Jay Benner has been named the new head coach of the King Aquatic Club in Federal Way, Washington, replacing coach Michael Brooks, who was named to the same position last summer. The move is the latest change for the powerful Seattle-area club that includes several assistant coaches departing for the Central Area Aquatics Team, and the continuing fallout from accusations of grooming and sexual abuse by former World Record holder Ariana Kukors against former KING owner and CEO Sean Hutchison.
Benner comes the Bellingham Bay Swim Team on Washington’s northwest coast, where he was also named head coach just last summer. Benner is best known as the youth coach of 8-time Olympic medalist and American Record holder Nathan Adrian. He also coached 2008 U.S. Olympian Dana Kirk and is a member of the Pacific Northwest Swimming Hall of Fame.
KING won the combined and men’s team titles at the recent Federal Way Sectional Championships; Bellingham Bay finished 18th in the combined scoring.
Brooks came to Seattle from North Carolina, where he was previously the head coach of the North Carolina Aquatic Club and an assistant coach at the University of North Carolina. In a letter to the team, Brooks said that he thought the team would move forward faster from the Hutchison allegations, and painted a picture of infighting and chaos in the team.
Brooks’ Letter to the team
“The last five weeks have been terrible,” the letter reads. “After the earthquake allegations that started the whole thing, things have not gotten any better. For much of that time, you have not gotten any solid information about what has been happening, and in the absence of facts, rumors abounded.
I had assumed that we could relatively quickly get a plan up and running that would unify the group moving forward. That has obviously not happened. Frustrating delays contribute to the chaos in the system. The collection of data and numbers to do due diligence took much longer than I had expected, the work to produce the offer sheet took much longer than I had expected, meanwhile there were rumors flying everywhere that the Booster Club would kill any deal to ensure that Sean Hutchison would not get a cent (and I got many emails from parents arguing that very path); and there are serious personality and social clashes that have prevented various folks from working together and have resulted in the team splintering into multiple factions.
People have assumed that I knew much more than I actually did. I heard enough of the rumors to suspect that much was happening behind the scenes and outside of my view, which I could only really guess at from the results (especially regarding pools). Some key information about pools and coaching decisions I only discovered from reading other teams’ websites. Nobody was telling me anything (and I was told by a key booster member, that I had not established myself enough to build the kind of ties for people to trust me and be comfortable enough to talk to me and support me.) And I was in the same holding pattern that you all were in regarding a proposed sale: is it going to happen, and when, and what will be the details?
The result has been that, fed up with the uncertainty, several coaches and many families have decided to leave the club. This is obviously very disappointing to me and to all those who wanted to see King come out of this crisis whole and strong and stable. Even though I’ve only spent six months with the coaching staff, I had come to like and respect them and enjoy working with them to build a great team. It is disappointing to see friends and colleagues choosting to go in other directions. But no matter which direction people choose to go all are going to be seeing each other on deck numerous times each season, and “leaving mad” doesn’t help anyone now or down the road.
A few days ago, coach Doug Djang sent an email to the membership announcing a meeting to discuss a purchase of the team and his beaing the head coach. This seemed quasi-official, and the strong implication of his letter was that I was no longer in the picture – to the extent that several swimmers and parents asked me when I had quit. I have not said anything publicly about this letter until now because I did not want to undermine a colleague, I did not want a civil war on deck during the meet, and I have wanted as much as possible to keep the swimmers insulated from the disagreements and divergent interests of the adults.
However, you need to know that this is NOT the Terry Yen purchase plan that I have written about and that I fully support. To be blunt, Doug’s letter was calculated to undermine or circumvent that plan. He called the meeting on his own, not in his capacity as a King coach, and despite using the cyber version of the company letterhead. His ‘plan’ is contrary to what as head coach I consider to be the best interests of the club. His email to the team could have resulted in jeapordizing work already well underway; it most certainly made the situation and people’s impression of the situation even more unclear and chaotic: muddy waters made muddier.
