Senior Gold II

Soka University, Aliso Viejo

Since 1995, Adam Crossen’s experience includes working with Olympic Coaches Mark Schubert, Dave Marsh, Teri McKeever and most recently Dave Salo. Crossen swam for the Hall of Fame legend, Mark Schubert, at the University of Southern California, then followed that up with a stint at Auburn University, working with perennial Coach of the year Dave Marsh, while completing his Master’s Degree in Exercise Physiology. Crossen later went on to serve as Assistant Coach at Cal Berkeley under ASCA Coach of the Year, Teri McKeever, where he saw the rise of USA Swimming phenomenon, Natalie Coughlin. During the year of 2006 at the University of Southern California, Crossen served as Coach Salo’s right hand man, responsible for NCAA Compliance, recruiting coordination, strength an conditioning programming and on-deck coaching. USC came away from Salo’s first season with three individual NCAA Championships (Rebecca Soni - 200 breaststroke; Larsen Jensen - 500 & 1650 freestyle). Prior to USC, Crossen spent 3 years assisting Coach Salo with the Irvine Novaquatics and Soka University and was integral in working with a team that saw 25 athletes compete at the 2004 Olympic Trials, while placing 4 members on the USA Olympic Team. Crossen was also instrumental in helping Salo inaugurate the Soka University Varsity Swimming Team. Coach Crossen brings energy and leadership which will be instrumental in the further development and continued growth of the Novaquatics.

Senior Gold II

Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine

Ken was born and raised in Southern California to an already involved swimming family. When he was old enough to walk he was old enough to swim and joined his father’s swim team in El Monte.

By the early 1980’s, Ken’s team moved to the San Gabriel Valley where Ken continued his club swimming career. During those years Ken began coaching at a local country club during the summers. It was also during these years that Ken participated in a sectional All-Star meet where he met for the first time a young Dave Salo. Soon after, Ken began college at USC where he once again met up with Coach Salo, who was hired on as an assistant coach during Ken’s years there.

He continued to swim into his junior year when the decision was made to retire as an athlete and concentrate on graduation. He continued to coach during the summers and upon graduation accepted a sales job with a major food cooperation. It was also during this time, after establishing a lasting relationship with Coach Salo in college, that Ken sought a position with the new head coach of the Irvine Novaquatics. With the growing success of the program Ken left his corporate world to focus full time on his coaching career. He has helped in the achievement of many regional championships and enjoys the direction of the program. He continues to focus full time on his coaching while also accepting a coaching job with a near by high school.

Fountain Valley High School, Fountain Valley

Coach Nathan previously swam at Irvine Novaquatics under the direction of Coach Dave Salo and Coach Ken Lamont. He is excited to return to Irvine Novaquatics after coaching another prominent team in Southern California Swimming for nearly seven years. Coach Nathan grew his previous club from a small team of 140 swimmers to over 400 swimmers. During his time with his previous team, his Senior Elite Group produced multiple Junior and Senior National swimmers along with multiple swimmers who finished in the top 20 at Junior Nationals. In addition to his swimmers’ successes, Coach Nathan’s team was awarded Bronze Medal status from USA Swimming. Coach Nathan’s team finished consistently in the top 3 at Sectional Championships Medium Team Division. Coach Nathan’s team finished first at the 2016 Winter Sectional Championship Medium Team Division and a top 8 women’s finish at the 2016 USA Swimming Future Championships.

Upon his return to Nova, Coach Nathan originally worked as the Senior Gold 2 Assistant Coach under Coach Adam Crossen and Coach Ken Lamont. Coach Nathan primarily worked with the Soka Senior Gold 2 Group and Coach Adam Crossen. Nathan is excited for the opportunity to lead the Fountain Valley program. Over the past several seasons at FV, Coach Nathan has had swimmers achieve Junior National, Senior National and Olympic Trials cuts.  In addition to his swimming roles, Coach Nathan has served as the Coaches’ Representative for the Southern California Swimming Board of Directors and is currently Chair of the Orange Committee. Coach Nathan attended California Baptist University where he studied Kinesiology with an emphasis in Exercise Science. Coach Nathan is proud to be an Irvine Nova Alumni and CBU Alumni.

Age-Group Gold I & II

Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine

Rod Hansen, started with Nova as the 8 & under coach in 1994. His current position with our team as Associate Head Age Group Coach, training our 9-14 year old swimmers.

Coach Rod's coaching philosophy is to create a fun environment where every swimmer enjoys their time with NOVA.  Along the way he has been fortunate to coach several SCS and National Age Group record holders.  He is always looking for ways to get kids to swim faster.  

Proud Alumni of SDSU.

Senior Gold I, Age-Group Gold, Senior Silver, and Age-Group Silver

Soka University, Aliso Viejo

Andi has been on the coaching staff of the Irvine Novaquatics since 1990 and is currently the Associate Head Age Group Coach.

Andi’s background stems from the study of psychology, for which she has a Bachelor’s (UC Irvine) and a Master’s (Pepperdine). She has worked as a Child Development Instructor for the Irvine Unified School District (6 years), spent 4 years working with the Neuropsychological Concussion testing team for the Mighty Ducks Hockey team and has been a certified Pilates instructor since 2001 (Body Arts and Science International).

Developmental

Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine

Joanna grew up in Northen California where she swam competitively for 10 years. She has 8 years of head coaching experience and 15 years experience as a swim instructor.  Joanna is a current NOVA masters swimmer and the mother of three NOVA age group swimmers. Her family has roots with NOVA back to the team inception in 1979.

Coach Joanna graduated from UC Berkeley in 1988 with a B.A. degree.

