Sean Quinn
Head Coach
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Sean Quinn became a member of the North Carolina Aquatic Club
family beginning in 2003. Through his time here at NCAC Sean
has coached every level of the program from swim school through
seniors. In his experience Sean has enjoyed getting to know
his athletes and finding challenging positive techniques to help
that athlete explore and achieve their full potential not only in
competitive swimming but learning the value of this process that
can be applied in life. Sean looks forward leading NCAC and
providing opportunities for our swimmers to enjoy the wonderful
sport of swimming while teaching, challenging, and supporting them
every chance he gets.
Sean had a successful swimming career though he did not begin
year round swimming until the age of 13 he was fortunate to have a
strong support from coaches and family. His parents Walter and
Cheryl and his wonderful sister Kathleen always found a way to be
supportive while also allowing him to travel the path on his
own. Through his hard work and commitment to the sport Sean
became a National and Olympic Trial qualifier specializing in
Breaststroke, IM, and Distance Freestyle. Sean earned several
opportunities to represent the U.S. on National Junior Team, Short
Course World Championship Team, and his highest accomplishment
earning a silver medal at the Pan American Games. Sean also
placed 5th at the 2000 Olympic Trials in the 200 meter
breaststroke. Swimming here at the University of North
Carolina Sean has become a Tar Heel for life and is so grateful for
all of the opportunities and life skills acquired through his
swimming career.
In Sean’s free time he enjoys spending time with his
wonderful wife Beth and his two crazy dogs Kayla and Jacks.
Any chance to get outdoors whether it is heading to the beach,
mountains, or just enjoying Chapel Hill Sean loves getting outdoors
and any sort of activities with his friends and family.
Kathy McKee
Assistant Coach
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A Chapel Hill native, Kathy began her coaching career in the
mid-1970’s as a summer league coach at Chapel Hill Tennis
Club. Her first club coaching job was Chapel Hill Swim Club that
swam out of Bowman Gray which was then the UNC varsity teams’
pool.
After leaving Chapel Hill, Kathy spent seventeen years as the
Head Age Group Coach at Dynamo Swim Club in Atlanta and helped
develop many great national level swimmers including Mary Ellen
Blanchard (who broke two American records) plus Carlton Bruner and
Eric Wunderlich who both represented the United States on the 1996
Olympic Team.
In 1994 Kathy was hired by Mecklenburg Aquatic Club to begin a
new satellite of MAC, operating at Davidson
College. During Kathy’s time with MAC she was part of a
staff that grew that club into one of the best teams in both North
Carolina and the USA. She was involved in all aspects of the MAC at
Davidson branch, coaching pre-competitive swimmers all the way up
to national level swimmers. Kathy coached multiple swimmers to the
USA National Junior Team and was given the opportunity to serve as
a coach for the 2007 National Junior Team that traveled to
Australia to compete. More recently, Kathy coached some current UNC
swimmers during their developmental years as members of
SwimMACCarolina.
Three times, Kathy earned the Georgia Age Group Coach of the
Year Award, was recognized by Georgia Swimming with a special award
from her peer coaches recognizing her contributions for her
outstanding coaching for seventeen years in the Georgia LSC. She
was also awarded the Phillips Outstanding Service Award though USA
Swimming and Georgia Swimming.
Kathy has served on numerous committees with USA swimming, North
Carolina Swimming, and Georgia Swimming. She also served on
the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) Board of Directors
for six years. She has spoken at the annual ASCA World Clinic
numerous times, several regional clinics and clinics in England and
Portugal.
We are proud to welcome Coach Kathy to NCAC and are confident
that she will make an immediate and positive impact upon our club
the moment she steps on the pool deck. Kathy’s experience
makes her an outstanding addition to our program. We look forward
to welcoming Kathy in late August and having her help mold our
young athletes into not only great swimmers but great people.
Britton Banning-Arndt
Assistant Coach
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Britton is a NCAC alumnus who has carried her knowledge from her
decade as a competitive swimmer into a career as a local swim
coach.
After graduating from Chapel Hill High, Britton attended and swam
for UNC-Chapel Hill and earned degrees in both Exercise & Sport
Science and in Sociology.
Britton's coaching experience began in high school when she
started coaching for her summer league team, Heritage Hills /
Community Center. In 2007, Britton was hired as the Head Coach for
Carrboro High School's Swimming and Diving Program. Over the past
four years, Britton has taken a first year program and created a
team which has earned consecutive State Championships as well as a
reputation for being a competitive contender in local high school
competition. Britton has been awarded Conference Coach of the Year
the past two seasons.
Britton is very excited to join the NCAC staff and she is looking
forward to the opportunity to create a challenging practice group
where athletes are pushed to; set, meet, and revise goals both for
their practice efforts as well as competitive races.
