ten of those as a Head Coach, at Stephen Wise Aquatic Team, Conejo Simi Aquatics, Palisades-Malibu YMCA and at Westside Aquatics. He has coached swimmers to the USA swimming Nationals, Junior Nationals, Sectionals, and YMCA Nationals.

Coach Brian graduated from UC Davis with a degree in English. He has had his poetry published in the journals Blue Earth Review and Welter as well as at www.xenith.net. In his spare time, Brian enjoys marathons, triathlons, and kayaking around Santa Monica Bay. He lives in West Hills with his wife, Lisa, and two daughters.

Mary Mitchell

Assistant Coach

Mary Mitchell is a graduate of Culver City High School in Culver City, California. She will be attending Loyola Marymount University where she would like to major in political science with a law emphasis and eventually obtain a law degree. She started swimming when she was 7 years old at the Plunge with one of the first recreational swim clubs in Culver City. She continued to swim with different club teams over the years and at 12 found a home with Edge Swim Club. She swam with Edge for 2 ½ years until she started high school and chose to swim and play water polo. In the summer of 2006, she returned to the Edge family as an employee. She currently teaches the Pre-Competitive group . In 2006 she was employed as a swim instructor at the Culver-Palms family YMCA.

West Carter

Assistant Coach

Jimmy Dabney

Assistant Coach

Jimmy started swimming summer league when he was eight years old. He grew up in Charlotte, NC and started swimming year round for Mecklenburg Aquatic Club when he was ten years old. In High School, he lettered all four years and was voted MVP as a junior and senior, as well as team captain his senior year. As a club swimmer Jimmy competed up to the Junior National level. After graduation, he attended The University of Tennessee where he swam four years while attaining his undergraduate degree. As a collegiate swimmer he became a 3-time letterman, 1-time All-American (800 Free Relay 2007), and the recipient of the team's hardest worker award in his junior season.

During the 5th year of Jimmy's undergrad he was a volunteer coach for The University of Tennessee Menýs Swim Team. This is where he transitioned into coaching. He has been working the past four years with Pilot Aquatic Club in Knoxville, TN. Two of these years were with more development swimmers and two were with the National Group. Jimmy also spent four years as a high school head coach and four summers as a summer league coach.

Jimmy received his undergraduate degree in Business Administration. He took a year off of school to focus on coaching and then began his masters degree in Sport Psychology and Motor Behavior. In his last semester, he wrote his thesis on the power of full engagement in competitive swimming. Jimmy graduated with this degree December 2012 and moved to Santa Monica in early 2013.

Jesse Casso

Board Member - President

Jesse Casso has been a member of the TSM Board since 2010. He is the father of Liliana Casso, a TSM National Team member and Isabel Casso, a college freshman and former TSM swimmer. He is the Managing Partner of Casmar Capital and a Board member of the California Endowment and the Sound Body Sound Mind Foundation. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the University of California, San Diego.

Joe Pertel

Board Member - Vice President

We have two daughters, Anya and Minya, who have been swimming with TSM for several years. As a board member, I want to encourage the broadest possible participation in our programs, from our newest swimmers to our most elite athletes. By way of background, I graduated from Yale University and have been practicing law since 1996. Please don't hesitate to contact me or any member of the board if you have any questions. Go TSM!

Alan Chen

Board Member - Treasurer

My son Matthew swims in the National group and my daughter Angella just graduated after swimming on TSM. We have been with TSM since 2007, and we love this community! As being a swimming family for over ten years, we are able to utilize our experience to help team.

My goals are to support the coaches, improve communication between members, and make our team to be better and stronger.

David Newberg

Board Member - Treasurer Elect

Having grown up in Santa Monica, I was excited to move our swimmer to TSM in early 2012. Audrey Daniels Marcus joined the Otters and set her sights on moving up the ranks. My goal is to build and improve the financial foundation of TSM and to increase the city's support to achieve our goal of local, national and international recognition for the swimmers and coaches as one of the premier competitive swim programs in the country.

I have a B.S. in Finance and Accounting and a M.S. in Finance from the California State University – Long Beach, along with graduate work in International Business at the University of Copenhagen. I look forward to being on the TSM board.

Courtney Caverly

Board Member - Secretary

After having volunteered in many aspects of the team, I decided to make my volunteer work “official” and join the board of TSM. Two of my three children swim with TSM and I highly value the work ethic that swimmers must embody to be successful in swimming and in life. We moved to LA from London in 2005 and my husband, Marty, signed the kids up immediately with TSM. We haven’t looked back. On a personal note, I graduated from Stanford as an English major and then got my MBA from UCLA. I have recently started a stationery business with another TSM mom, Tracy Rossie. I am looking forward to my time on the board of TSM!

Patrick Dodd

Board Member - At Large

Swimming is a big part of our family life, as all four of us swim nearly every day and enjoy both pool and open water swimming as well as short and long-distance triathlons. Our two children have been swimming with TSM since 2007. Max, our 13-yr old son, is in the JO Group and Jamie, our 15-yr old daughter, swims in the National Group. We'll be working hard this year to help our coaches and swimmers to be as successful as possible and to help drive TSM toward achieving local, national and international recognition as the premier competitive pool and open water swim program in Los Angeles.

April Loncar

Board Member - At Large

I am so happy to be joining the TSM board! Our family joined TSM in 2008 and two of my three sons swim. Hunter, age 14, is in the National Group and Owen, age 9, is an Otter. I love that swimming teaches kids to work hard and live a healthy lifestyle that will allow them to achieve their goals and be successful long after their swimming careers are over.

After growing up in Honolulu, Hawaii and met my husband Brett at Arizona State University. Before I had kids I was an entertainment PR executive. I am looking forward to working hard to support the coaches and members to make TSM be the best it can be.