Swim Instructors

Delaney has been teaching swim lessons since she was 15 years old. She has always loved being in the pool and swimming with her family. Delaney has been teaching swim lessons at USD since Spring 2024 and she teaches all ages! She loves teaching little kids how to swim and older kids how to improve their strokes so they can start swimming competitively. Her favorite part of the job is when her swimmers get excited about their lesson and want to keep going. Some fun facts about Delaney is that she loves to swim underwater and hang out at the bottom of 12 feet in the pool!

Kendall started swimming competitively when she was 7 years old. She was also a coach for her local swim team in high school, working with children aged 5-15. She has been teaching swim lessons for 7 years! Kendall has experience with children aged 6 months and older, as well as adults who may still be working to overcome their fear of water. She loves being a swim instructor at USD! She says it's such a fun way to spend her time, and she couldn't imagine it any other way. Her favorite part is watching the progress her swimmers make over time. Some fun facts about Kendall is that her favorite stroke is backstroke and she is also a certified scuba diver!

Megan started swimming competitively at the age of 10. She began as a synchronized swimmer in Seattle, Washington. Not soon after, she moved to Palm Springs, California, where she continued on several swim teams throughout middle school and high school. For the past four summers, she has taught swim lessons at her hometown aquatic center to swimmers ages 2 through 12. Since Spring 2024, she has been a swim instructor at USD and has loved every second of instructing all ages at USD. For Megan, seeing the excitement and growth in her swimmer’s confidence is her favorite part of her job. Outside of the pool, you can find Megan at the beach or enjoying a good movie with her friends!

Nina has lived at the beach since she was born so she has always been swimming! She would beg her parents to install a pool in their backyard so that when she got home from the beach, she could jump in the pool. Nina has worked with kids since about 14 years old, babysitting. Once she turned 16, she worked at many summer camps and after-school daycare programs. Nina just recently started teaching lessons during Summer 2023 and has grown to love it so much. She loves being able to watch her kids grow and improve their swimming skills! Seeing the growth in confidence and excitement for the water makes her so happy. She also has so much fun playing games with the kids, like Marco Polo or diving for rings. She is known for always bringing mermaids and shark dive toys with her to my lessons!

Shay has always felt the most comfortable in the water - even as a child she has loved swimming and her love for swimming has only grown! She is not only a swimming instructor here at USD, but she is also a sailing instructor. This upcoming summer will be her third year teaching swim lessons for our program. She typically teaches Pre-K or intermediate levels, but has the most fun teaching younger kids to swim. Some of her favorite things about the summer is seeing familiar faces and getting to know new kids as well! She loves to see her past students' swimming progress and see how much they have grown! One fun fact about Shay is that when she was younger, she LOVED to play mermaids.

Thomas has been swimming since before he can even remember, but when he came to college, he became more consistent with swimming, refining old techniques and learning new ones. Thomas began teaching swim lessons at USD in Summer 2024 and has since continued into the school year! He mainly teaches intermediate swimmers but is happy to help swimmers at any level. Thomas loves having fun with his students during lessons while practicing their swimming techniques. One fun fact about Thomas is that he enjoys spending time outdoors, especially in the ocean!