Head Coach: Sarah Davenport
sgovanswm [at] aol [dot] com or (775) 287-1035

Head Coach Sarah Davenport is a level 2 coach with the American Swimming Coaches Association, and has been with the Douglas Dolfins Swim Team and the sport since 1988. Sarah started her coaching career the summer of 1996, by volunteering for the Douglas Dolfins. She helped with 12 and under swimmers now known as the Blue group. In the fall of 1997 Sarah was asked to coach the women’s water polo team in Reno, NV. Sarah coached 21 high school girls from Washoe County, one of which went on to play for the University of Pacific.

In the spring of 1998, Sarah joined the Douglas Dolfins Swim Team as an assistant coach for Head Coach Don Lukart. In 1999, Don handed the team over to Sarah. Sarah’s first task was to remodel the team by putting into place a progressive structure level which would advance the beginner swimmer into a highly competitive athlete. Sarah has since coached State champions, top ten Pacific swimmers, Sectional level swimmers, National Reportable swimmers, and a Pacific swimmer of the year.

Sarah loves to teach the fundamentals of swimming in a fun and challenging way. Her goal is to bring the Douglas Dolfins to the next level.

Coach Kat has been coaching the Carson Valley Masters team at the Swim Center since moving to Gardnerville early in 2006. For 10 years she has enjoyed coaching competitive swimming and synchronized swimming at both the Assistant Coach and Head Coach levels. She started competing in swimming at the age of 5, and has been involved in the sport ever since.

Kat likes practices to be disciplined and fun! This comes from two of her past occupations; 10 years in the United States Air Force, and 10 years as a preschool teacher in Washington State. Coach Kat was our substitute Head Coach in October 2006, and joined the team as an Assistant Coach in January 2007.

Coach Kat is USA Synchro Level 1 and ASCA Level 2 certified. She has taken age group Synchronized swimmers to National Championships and coached competitive swimmers at LSC All Stars and Western Zone Championships.

Like the other DDST coaches, Stefanie began swimming early and has loved the sport ever since. She began swimming at age 7 while her family was stationed in Japan. Even though vehicle traffic traveled in reverse direction in Japan, Stefanie says swimmers stayed on the right side of the lane as we do in the U.S. The big difference was the number of competitors, so Stefanie got used to being “a big fish in a little pond” for the 3 years she lived there. After moving back to California, she continued swimming for teams on the Monterey Peninsula. She swam for her high school and college teams, where she learned the difference between swimming as an individual and swimming for a team. After college, she was fortunate to have a local and organized Masters team to swim with, because once you’re a swimmer, Stefanie believes you’re always a swimmer.

Stefanie joined DDST in May 2006 to help coach the Summer Program swimmers, and has been working with the Red, White, and Pre-competition groups since then. Stefanie especially enjoys working with the younger swimmers, and seeing them get excited about improving their times and their strokes. But even more than that, she thrives on seeing kids go from the struggle of combining breathing, arms and legs to conquering all 4 strokes then dives and turns. Finally, she loves to watch her kids as they experience the thrill of competition and LOVE it enough to come back for more. And more – as she once did, and still does.

Coach Susan Govan is back and coaching Wednesdays and Fridays with the White group. Susan started coaching the Douglas Dolfins in 1994, with Head Coach Don Lukart. Don needed an assistant coach and asked Susan because of her background in the sport. Susan has been teaching swimming for 20 years, and swam competitively in her early youth. Susan has three daughters that all swam for the Douglas Dolfins. She coached the Dolfins for 11 years before leaving for medical reasons. Welcome back Coach Susan!