Houston Cougars : Coaches & Directors

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Greg Orphanides

Head Coach - COOG Central

Education: Portsmouth University - B.A. in Accounting.

Greg has been involved in swimming for over 20 years, and throughout that time has been successful both in and out of the pool.

As a swimmer, Greg always strove for his goals and pursued excellence. At the height of his career Greg represented Great Britain for 10 years at various national and international competitions including the World and European Championships. Greg still competes in Masters swim meets and holds World and European records in both distance freestyle and IM events. As a coach, he has seen even more success progressing several athletes to National Standards. Prior to becoming the Head Coach at Houston Cougar Aquatic Sports, Greg was the Age Group Swimming Coach and Swimming Development Officer in Glasgow, Scotland where he was responsible for organizing all swimming lessons in addition to managing over 40 swim teachers. Since joining COOGS, Greg has led the team to its best finish ever at Sectionals and guide swimmers to TAGS, Junior National, and National Championships.

Greg has an enthusiasm for coaching and is an inspiration to our COOGS swimmers.

Alison Pick

Assistant Head Coach - COOG South

Education: South Dakota State University – BS in Health, Physical Education & Recreation, Northern Illinois University

This is Coach Alison’s first season with COOGS and is very excited to be a part of the team and staff. She coaches the Senior and Junior groups and brings over 20 years of coaching and swimming experience to our team.

Before coming to COOGS, she spent 8 years with SwimMAC Carolina (the number one club team in the country) coaching all level of swimmers from age group to Olympic Trial qualifiers. She also served as the webmaster as well as part of meet management and registration management. Since moving to North Carolina from Iowa in 2004, Alison has also served as an Assistant Coach with Davidson College (04-06), Head Coach of the Northstone Country Club Summer League Team (04-07), Head Coach of the Wynfield Waves Summer League Team (2009), as well as Head Coach of Lake Norman Charter School (09-12) where she coached many state champions.

Coach Alison started swimming at the age of 9 and continued her swimming career through four years of college at Northern Illinois University, where she served as co-captain.

Alison is excited to be a part of the COOGS team and looks forward to helping all swimmers reach their goals.

Alison interests include listening to music (especially Dave Matthews Band), NASCAR racing, football, baseball, and watching sports.

Lorin Andras Koszegi

Head Junior Group Coach - COOG Central

Education: University of Houston - B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Honors College Member.

Lorin has been involved in coaching swimming in some capacity since 1982. He spent most of his youth swimming career in El Paso, Texas, including winning the 50-meter Freestyle at the Junior Olympics. He remained involved in swimming by volunteering for and coaching a variety of groups during a 13-year full-time career as a Mechanical Engineer in the chemical industry.

Lorin left engineering in 1999, coaching many youth and even Masters swimmers to personal best times. For several years, he was the head coach of a local USA-S team with a membership of over 120 swimmers. He holds private lessons for a variety of youth swimmers, Masters and tri-athletes; and joined COOGS in 2010. Lorin still competes occasionally, recently swimming several lifetime best times in Breaststroke and middle-distance Freestyle at Masters Short Course Zones under the guidance of Coach Orphanides. Lorin is excited to share is knowledge with our swimmers and to be a leader on the pool deck; "Control!" is the dominating theme he attempts to get the Juniors to accept and demonstrate; he believes that understading each stroke is critical to success.

Rodney D Rodgers

Age Group Coach - COOG Central

Education: Florida A&M University - B.S. Elementary Education, Texas Southern University - M. Ed in Health Education

Coach Rodney joined COOGS in 2011 and he is excited to be a part of our swim team. He has prior coaching experience working with both Senior and Age Group swimmers as a member of the coaching staff at the Harris County Aquatics Program (HCAP) and has a lifelong love of swimming. Coach Rodney started swimming at the age of 14 and continued his swimming career through college Florida A&M University, where he majored in Elementary Education. Rodney has been a swim instructor since he was 17, and has worked with summer league, learn-to-swim and year round swimmers. He enjoys working with all ages and skill levels. His favorite part of coaching is watching each swimmer become successful and reach their goals.

Bob B Tweedy

Age Group Coach - COOG South

Education: University of Arizona – degrees in Journalism and Athletic Coaching

Four year letterman of the Swimming & Diving team at Arizona. Began his coaching career in 1979 and has coached swimmers at various levels: summer league, high school, and US club programs. Currently works with the age-groupers at the COOGS south location where the emphasis is building correct stroke technique that provides a solid foundation for future success and love of the sport. In his day job he is an astronaut trainer, teaching International Space Station crews how to exercise in microgravity.

The best part about being on the Coog Coaching staff are fellow coaches he’s privileged to work with and, of course, the athletes who train in the program.

Mary Stevens Coronado

Development Coach

Mary joined COOGS as Development coach on 4/30/2013. Mary is currently a senior at the University of Houston majoring in Psychology. An experienced Masters swimmer, she has taught private and group lessons with various swim clubs and brings an enthusiastic and creative approach to working with young swimmers. Most recently, Mary coached with the Northampton Barracudas in 2012 and was proud to be a part of their successful C-1 Division Championship summer season. She then began coaching for Swim Streamline and was assistant coach for developmental age group swimmers during the Fall 2012 season. Mary is also a proud parent of David, Sarah and Matthew. David is married and lives in Houston with his wife, Katie. Sarah has just completed her masters degree and is living in South Carolina. Matthew is a junior in high school and plays percussion in the marching band. In addition to being a mom, Mary also enjoys Masters swimming, competing in triathlon sprints, gardening and spending time with her family. As part of the the COOGS swim program she looks forward to helping young athletes swim to the best of their ability whether they continue on as age group or masters swimmers.