What is happening now?
A group of coaches and swimmers will be leaving at the end of the month to join another local team [CAAT]. While I am sorry that they have decide to leave, and I wish that they would have chosen otherwise, I understand their decision and harbor no grudges.
I am working to ensure that there is a strong team, strongly coached and strongly supported by ownership, centered initially at KCAC with future options to expand to other local pools. I will not be here to lead it – I have decided to go back to my family in York [Pennsylvania]. However, I will help with the transition. With Terry Yen, I have been in serious talks with head coaching candidates of impeccable (and international) reputation, and I am solidifying the coaching staff and schedules. If you choose to stay with King – or whatever the new version of King happens to be called – you can trust that your kids will be well taken care of.
Sale
The letter concludes with administrative detail and an apology from Brooks to swimmers he coached directly for “not (coaching them) very well over the last month.”
Brooks references the sale of the club, which sources say was to Terry Yen, the parent of a KING swimmer who is the senior director of sales at semiconductr and telecommunications giant Qualcomm and was also previously listed as an advisor at IKKOS – Hutchison’s swimming technology company. The IKKOS website has been taken offline. Sources tell SwimSwam that the sales price of the club was in excess of half-a-million dollars.
CAAT is run by head coach Ken Spencer, who used to be Hutchison’s second-in-command at KING. He also owns the Aquatic Management Group, a company that manages several pools in the Seattle area used by both clubs. Hutchison is co-owner and co-founder of Aquatic Management Group, according to his LinkedIn profile.
We have reached out to KING and Djang for comment on the change, but as of posting have not received a response.
Swimming community please choose love over hate. Most people on here have families, myself included. The swimming community, teams and coaches are considered friends and family to myself and probably to many others. The sad thing about this situation is that there are a lot of rumors going around, some with sprinkles of truth, but many with none. All this hate started because of the former owner and former coach of KING. The truth is that NO ONE past or present KING or CAAT condones Sean’s alleged behavior. Period. No one knew about it. Period. Hopefully, justice will be served. Period. To me, something like this happening to a child is a parent’s worst nightmare. He was one bad apple… Read more »
Our family is moving to the area with two teenaged swimmers. We had no idea about any of this and assumed they’d swim at King. After reading all of this we are concerned about the team as well as the general swimming culture in the area. Are there other strong teams without this drama? Are King and CAAT good places to swim in spite of this?
The Bellevue Club Swim Team has a great Sr Sectional meet. Finishing third overall.
I second the Bellevue Club…way less drama!
True, but Bellevue Club Swim Team OVER charges. It’s very expensive and their price increase every year. That’s why they have a nice pool area. There’s a lot of good team out there with experienced coaches. So far I like WAVE team.
You should still investigate King. This is just a bunch of back-biting among parents who won’t give up our team and the ones who just won’t go away in peace. We are rebuilding and Doug is an excellent coach with great results. New Head Coach Jay Benner coached Nathan Adrian–can’t get much better than that–as well as some other Olympians. We have another new coach who was a Russian Gold Medalist at the Olympics (check the website) and the new owner will be fleshing out our coaching roster very soon. As to other teams, Bellevue Club (as PNS Swimmer listed below) is a great club, VAST has many fine swimmers as well. It really depends on the level of swimmer… Read more »
Thank you both. Good to hear. I was starting to worry. We are leaving behind a very positive club team and want to find something similar.
I would encourage you to look at CAAT, despite all the mud slinging going on here. We looked at them, and have been impressed by their philosophy and their approach. And they’re a good club too!
There are many good clubs with excellent coaches–just find the best fit for your family. That is what is important! And since the traffic around here sucks, it wouldn’t be bad to be near your workout pool! 🙂
Try Pro club, The head coach Dave has been a fantastic coach. He has made Pro Club a great club.
Who’s the Russian gold medalist? Svetlana was an Olympian for Russia, but couldn’t find anything about an Olympic gold medal.
