OCALA, FL (352today.com) – It’s a program that places an emphasis on producing solid citizens, who excel inside and outside of the classroom and not just in the pool.
TekMasters Swim Club is composed of a group of coaches that are home grown, said Tarn Thompson, one of the program’s coaches, who has been in Ocala since 1991, and was previously a high school coach in the area, at Vanguard, Forest and Trinity Catholic. The Team practices at the Jervey Gantt Aquatic Center.
Coach Mark McDonald is a native Ocalan, graduate of Forest High School, and was an All-American at the University of North Dakota, with a resume that has found him swimming, competing and coaching in Ocala. It was Thompson and McDonald who started the first ever Masters program in Ocala, called the Ocala Masters Swim Club.
Coach Aaron Aiken, who Thompson coached as an age grouper in high school, where he attended Forest and West Port, was an All-American when competing for the U.S. Naval Academy.
Belleview’s High School’s swim coach Laural Kurzhals was a graduate of the program, with Thompson having coached her when she was a senior in high school. Other coaches include Ashley Pettit and the TekMasters Swim Club strength coach is former University of Florida Gator football player Andre Palmer.
“One thing about our coaching staff, we all come from the same mindset and heart,” said Thompson. “We all grew up knowing each other. I’m the oldest of them all, having coached them. Our staff is well-represented for Ocala. We’re all certified.”
Thompson was in the process of building a program prior to TekMasters at the YMCA, and then COVID transformed the world.
“With that Mark and I and another fellow who’s no longer with us, started TekMasters Swim Club to continue with this,” said Thompson. “We’re in our fifth year of operation, like everything there’s growing pains, and you have to go through the whole process. I consider ourselves more family centric. We work in the old club style, not so much in a system program.”
TekMasters is dual represented as members of the Amateur Athletic Union and USA Swimming. The TekMasters Swim Club Breakers and Team Florida have been distinguishing themselves not only locally, but on the national and global levels.
“I have a saying, ‘Anytime, anyplace, any distance, any race,'” said Thompson. “What we try to do is lay a solid foundation, an organic foundation. We move slower than faster at the developmental stages because it is a demanding sport. and there’s nothing but work ahead. We don’t have the exposure of marketing and advertising. We’re a nonprofit, it’s by word-of-mouth, most of it. We preach citizenship, sportsmanship and scholarship.”
As the athletes are going through the developmental stages to get into the competitive stages, the emphasis is still on academics, said Thompson. The TMSC Breakers were part of Team Florida that competed in the AAU Junior Olympics in Houston, Texas in late July.
“We can’t have them pounding the hours in the water, if they’re not academically astute to their curriculum,” said Thompson. “That’s where the emphasis is right now in our program. That program will develop as the kids develop. We open our doors up to anyone who has the heart and desire to swim.”
Leia Davila who has muscular dystrophy and autism, competed in late August in the Athletes Without Limits world competition in Thailand, and is a member of the TekMasters Swim Club Breakers. Davila enjoyed great success medaling in the 200-meter freestyle, 200-meter breaststroke and 800-meter freestyle and 400-meter medley relay, all third-place finishes.
Another TMSC Breakers team member Michael Antonov has competed in Qatar, and a couple of years prior, his sister competed for the United States through the AAU in Nice, France.
