YMCA Waves Swim Team
Welcome to the YMCA of Dane County Waves Swim Team! We are very excited to have Lodi become apart of the Waves family. My name is Shane Ryan and I am the Competitive Swimming Director of the YMCA of Dane County. Your new Head Site Coach is named Michael Hanson, who will be joining the Lodi coaching staff of Paul Doerre, Lonna Zeman, Jennifer Breunig, Tory Zeman and Sierra Sachtjen and Tracy Sachtjen will be helping with this transition. Together we will work as a team to provide you with professional coaching and top-notch swimming expertise. Over the course of the season I am sure there will be many changes to what you have experienced in the past, but please know that our main objective is to serve you and to develop our swimmers to be the best that they can be. Our goal is to make the transition as smooth as possible and provide you with the best experience possible. If at any time you have any questions feel free to give us a call or email.
The YMCA of Dane County decided to merge or “centralize” the swimming programs within our YMCA Association to provide consistency, opportunity and to maximize our resources. Even though our team size may grow our main goal of making each swimmer the best that they can be will never change. We really feel that becoming one team will greatly benefit everyone involved and is a great opportunity for our program.
As you may know the Waves were the YMCA State Champions the last two years (2009 and 2010). When our coaching staff started working together in 2006-2007 we have improved the team from taking 20th at Y State in 2005-2006 to 3rd in 2006-2007, 2nd in 2007-2008 and now winning back-to-back YMCA State Titles. Since 2006 we have also qualified 50 swimmers for YMCA Nationals. Our team has also developed multiple State Record Holders and National Age Group Record Holders some of which are currently ranked first in the Nation. As stated before, we are very excited to have the opportunity to work with you and most importantly the swimmers and will do our best to provide them with the best coaching possible.
In the included information you will learn more about the Waves Team including our mission, expectations and overall team information. We believe in running a well-balanced program focused on developing technique and endurance and providing athletes with a positive and structured environment. Communication is the key to a great program so we will keep you very informed through our team website, newsletters and emails. Please check out the Handbook on the website www.lodi.k12.wi.us, click on YMCA and pool (on the right hand side) and click on Waves Handbook.
We also believe in a strong sense of “Teamwork” and really like parents to be involved through volunteering and being supportive of the coaching staff to make the team as strong as possible. Once again our goal is to make this transition as smooth as possible. We are very excited to be apart of the Lodi Community and know that it will be a great experience. We will be having the Waves Registration and Team Meeting September 19th at 4PM in the High School Commons, where you will meet your new Head Site Coach Michael Hanson and myself as well. If at any time you have a questions please feel free to email me at or call me at 608-276-6616 ext 4032. As the season nears we will provide you with Coach Hanson’s contact information as well. We sincerely look forward to meeting you all.
GO WAVES!
Shane Ryan
YMCA Dane County Director of Competitive Swimming