Someone is inflating the resume a bit. There’s no gold medalist coach at King. They had Tommy Hannan as a coach for awhile, and I think briefly back in 2006 had Megan Jendrick as a coach. But nothing since then.
And what has been jay been up to since Tacoma? He coached Nathan prior to 2006 when he was at Tacoma and I know he just came from Bellingham bay, but a little cloudy where he was in between those dates. Seemed like he had a lot of success with Tacoma Swim Club when he was there, but not sure why he left and what he did after. How have his recent results been?
Benner coached in the Middle East for awhile.
Doug has been a shady character since I swam with him in the national group many years ago. This doesn’t surprise me. He picked and chose his clique and was for some reason very much a jerk to many people for no reason. He has coached the same way.
Interesting choice on Jay Benner, someone who is also certainly NOT without his past sins and multitude of issues, for those who were involved with Tacoma “back in the day.”
I know it would hurt a lot of swimmers but I would much rather see the team dissolve than see Sean get cash from sale of the club.
It is unlikely that he will get to keep any of it! But even as still King parent, I have felt the same way that it might have been better if the club had dissolved instead. But if Sean thinks he will be able to hide or move any of it, forensic accountants will find it. You just can’t hide assets like once may have happened. I look forward to Ms. Kukors getting her day in court and she hopefully all his money–well deserved for enduring what she did (allegedly as I do not know either parties personally). Money cannot replace what happened or what she was robbed of, but she can move forward with help and do something good… Read more »
Done deal Sean is no longer the owner of the team. He got his money. Lets just let the swimmers swim, Sean is going to have deal with the accusations on his own now.
To everyone who is saying that Doug was undermining and disregarding the previous head coach, he was not. Parents wanted answers as to what was going on with the team because many parents were leaving the team while spreading malicious rumors that weren’t true and trying to destroy the team. The email from Brooks above is irrelevant due to the fact he didn’t communicate with the team of what was going on. He didn’t build himself as to someone trustworthy and showed he wasn’t a good fit for the team and he didn’t share the same view the team had. Since Brooks was not talking about what was going on, people went to Doug because he was someone people knew… Read more »
Giving answers is not the same thing as telling the truth. In due time the facts will be revealed.
To all the old King and recently departed, take a look in the mirror. A lot of people leave the team under the pretense of separating themselves from Sean. They leave a team that legally dropped Sean like a bad habit, then moved to a team that the head coach has deep current ties with Sean and is in in a Partnership sharing revenues from pool fees from a joint business. To the team members who did a planned exodus from one geographic portion of the Seattle area(North groups) you should be ashamed how you did everything behind the back of your fellow swimmers. The truth will come out showing how every one did a pre-planned drop of the team… Read more »
Well said. It actually says at the bottom of the article that Ken Spenser of CAAT is in business with Sean if anyone read that far down. So if you think you have moved to a team without affiliation to Sean at CAAT, you have been decieved…..again.
You dont know what your talking about. At all.
This is public information. AMG has to file with Washington State agencies that list Sean and Ken as owners. Do a little research if you want to know the truth before just saying it’s not. Google it.
If it was on the internet it must be true! Sounds like you’re a king parent so you must be important enough to know who has a relationship with who.
So the writer of this article is lying? I am sure they did a little research. You can go to dor.wa.gov and look it up for yourself under Look Up Business, enter Aquatic Management Group and scroll down to governing persons. I just want the facts, the real facts. Not ones that have been spun to make people look good or bad, not the ones you think you should impart on this site that are half truths.
Time will tell who is ill informed. Those still loyal to Doug would be appalled by the unethical behavior that went on behind the scenes.
As for dissolving the team, Doug did not have anywhere near the same investment with King, in both time and effort, as staff and board members who left. The destruction of the team started with Sean. Doug simply caused chaos for it to fall. At some point I hope he takes responsibility for his actions and apologize to everyone he has harmed.
