Hired Senior Prep Coach Announcement

Willamette Aquatics would like to announce the selection of Guy Gniotczynski as the new Bearcat Swim Club Senior Prep Coach and Willamette University Assistant Coach. Guy will replace both Coach Kei and Coach Charlson as the lead coach for the Senior Prep group and will assist Coach Leslie Shevlin at Willamette University.

The selection committee did an extensive and thorough candidate search and hiring of such an experienced, and highly-qualified new coach. Willamette Aquatics are excited for Guy to join the Bearcat family.

Guy Gniotczynski has a long and impressive swimming background both as a competitive swimmer himself and as a coach.

Guy’s recent role was Graduate Assistant Swim Coach of Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin where he assisted both the men and women’s conference championship teams and achieved Division 3 NCAA top ten team finishes. While at Carthage he also was the coordinator for collegeswimming.com’s National Swimmer-of-the-Week.

Before Carthage College, Guy was the assistant coach at the Schroeder YMCA Swim Team in Brown Deer, Wisconsin. He assisted Head Coach Dave Anderson with the coaching of the senior groups. Schroeder YMCA Swim Team is a premier USA Swim Team in the United States with many Olympic Trial qualifiers and an Olympian.

Guy has extensive experience in developing quality swim programs for age group swimmers. He started as the assistant coach at the West Suburban YMCA in Wisconsin. He took over as Head Coach not too long into the position. During his tenure here he grew the program from 20 to 80 swimmers, established new programs including a competitive master’s team, and coached the team’s first ever YMCA National qualifier while doubling the number of state participants. While at the West Suburban YMCA he also was the Head Coach for Thomas More/St. Francis girl’s high school team.

Guy has a Bachelor of Science in Biology degree and Biochemistry minor from Carroll College where he swam competitively as a four-year letter winner. He began teaching middle school science for two years before taking over as Head Coach at the West Suburban YMCA and then soon going to graduate school at Carthage just recently finishing his Masters of Arts in Education.

Coach Guy Gniotcynski will officially start June 21st. Coach Charlson has been working closely with Guy via phone and email to prepare his transition to the Senior Prep group and the club. Since his move is during mid-season Coach Charlson will oversee and monitor the progress of the Senior Prep group during this transition. And Coach Kei will permanently move into the Senior 1 lead role.

Please join in giving Guy a hearty welcome and your willingness to accept new ideas and change.