Coach Mark Tierney is
ORCA's Head Swim Coach and CEO. He started coaching for ORCA in
August, 1999 and has since developed several ORCA and high school record
holders, many of which have gone on to have successful collegiate
swimming careers. He has been selected to
coach the Southern California Swimming all-stars at their season ending meets in
2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009; coaching the 15/16 girls for the 2006 Zone team,
and the 17/18 girls for the North American Challenge Cup against Canada
and Mexico from 2007-2009. As well as being the
CEO and Head Coach of ORCA, Mark also coaches the most advanced group at ORCA,
Gold Omega.
Mark is a graduate of Fort
Louis
College in Durango, Colorado
where he attended on swimming scholarship. Mark's degree is
in Business Administration. When
he's not on the pool deck, Mark serves as the Director of Marketing and
Advertising of a corporation in which he is one of five partner/owners.
In 1985 Mark met his wife in
Portofino, Italy while he was working in the
fashion industry. They were married on Valentines Day in 1987. He and his wife, Anna, have a son, Kristopher (born in
1992) and a daughter, Kaitlin (born in 2001), both ORCA swimmers.
Coach
Jess Withey came to ORCA in March of 2009 as our Head Age-Group Swim
Coach, overseeing the 12 and under program. Jess currently
directly coaches the Silver Alpha, Omega and Gold Alpha swim groups.
Jess'
previous coaching experience includes coaching as an assistant for NCAA
Division I, Syracuse University, where he also helped recruit
and coach NCAA
qualifiers in 2004, 2005, and NCAA All-Americans in 2006. He was
also an age-group assistant coach for the
Syracuse Chargers, part of
USA Swimming and Niagara Swimming. Jess also has
Southern California club coaching experience
with the San Pedro
Peninsula YMCA (SPPY) where he worked as an age-group coach, as well as
with Rose Bowl Aquatics.
Jess also swam at Syracuse University where he graduated in 1997 with
a Bachelor of Science in Health and Exercise. While
swimming at Syracuse, Jess went on to set university records in
multiple events, and in 1997 helped Syracuse win the Big East
Conference Swimming
Championships. His other swimming experience includes swimming at
the Senior National level for
USA
Swimming from 1993-1997 and Junior National level from 1992-1993.
Jess was the YMCA National Champion in 1993 in the 50
Yard freestyle.
Growing up in
Los Angeles,
Jess was a two-time high school swimming All-American where he broke and
still
holds the C.I.F. La County record in the 50 and 100
yard freestyle events, which he set back in 1993.
Coach
Stephanie Wood is ORCA's Bronze swim coach. She began working with our
swimmers in the summer of 2002. Prior to joining our coaching staff,
Stephanie taught swimming privately.
Although she started coaching for ORCA in 2002, she started swimming
with ORCA when she was 5 years old!
In addition to club swimming Stephanie was a varsity swimmer and water
polo player for Villa Park High School.
She was named "Girl's Swimmer of
the Year" in both her Junior and Senior Years. She was also acknowledged
as being the "Hardest Worker" during her Senior Year for water polo.
Stephanie was also a member of
the Orange Coast College Women's Swim Team in the 2001/2002 and
2002/2003 academic years. During
her second season she won 1st place in the 50 Breast Stroke and 5th
place in the 100 Breast Stroke in the Conference Finals. During that
same year in the State competition, Stephanie finished 8th in the 100
meter Breast Stroke and 10th in the 50 meter Breast Stroke.
Her team took first at the State
Championships for the first time since 1997!
Stephanie is currently continuing her studies at Cal State
Fullerton.
Stephanie is a fine example of the long-term benefits ORCA's outstanding
stroke technique instruction and club competition opportunities bring to
our athletes. Additionally, she
is truly a wonderful role model for our swimmers as she now returns to
share her coaching skills!
Assistant
Coach; Desi Turcios