Please get off your high horse. Doug didn’t cause the chaos and saying that he didn’t have the same investment as everyone else is a complete lie. Doug has dedicated his family and time to keep King alive, others just left when they heard it was getting hard.
The facts that parents have said things that are untrue have already been revealed. I’m sorry that you don’t like Doug or king anymore but it’s shown how great of a coach Doug is to stay for his swimmers that he gives everything to. Those who left did it maliciously and now all of the people on CAAT will have to deal with the atrocious parents that have left King and went there. Ken may be a great coach but he still has ties with Sean which is something that most swimmers and coaches left for.
Ken and sean have no ties. Ken left King 4 years ago. There is no love lost in that relationship. Pull your head out your a $$ and get off the message boards
Sean and Ken are in business together with AMG (Aquatic Management Group). Ken did leave King, but his relationship with Sean did not end. You can find the relationship ties at https://secure.dor.wa.gov, under Look Up Business, enter Aquatic Management Group and search. Scroll down and under governing people it lists them both. This is up-to-date……..so they do have ties.
According to business look up, Sean is still listed as King owner…yet we’ve heard of a business sale, So we can’t just draw a conclusion based on very limited info that is listed online. It doesn’t show what their business relationship is like. We know Sean founded AMG in early 2000s and anyone that knows anything about AMG knows that Sean hasn’t been involved with anything related to running the company for more than a decade. Being a founder of the company might make it difficult to take his name off of it, depending on the initial paperwork. So please don’t try to make it seem like Ken and Sean are best friends because their names are listed together. In… Read more »
You are right. The team is going through a sale right now, which takes time for all the red tape to be completed. Terry Yen has been named as CEO until it all clears. Moving forward, wishing all well, moving on. Let’s just focus on our swimmers. Hopefully the real truth in time will come to light. Until then, the competition will be more fierce since talent is spread over more clubs. Will make for some really good meets. I know we will wish all swimmers to PR whatever team they are on. Success for the swimmers first. I’m out.
So let me get this straight… Doug held a meeting proclaiming himself HC, with Terry, then Terry hired Jay as HC? Sounds like a demotion. Again…
He didn’t proclaim himself as head coach. At that time he was the only coach so he held the meeting with Terry explaining to the team what was going on. Doug also has a lot on his plate and honestly this isn’t a demotion. Doug has a bright future ahead of him of becoming a national coach and will go further than just being head coach of a club team.
Frankly, your statement is incorrect. Doug’s email assuming the role of head coach was sent to parents one week before the meeting and before coaches resigned. Michael had only resigned five hours before Doug’s meeting. Sadly, this isn’t even addressing the complaints made over the last two years against Doug’s mistreatment of his athletes.
The current class of graduating seniors that have been coached by Doug include graduates going to swim and study at Duke, Princeton, Stanford, Grand Canton, Texas Christian, Concordia, the United States Air Force Academy, the United States Military Academy (West Point), the United States Naval Academy and one with the sense of duty and honor to enlist in the Army.
If a person heard of any group of teenagers with those bright futures ahead of them, they would wonder what is the common denominator… what brought this amazing group of kids together and who helped them to achieve so much (both in and out of the pool). The answer to that question is unequivocally Doug.
Go ahead and… Read more »
Saying that ONE individual is responsible for any child’s success in life is disrespectful to their parents, their teachers, and every other person who has been supportive of that young person. An individual who really makes a difference in the lives of others shows humility and does not need a group of parents, or swimmers for that matter, to come to his defense. As adults we are expected to lead the youth. Not convince them their success relies on our involvement. Those amazing graduates will do well in their lives because they are amazing young people. And they showed their character well before moving to Doug’s group.
And as a coach who has no skin in the game, giving sole credit to one individual is eerily reminiscent to the brainwashing used by the coach who started this whole mess.
You are incorrect. I just reviewed my emails to doublecheck that……I saw the postings and texted Doug that the King coaches were on the CAAT site and we parents needed information now. Can’t blame swimmers for following their coaches to other teams, especially with the lack of information. Someone definitely didn’t do their job well.