Keri Cleary
Assistant Coach
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NCAC is proud to announce the addition of Coach Keri Cleary to
our full time NCAC coaching staff. Keri emerged from a sea of
excellent candidates in our national search for our next age group
coach. Through the interview and reference process Keri
separated herself as a skilled, dedicated, driven, and passionate
swim coach. Her experience and drive has propelled her to be
one of the best young age group coaches in the country and we are
thrilled to have her here at NCAC!
Coach Keri will get to work right away in our efforts to
continue development and improvement of our age group
program. Our program goals demand excellent teaching and
commitment at our age group level and Coach Keri will fill that
need impeccably.
Coach Keri will begin coaching here at NCAC Monday April 8 when
we resume from our team break and will be coaching both our Gold
and Bronze groups. Please join me in welcoming Coach Keri to
the NCAC family!!
Keri Cleary is from the Boston area where she was born and
raised in New Hampshire and attended school at Simmons College in
Boston, Mass. At Simmons, she earned her Bachelor’s in
Exercise Science and swam all four years. Simmons participated in
both the GNAC and NEISDA conferences where Keri was a multi-time
conference champion and record holder for Simmons. Keri received
GNAC swimmer of the year her freshman, junior and senior year. She
was captain at Simmons both her junior and senior year and also
received the Simmons Athlete of the Year award her Senior year.
While at Simmons, Keri gained experience working as a physical
therapy aide at a local outpatient clinic, coached summer league
swimming for five summers and also assisted Simmons College in day
swim camps. Keri enjoys communication with people and has great
exposure in both exercise science and swimming.
The summer of 2009, Keri and her husband, Devin, moved to North
Carolina where the Raleigh Swimming Association hired her. While at
RSA, Keri started a learn-to- swim program that fed into
RSA’s year round swim groups. Keri assisted several practice
groups at RSA ranging from novice to senior, served as Lead Coach
with RSA’s competitive 6-9 year old groups and their 8-11
year old group for 3 years. Keri has also coached her swimmers to
the state level. At RSA, Keri was responsible for overseeing summer
league spring clinics, summer league swimming and played a key
factor in starting up a track-out swim camp for RSA.
Keri enjoys staying active and to be around her husband and
friends. She loves to run and swim and is excited to get more
involved in triathlons. Keri is thrilled to have the opportunity to
join NCAC and looks forward to being a part of their success!
Virginia Pate
Part-time Assistant Coach
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Charles Peterson
Part-time Assistant Coach
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NCAC is proud to welcome Chip Peterson to NCAC not only as our
newest swimmer but as a member of our part-time coaching
staff. Chip is a native North Carolinian and swam for
Carteret Currents Swim Team and the University of North Carolina.
Chip is one of the most decorated swimmers in North Carolina
Swimming and UNC history.
Chip is a graduate from UNC with a degree in Biology and was a
four year letterman exceling in the IM and distance events at the
NCAA level still holding several UNC team records.
USA Swimming accomplishments: Gold medalist in the 10K open
water race at the 2010 Pan Pacific Championships … placed
13th in the 10K at the 2008 Open Water World Championships in
Seville, Spain ... earned silver in the 10K at the 2007 Open Water
World Championships Trials ... has been at the forefront of the
U.S. open water surge, capturing 10K victories at the 2005, 2006
and 2007 Open Water National Championships, 2005 World
Championships and at the 2006 Pan American Open Water Championships
... took gold in the 1500m free and silver in the 10k Open Water
event at the 2007 Pan American Games ... his victory at the 2005
World Champs made him the first American male since 1991 to capture
an open water world title
After completing his swimming career Chip was hired as an
assistant coach at Costa Mesa Aquatic Club where he worked with
swimmers ranging in age and ability specializing in technical
improvement.
In the fall of 2012 Chip was hired as the Head Coach of West
Carteret High School in which Coach Chip led them to successful
season growing team size, qualifiers for regional and state meet.
Chip is currently considering a swimming comeback and is
being trained by Coach Sean both with the senior group as well as
individual practice sessions.
For the remainder of the season Coach Chip will be making the
rounds assisting all of our practice groups to be mentored by our
staff but also to get to know the workings of our program.
Beginning with the long course season Coach Chip will be given
more active role and responsibilities. We are excited about
the immediate impact Coach Chip will have here at NCAC.
Please find the time to welcome Coach Chip to the NCAC family!
Mimi Brinberg
Part-time Assistant Coach
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Chris Tommerdahl
Part-time Assistant Coach
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Kim Carducci
Part-time Assistant Coach
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Erin Graham
Part-time Assistant Coach
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Richard Samulski
Part-time Assistant Coach
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