WEST Express Swim Team

Heidi has been the head coach at WEST Express Swim Team since 2009. Before coaching for WEST Heidi was the head coach of the Highland Park/St. Paul Academy High School Teams for 10 years. Heidi swam at Hamline University where she was an 18 time All American and academic All American during her college career. After College Heidi was able to see quite a bit of the country racing as a pro triathlete specializing in the Olympic Distance format (1.5K Swim, 40K Bike and 10K Run). Heidi and her husband Tom reside in Chaska and are empty nesters with their youngest son a sophmore in College at the U of M. She considers herself lucky to have trained under some of the best coaches in the country during her HS and College years and really enjoys the coaching profession.

Ron swimming career started as a 12 year old swimming for the Rolling Meadows Park District Stingrays. While in Illinois he swam for the Palatine Tiger Sharks and Rolling Meadows High School. He went to Minnesota State Mankato where he swam for a year. His coaching career started at age 16 as swimmer/coach for the RMPD Stingrays. While in Illinois he was Head Coach for the Palatine Tiger Sharks, Palatine High School Boys and Assistant coach for the Palatine High School Girls teams. Ron and his wife Deb moved to Minnesota in 1999. While in Minnesota Ron has been Head Coach for the Minnetonka Girls and Maple Grove Boys swim and dive teams and Assisted for Team Foxjet and NHCP Swim teams before finding a home at West Express in the Spring of 2011. Ron enjoys triathlons and spending time with his wife and two children Colin and Riley.

Swimming has been a part of Sarah’s life for many years! Sarah started her swimming career at the age of 7 for Team Foxjet, based here in Eden Prairie. She swam competitively for Team Foxjet all the way through her senior year of high school. She also swam for Edina High School during that time as well. Her favorite events were mid-distance and distance freestyle and butterfly. During her swimming career, she enjoyed being part of team, developed lifelong friends, and learned what is means to work hard in and out of pool! Sarah's coaching experience started in 2012 when she coached two summer seasons for Edina Country Club. This is her first season coaching on a club team and she is enjoying every minute!

Joe first discovered swimming as a High School Swimmer in Peoria, IL, and although he has enjoyed a myriad of workouts in the years since he always comes back to the pool. After leaving Illinois in 2000 he and his wife, Dena moved around a lot, spending time in Missouri, Kansas, and Virginia before finally settling in Minnesota in 2004. Joe first discovered West Express in the spring of 2013 when their then 7-year old Casey tried out for the team. After that Joe became a USA swim official, and joined the Master's team at West until finally he began teaching swim lessons for Foss Swim School in both Chanhassen and Plymouth, MN. He is excited to work with West on developing its youngest swimmers for both fun and competition.

Kris lives in Chaska with her husband John. Kris has two children, Katie is a junior at UW Madison (retired WEST Express and Chaska HS swimmer) and Luke is a Senior at Chaska and currently on WEST and a captain for the StormHawks HS team. Kris grew up in Minneapolis and started swimming when she was 10 with BAC (then called Bloomington Aquatic Club now Barracuda). She swam 6 years for Washburn HS and competed at state many years and then went on to swim 4 years at UW Eau Claire where she competed at national level. Distance events of all strokes, but backstroke , were her specialty. Kris has been the WEST Express team registrar for the past 10 years. She is working with the Dolphins, Sharks and Morning groups.

Ann lives in Chaska with husband Dave and her 4 kids. She has been living there for about 14 years and loves it!! Ann grew up in St Paul and swam for STAR swim club for about 12 years. She swam in high school and competed at the state meet twice, swam three years at UW River Falls in college, competed at nationals, and was All American. Ann taught swimming lessons for years, and has coached at various levels. She has her Masters Degree in Special Education from the U of MN. Enjoys swimming, biking, running, racing triathlons, and watching her kids compete in their sports.

Kate has always had a love of swimming and it is truly a passion for her. Kate swam for West Express from 1998-2007. She also swam for Chaska High School from 2001-2006. After one year swimming at Northern Michigan university she decided it was time to retire from swimming. There was never a doubt she would end up on deck as a Coach. Kate took her first coaching job back in 2009 at Waconia Swim Club. In fall of 2011 she came back to WEST and took over the age group program til the summer of 2013. At that point she took advantage of an opportunity to be the Head Age Group for 10 & Under swimmers and lead novice coach at Black Line swim club. Following the Black Line stint Kate took a quick break from coaching and was super excited to have the opportunity to come back in 2017 and help out with Dolphins.

Sam Has been swimming since 7th grade when she joined the Chaska high school swim team. She swam all through high school and graduated from Chanhassen high school in 2013. She continued swimming in college, where she swam for South Dakota State University. While at SDSU Sam developed her backstroke skills and holds school records for the 200 and 400 medley relays. Sam graduated in 2017 with a degree in mechanical engineering. She is currently working in Chanhassen as an Energy Engineer. Sam spends her free time hanging out with family and friends and is looking forward to getting married in April!