The coaches that left King did so in a coordinated effort with their swimmers knowing in advance of their intention to leave. The exodus of the swimmers were pool specific. Namely the North side teams. This was a direct attempt to undermine King and cause its collapse. To the coaches that are still actively recruiting current King members, your actions are not going on undetected. I have visually seen texts from current CAAT coaches (former King) attempting to lure swimmers away from the team ((BTW direct violation of USA swimming rules). Its time to leave the remaining King swimmers and their coaches alone. Go King!
I wasn’t very clear:
Coaches were posted on CAAT site Monday, March 26
then Doug sent out an email to King Parents in his swim groups for a meeting the following week to offer a chance to ask questions and get more information.
Again, no communication from the Head Coach for WEEKS–some of the ensuing problems could have been mitigated with some communication from the Head Coach.
Excerpts of an email Sent on March 21 from Doug to the team:
While I have been offered an opportunity to coach another swim club out of the state, I have decided to stay and remain with King Aquatic, my team and my swimmers. I am working with a prospective buyer to purchase the team and move forward as the team’s head coach. Sean Hutchison will not have any future ownership, interest or contact with the team. I have every intention of remaining here and continue to coach your children. However, in order to move forward I need to know which swimmers that are committed to staying with me.
After the Regionals Meet which concludes this Sunday I will… Read more »
You are right! It was the March 21st, and the posting about the Coaches at CAAT was the 19th. If I could figure out how to load the screenshot on that I would. There site has been updated and reflects a different date now. My order above is still correct.
For the sake of Transparency and sticking to the facts:
In an email from Coach Doug dated March 21. He states::
“Yesterday, I learned that a number of King Aquatic coaches have elected to quit the team and join another local swim club. I wish each of them good luck in the future and respect each of their individual decisions to move forward in their professional career.”
…..
“I am working with a prospective buyer to purchase the team and move forward as the team’s head coach.” ….
“After the Regionals Meet which concludes this Sunday I will host a Monday evening meeting for any interested parents to discuss the team and it’s future.”
Half of his statements in the email proved to be false through additional comments and communications to other people on the team. Brooks was still the head of the team, which is why he felt undermined having Doug set up a meeting without even consulting him. Unfortunately this was a reoccurring behavior.
As for timing, the insinuation that every coach had left by Doug’s Monday email was incorrect. Only four left. Others made their decisions over the course of the next two weeks. Some have decided not to coach anywhere else for the time being. To say it was a mass effort to tear swimmers away and transfer to CAAT is a misnomer. Complaints about lack of communication did… Read more »
This could have been handled so much better and would have kept the look of impropriety at bay with CAAT announcing the coaches on their site on 3/19. That was unfair to our swimmers who were still to swim at the Regional meet the following weekend. Shame on them for that!
This conversation is unfair to Doug. The letter sent from Doug was written by a group of parents that were working with Doug and Terry both. We were trying to provide some guidance to the team. Hindsight is 20/20. There wasn’t any communication coming from the current head coach/CEO or the Boosters Board. The people in charge who should have been providing communication did not. They allowed the rumors and chaos to continue. Knowing the pieces of information we had been provided (which was very little), a group of parents met with Doug and Terry and made a plan to move forward to protect the team and swimmers. For many reasons, that were supported by the coaches and parents, we… Read more »
Honestly, whoever wrote the email, it was a needed piece to the survival of the team that we are still committed to. Doug stepped up to hold the team together and we applaud him for that. He is still our coach and friend–whatever the future, we hold nothing but respect for him. His reputation should not be tarnished due to this circumstances caused by Sean and his actions. Well said, let’s just all move forward and be the example to all the swimmers on deck. We are still in the same sport and we will continue to cheer for all the swimmers we know–we will continue to be the example.
Once again, the board you keep referring to is a booster organization that supports king swimmers through fundraising, meets, scholarships, etc.
