Introducing our New Head Coach:  Gerald Koch!

With over 35 years of coaching experience, Coach Jerry Koch has continuously produced athletes

competing at the highest level. Since beginning his coaching career in 1964, Jerry has developed

junior and senior national qualifiers, nationally ranked athletes, and NCAA division 1 scholarship

earners. He has worked with international and Olympic athletes, including gold medalists Chris

Cavanaugh and Mike Brunner, as well as Claudia Clevenger and Angie Wester Craig.

Jerry's

successes took him abroad in 1977, as head coach of the Taiwanese National Team. Under his

leadership, numerous national records were broken, and a training program was developed that was

instrumental in carrying the Taiwanese team to new heights on the world stage.

Jerry rejoined the DACA staff in 2002 following 2 prior stints as CoHead

Coach of DACA in 1983 and

as a member of the coaching staff of DACA's predecessor De Anza Swim Club from 1971 1976.

Upon his return to DACA, Jerry was named Senior Coach and director of the DACA Swim School.

With Jerry at the helm, the DACA Swim School has become one of the largest and most successful

swim lesson programs in the country. Jerry's Senior athletes have included CCS qualifiers, and

athletes who have transitioned into the National Group.

Outside of coaching, Jerry has made important contributions to the swimming community. As

President of the Cabrillo Threshers from 1990 1997,

he helped guide one of the strongest small

teams in the area. He served as Pacific Swimming's Open Water Chairman until 2009 and has been a

speaker at several ASCA World Coaches Clinics. Two of his sons were high school All Americans

and Conference Champions at University of California Santa

Barbara.

Jerry holds a Bachelors of Science in Metallurgy and Physics from the Colorado School of Mines

where he was a Rocky Mountain Conference Champion in both football and swimming. He and his

wife of over 30 years, Janet, reside in Aptos with their two gorgeous Newfoundlands Hannah and Ava.