Scottsdale Aquatic Club head coach and CEO Kevin Zacher has accepted the head coaching position at the Santa Clara Swim Club. His last day in Scottsdale will be July 31, after the conclusion of the Olympic Games, ending a nearly 20-year run with the team.
Zacher joined Scottsdale in 2002 as an assistant coach and was promoted to head coach in 2007. Since that time, the Scottsdale program has grown to a 500-member club. During his tenure, the club has won 3 Junior National titles,set several National Age Group Records, and sent 10 swimmers to the 2016 U.S> Olympic Trials.
Among Scottsdale’s most notable alumni of the last few years is Ryan Hoffer, who recently completed his senior season at Cal, where he’s won 7 career NCAA event titles.
Other noteable Scottsdale alums include NCAA runner-up Carl Mickelson, Junior National Champion Jack Blake, Arizona High School State Champion Claire Grover, and Canadian Taylor Ruck, who won 2 Olympic bronze medals in 2016 as a teenager while training with Zacher.
“As I take the next step in my career to a new challenge, I am so proud of all we have accomplished at SAC from continuing to dominate in Arizona State Championships to winning our first Sectional Team Championship in 2011, winning Junior Nationals three times, to having swimmers from SAC compete (and win medals) in the 2016 Rio Games.”
Zacher will bring some stability to Santa Clara, a program that has had uncertain leadership since former head coach John Bitter was arrested on charges that he embezzled money from the club. That club has not formally announced a new head coach in the last few years, though several individuals have filled those duties. Dave Meck is currently leading the program’s top level Senior 4 National group.
The Santa Clara Swim Club is one of the most storied programs in the history of American swimming. Founded in 1951 by George Haines, the list of the club’s alumni is a veritable who’s-who of American swimming in the 1960s and 1970s. That includes names like 9-time Olympic gold medalist Mark Spitz, Pablo Morales, Don Schollander, Chris von Saltza, Lynn Burke, George Harrison, Steve Clark, and Paul Hait. More recent Santa Clara swimmers to achieve Olympic glory include Tom Jager, a 5-time Olympic gold medalist in 1984, 1988, and 2002, and Mike Bottom, an Olympian and the current head coach at the University of Michigan.
The club has lost some of its prominence more recently, though, they still are a club that consistently sends swimmers to national meets. Four swimmers who have achieved at least Wave I cuts for the 2021 US Olympic Swimming Trials while registered with Santa Clara: Max Saunders and Kyler Van Swol on the boys’ side, and Nicole Oliva and Zoe Zeller on the girls’ side. Those were all Wave I cuts.
Scottsdale is the second major club in Arizona to announce a change in leadership in the last week. Garrett McCaffrey also resigned as head coach of the nearby Phoenix Swim Club.
And now SCSC has lost their Milpitas site (a 17 lane pool).The third satellite site lost since John Bitter was fired. This is on the SCSC Board of Directors, but I’m sure they’ll lay the blame elsewhere.
Congratulations, Kevin. Looking for great things to come from you at Santa Clara. No richer history of great club swimming than in that program exists.
Truly a great coach, Kevin will be missed at SAC! Santa Clara is lucky to have him!
Good luck to Kevin, but there are a few mistakes in this article. Max Saunders swims at USC and I can’t imagine he’d come and rep SCSC. Kyler is a coach now and hasn’t swum much in the past year. Nicole Oliva left SCSC in 2019 and has since quit swimming. And Zoey Zeller left in August 2020. So effectively the club has no qualifiers. They have no control over their water time and they might have 350 swimmers left. They’ve lost or fired over 50% of their coaching staff and I hope Kevin knows what he’s walking into.
If ANYONE can turn it around…Kevin CAN!!!!!
A famished Fox saw some clusters of ripe black grapes hanging from a trellised vine. She resorted to all her tricks to get at them, but wearied herself in vain, for she could not reach them. At last she turned away, beguiling herself of her disappointment, and saying: “The Grapes are sour, and not ripe as I thought.”
Pay attention to those who don’t clap when you win. Behavior speaks.
350 swimmers after dealing with Covid in California is still quite large and if you look at their staff on their website many of their quality long time age group coaches who produce nationally ranked age group swimmers are still there. I think this hire will be great for them. I know parents in Northern California like to compare clubs constantly but Santa Clara never really fell off, they are still the top performing team at Bay Area swim meets. They will get their OT swimmers back. I am a former coach in the Bay Area but am not associated with Santa Clara so this is not a homer post.
True that 350 swimmers is still quite large. But 2 of their 3 age group lead coaches who were nominated as top 50 coaches in the US have left for a neighboring club. True, SCSC was the best 12 & under programs in the US a year ago. Unfortunately, 70-80 % of the kids who scored those points for SCSC are no longer there. Just facts. Best of luck to Kevin.
I will add that my club team has gotten quite a few swimmers from SCSC, some switching to our team and some just using the extra training time, but it is pretty apparent that they took a hit. It is pretty obvious they will get back on their feet, but it is still weird to see them so “low” (which their “low” is the majority of team’s “high”)
True, we left SCSC earlier in the year. Their problems are deep rooted and the board took a weird approach to make the club board centric rather than HC centric, stripping all the power from several acting HC’s since Bitter left. That juts made matters incredibly worse and to top it all many coaches were treated like 2nd class citizens. Talent attracts talent, it only took a great coach to leave to start taking the rest of them with him and the fastest swimmers as well. Best of luck to Kevin, I just hope he was informed of how the club is ran by the board. Or maybe they are ready to give out the power back to a HC?… Read more »
I was one of the swimmers to leave SCSC during the pandemic and I ended up taking a break. Now I want to rejoin but I’m having trouble finding a good team in the San Jose/ Santa Clara area, would you mind putting the team name or suggesting some?
I’d recommend Alto Swim Club, Peak, or Valley Splash. Whatever you do, don’t go to Quicksilver. I have not heard good things about them.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about Alto and Pasa but they are a bit far. Peak isn’t currently accepting new swimmers and I thought Valley Splash hasn’t been able to practice? Also, I’m sorry, what have you heard about QSS? I was debating on going there since my old scsc coaches are there now. Thank you so much!
Just facts. Blueseventy Weekly Wonders of Age Group Swimming – 12/25/2019 (swimswam.com)
How do you know Nicole Oliva quit? I thought she was on the team at Cal. Also where did Zoey Zeller go?
Nicole quit after the first semester. Zoey always swam at the Morgan Hill site snd when SCSC dropped it last summer she stayed with her coach. She recently swam unattached in Irvine.
A very bright future for Santa Clara Swim Club. Welcome, Kevin!
Kevin is the best coach and took me to the next level of swimming, I give him so much thanks and respect. Santa Clara is very lucky
Kevin is the best coach. We are blessed to have had him coach our kids. He will be missed- Can’t match him. Best of Luck Kevin and Thank you for the best swimming experience a family could ask for! Literally crying now!
Welcome to SCSC Kevin. The swimmers, parents and coaches are happy to have you as our new Head Coach and we look forward to working with you..