In other words, king aquatic club, Llc and king aquatic booster association are 2 separate entities. King aquatic club management has no official say over booster activity and the booster organization definitely has no control over the business side of king aquatic club. TWO separate business organizations.
So it seems extremely unfair that you to continue to blame the parent volunteers (recent booster board) for holding information when they were likely just as in the dark as everybody else and scrambling to figure everything out as well. Moreover, even if they did know more, it is not their… Read more »
I encourage you to bring this discussion back to the important issue – supporting our kids in the future. I have been very careful to not call out the actions of individuals. While I do not agree with the actions taken, I very much do care for those who have volunteered before me. I believe they are good people who were dealing with a difficult situation. So before you continue making anymore comments like the ones made above, I encourage you to research and understand the legal and fiduciary responsibilities of a nonprofit organization. As an nonprofit executive with a strong legal background, I feel I have a solid understanding of these requirements. I also have an understanding of the… Read more »
When an entire coaching staff and all but one board member leaves a team simultaneously, there’s a reason. Selling a team to a friend/business partner for over a half a million dollars is not separating from the accused perpetrator. And the only coach remaining still having direct ties with the previous owner all equates shady business. This is not a conspiracy. This is a tragic fall of a previously amazing organization. It’s been a devastating loss for all those who’ve dedicated their lives to working with young swimmers.
Focus on your new team now. Your lies and misinformation campaign have failed to sink the ship. Don’t go away mad, just go away.
Misinformation? Do you feel like this was a vast conspiracy to unfairly wrong Sean Hutchison and that Doug is the hero in this story? And his (Doug’s) actions over the past couple weeks have been righteous and ethical?
The narrative is that when Ariana made public the abuse she suffered by the hands of the highest level of KING leadership, how could a coach who cares about protecting and mentoring kids feel good about being led by such a person who has abused his position and abused the trust parents have placed in him?
How could parents whose children they send off to be coached and mentored feel good about doing that in an organization whose senior leadership has not… Read more »
This hasn’t been about Sean for a long time. He will do time and any money he made will be consumed in attorneys fees. You are obviously an outsider to all the facts and truths in play. Trying to cast anyone as someone who supports Sean is beyond contempt. This is about a mostly corrupt booster club and coaches recruiting swimmers to another team while still employed with King with the intent of blowing the whole thing up, transferring all money and equipment to another team, while forcing half the team not involved with the grand ruse to follow along later. Too bad the plan failed. Once again, move along to your new team.
Are you serious? Sean was ceo up until a few weeks ago and has personally picked everyone who has been in charge…and even when the membership was told that Sean no longer had control, he removed Michael from ceo and put terry in that position. So it seems as if Sean is still very much in control. A corrupt booster club? The booster hasn’t had any control over King since Sean was given the team back in early 2000s. All of their financials have been open to membership and let’s be clear, they’ve never had control over King decisions such as leadership/coaching. They never had access to king’s finances (only Sean does and maybe terry now). So if you are… Read more »
You won’t be missed. Try to be honest with your next team.
Ernie and Bert you have totally missed the boat. Before you spread rumors and make allegations of corruption and impropriety I suggest you get the facts. From my standpoint… Boosters did their best to hold everything together and do the right thing for the team keeping their fiduciary and legal obligations. All of this despite some very difficult and strong personalities jockeying for a position and possibly spreading false rumors. Any good coach is going to have a loyal following of swimmers. I expect that if Doug went to another club he would have kids follow him as well. So lets not blame the coaches for doing what in their hearts was the right thing for their own careers. Lets… Read more »
Thou doth protest too much. Simply attempting to dispel the lies and deceit.
It is good to be east of the Mississippi where we all get along. (Except Washington, DC)
Very true for the most part! Except for a couple spots in FL, and Raleigh, NC. Charlotte might get bad too since SwimMAC is no longer the largest club and they’re none too happy about that lol