Senior Silver I & II

Soka University, Aliso Viejo

Drew Crowell was born in southern California.  He grew up in Orange County until high school, when his family moved to Overland Park Kansas.  It was at Blue Valley Northwest High School that Drew started swimming.  After high School, Drew attended Orange Coast College (OCC) to once again enjoy the California lifestyle. 

In his first swim season at OCC, Drew swam for Coach Dave Salo.  Shortly after, Drew joined the Nova family in 2004 by taking a position at Los Cab in the pre competitive program.  In 2005, Drew started coaching at Woollett working with the bronze group.   After swimming two years at OCC, Drew transferred to California State University, Fullerton. Once he transferred, Drew became an assistant coach at OCC and helped the men’s and women’s teams capture the state title in 2006.  In 2008, Drew earned his B.A. in History while coaching the silver groups at Woollett.  Later that year, Drew took an assistant position at Soka University of America under Coach Adam Crossen.       

Currently Drew coaches the Senior 1 and Varsity groups at Soka and is an assistant coach for the Soka University swim team. 

Age-Group Silver I & II and Age-Group Gold I & II

Fountain Valley High School, Fountain Valley

Geza Futo Tendai graduated from University of Southern California with a Masters degree in teaching and also graduated from Cal State University Fullerton with a Bachelor's degree in Kinesiology. Is an American Swimming Coaches Association member. 

He currently coaches the gold age group and silver age group at the FVHS location. Is an assistant swim coach at Orange Coast College.

He is an avid mountain biker.

Age-Group Silver I & Gold III

Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine

Kevin grew up in Irvine, California and started swimming for NOVA when he was 6 years old. After graduating from Woodbridge High School in 2007 he went on to compete for the University of Southern California all four years, graduating cum laude with a B.A. in Communication in 2011. During his swim career Kevin competed at the Junior Olympics, Western Zones, Junior Nationals, Senior Nationals, and Pac-12 championships. Prior to coaching at NOVA, he coached for 3 years in the Irvine Swim League.

Age-Group Bronze III & Senior Bronze II

Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine

Gavin grew up in Irvine in a swimming family. He has four older brothers, two of which swam for NOVA. So from a very early age, he spent a lot of time on a pool deck at his older brothers' swim meets. Wanting to follow in his brothers' footsteps; as soon as he was old enough, he joined NOVA and began his own swimming career. He would continue to swim and play water polo at Woodbridge High School, where he made the Varsity team in both sports all four years. He graduated from Woodbridge High School in 2005 and started working as a lifeguard and swim instructor. For the next three years, he attended Orange Coast College and continued lifeguarding and being a swim instructor with the City of Irvine. In 2008, he transferred to Cal State Fullerton and began coaching for NOVA. He began coaching in the Developmental program for the first year, then switched over to the Bronze program. He graduated from Cal State Fullerton with a B.A. degree in Business Administration, Marketing in 2011. In 2016, Gavin became the Head Bronze coach at the Woollett site. He currently coaches 9/10 Bronze 3, 11/12 Bronze 3, and Senior Bronze 2. His coaching philosophy is creating fun and challenging workouts while teaching proper stroke mechanics, focusing on building good habits and developing a love for the sport of swimming. He aims to motivate and help cultivate confidence in his swimmers to help them achieve their goals.

Senior Silver I

Northwood High School, Irvine

Alyssa is an Orange County native and has over 9 years of competitive swimming experience and 7 years of swim coaching experience. She is currently coaching the 9/10 & 11/12 Bronze 1 groups at the Woollett site for Nova with 5 years of experience in this capacity running comprehensive practices focusing on developing the essential swim fundamentals and fostering a healthy, competitive attitude towards the sport of swim. In her free time she enjoys yoga, hiking, biking, surfing, snowboarding, and hanging out with her dachshund, Achilles. 

Senior Gold II

Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine

John Mykkanen competed at the 1984 Olympics just after graduating from high school, and was the youngest US male swimmer that year. He was a distance freestyler. Mykkanen later attended Cal Berkeley, and then became a chiropractor in Orange County, California. 

John has been a long-time member of the Novaquatics Family, from his early days training under Flip Darr, to present as he spends his extra time away from his chiropractic career, as an assistant coach. John's wife continues to work with our Develpmental Swimmers, while his three children progress through the program.

NOVA Pre-Competitive

Northwood High School, Irvine

NOVA Pre-Competitive

Northwood High School, Irvine

Age-Group Bronze, Age-Group Gold III, Senior Silver I & II

Fountain Valley High School, Fountain Valley

Senior Gold I

Northwood High School, Irvine

Coach Ryan was born in Fresno, California, where he grew up and began swimming in high school. After graduating high school in 2016, Ryan swam for Concordia University Irvine(CUI), where he was a Conference Champion, posting top-10 times in school history in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke.

Michael Collins has been the Nova Masters Head Head Coach since November 2000. Before that he coached at UCLA for four years and the Davis Aquatic Masters for 8 years. He has an extensive background in coaching swimmers and triathletes of all ages and abilities.

Additionally, Collins travels around the country to coach swimming, triathlon, and running clinics. Although his main background was in swimming, he has taken many of the concepts used in swimming - technique, drills, and interval training and applied them to running and cycling as well.

Collins continues to compete in triathlons, running events, swimming events (both in the pool and open water), and road & mountain cycling. In triathlons he race from sprint to half Ironman distance. He often wins his age group and finishes as one of the top overall amateurs as well. He was the 2002 World Aquathlon amateur champion in Cancun (2.5K Run - 1K Swim - 2.5K Run).

In addition to coaching and racing, Collins is a well known author. His articles have appeared in SWIM magazine, Swimming Technique, TRIATHLETE magazine, Triathlon Today, American Swimming, and many other national publications.