Coaches & Directors

Jorge D Silva

Head Coach

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Head coach Jorge D. Silva opened up the Hydro-Sonic Tiburones Swim Club in January 2002 after many years of coaching and swimming in Montgomery County. Jorge has served as a head coach in many area leagues, including MCSL, MCPS (high school), and Potomac Valley Swimming, where he got his start at the Ward’s Wolverine Swim Club. After seven years of coaching the Waters Landing Thunder team in Germantown, Jorge moved to a summer head coaching position in 2008 at the Clopper’s Mill Marlins.

With the help of an excellent coaching and office staff, Jorge has grown and improved his club literally every year. He has trained MCPS County champions, Metros’ finalists, PVS Sr. Champs champions, and Junior Nationals qualifiers. In addition to coaching this top tier of the program, Jorge continues to work regularly with all of his practice groups; he especially loves to coach the little guys in the developmental programs!

When it comes to swimming, Jorge “knows his stuff,” and he really cares about the young people he coaches. In order to keep up with the latest developments in the world of swimming, Jorge researches extensively and attends the annual convention of the American Swim Coaches Association. Jorge is a perfectionist when it comes to correcting stroke mechanics; he believes that developing proper stroke technique can prevent many common swimming injuries. Having watched many talented young swimmers suffer from “burn-out” before high school, Jorge believes strongly in a gradual development of time in the water and yardage in practice. He wants his kids
to like swimming and to want to continue swimming through high school and college; therefore, he deliberately places the emphasis on quality over quantity when training his younger athletes. Finally, what makes swimming with Jorge fun is his wacky sense of humor. Come watch a workout or two, and you’ll see Jorge joking with the kids and creating laughter all around.

When not coaching, Jorge loves to read, watch silly movies, cook, collect shark memorabilia, draw, and scuba dive. He spends much of his time taking care of his two young daughters and hopes that they might some day swim in something other than the bath tub.

Nathan Meadows

Head Age Group Coach

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After graduating from Gaithersburg High School in 1992, Nathan attended Towson State University, graduating in 1997 with a degree in English.  While swimming for TSU, he earned a varsity letter all four years, primarily as a distance swimmer but also as an all-around filler (meaning he swam whatever his coach asked him to).  In his third year, he finished 15th at the Southern States Conference Champs in the 1000 free; by the end of his senior year, he had recorded the 12th fastest 1000 in TSU history. 

Nathan has been a full-time coach for 8 years and a summer league coach for 12 years.  As a professional coach, he worked as the senior team coach of JFD for 5 years and played a large role in developing the JFD program over a 7 year period.  At JFD, Nathan coached one Sectionals qualifier and seven LC Zone qualifiers.  Nathan will be the head coach of the Potomac Glen Gators for the 6th time this summer; under his guidance, the team has grown from 50 to 120 swimmers. Finally, Nathan has served as the P.E. teacher at the Seneca Academy in Darnestown for 4 years. Nathan joined the Hydro-Sonic Tiburones in June 2004 as our Head Age Group Coach, where he has had tremendous success with his swimmers; having several swimmers finish in the top ten at all PVS Championship meets.

Elizabeth J Silva

Coach

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Beth Kremer Silva joins her husband as assistant program manager for the Hydro-Sonic Tiburones. Beth has a Masters in Education and is a teacher at the Barnesville School. She has also served as head coach of the Damascus High School swim team, and was most recently head coach of the Lakelands Lionfish for three years. Like Jorge, Beth has extensive experience coaching and swimming in MCSL, MCPS, and PVS. She has 17 years of MCSL coaching experience. She was an NCAA Academic All-American at Kenyon College, a Metros finalist, and a Junior National Qualifier. She still holds pool records from her MSCL days.

Beth has chosen to pursue coaching because she believes that competitive swimming can be an incredible experience for children and teenagers. Not only does it instill a lifelong habit of exercise and athleticism, it teaches discipline and dedication. A good swim coach provides a child an opportunity to develop skill and confidence, to pursue individual goals and learn the value of teamwork. Like Jorge, Beth believes that a swimmer is more than just an athlete in the water; each child is an individual. At Hydro-Sonic, coaches train swimmers with an eye on the development of the swimmer over the long haul—both as an athlete and as a young adult

Allie McDougall

Coach

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Allie grew up in the area and spent her childhood swimming on local swim teams including North Creek, UMCY, Ward’s Wolverines and Watkins Mill High School. She began coaching MCSL teams in high school and continued through college. She graduated from Virginia Tech in 2005 with a degree in Communications. After college she returned to the area, began coaching the Tiburones and working at the American College of Cardiology.

Brooke A Hoffman

Coach

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Brooke swam for 12 years for the Upper Main Line YMCA in Berwyn, Pennsylvania.  She went to Gettysburg College and received a bachelor’s degree in sociology and education.  Brooke is currently a third grade teacher at Clopper Mill Elementary School.  She also coaches the Lakelands Lionfish during the summers. Brooke is excited to be a part of the Tiburones staff

Scott Collins

Coach

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Scott Collins was a competitive swimmer for 14 years. He graduated Wootton High School in 1999 where he was captain of the swim team. From there he attended High Point University where he graduated in 2003 with a degree is recreation management and athletic coaching. He has been a MCSL head coach for over 8 years, as well as a age-group coach for RMSC for 3 years. Scott started and was the head coach for the RIO Rays for 2 years. He is currently a proud member of the Hydro-Sonic Tiburones coaching staff.

Paul R Wolf

Coach

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Paul started swimming when he was 5 and joined his first swim team, the Watkins Mill Marlins of the MCSL when he was 7. While growing up in the Gaithersburg, MD area Paul swam for 13 seasons in MCSL and also swam year round for 12 seasons for a variety of programs (Solitar, Curl, UMCY). During this time, he enjoyed quite a few successes and learned to love the sport of swimming. He swam for 2 years while in the U.S Air Force but then took quite an extended leave from organized swimming but still kept his love of the water. His daughter Erika started swimming 3 years ago and because of her, Paul’s love of swimming resurfaced.  Currently, Paul swims with the Germantown Maryland Masters and in the last year has placed in the top 10 in his age group at Masters Nationals.  Continuing his love of swimming, he is a  coach with the Jr. Developmental program and loves working with the swimmers.

Jackie Emr

Coach

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Jackie is another TIBU alumna who is happy to come back to her TIBU roots. Jackie graduated from Skidmore College, where she swam on the varsity team, with a degree in elementary education. After serving as an assistant coach for several years, Jackie recently completed her first summer as head coach of the Stonebridge Sharks.

Jeremy Snyder

Coach

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Jeremy comes to us with several years of USA Swimming club coaching experience in his home town of Long Beach in New York.  There, he coached for the Long Beach Aquatics for five years. Jeremy is also the current coach of Westleigh, and has also coached at Montgomery Square and Stonegate.  When not on the pool deck, Jeremy can be found teaching second grade at Daly Elementary School in Germantown. 

Kate Somers

Coach

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Kate, once a TIBU swimmer, returns to TIBU after graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Pittsburgh University this year.  She is back in the area working at NIH during the day and is pleased to join our coaching staff on the weekends and in the evenings.  Kate has several years of coaching and swim lesson instruction experience in the area, primarily at Westleigh and at Cloppers Mill.