Coaches and Directors

Coaches and Directors
Coaching Staff
Harvey Humphries Head Coach

As a veteran of Jack Bauerle’s University of Georgia swimming staff, Harvey Humphries brings over thirty years of coaching experience to the Athens Bulldog Swim Club. After lettering in all four years of his swimming career at UGA, being named team captain as a senior, and graduating from the University of Georgia with a degree in Microbiology, the Little Rock, Arkansas native took up coaching, and the story has been one of swimming success ever since.
 

Aside from playing an integral part in the recent accomplishments of the UGA Men’s and Women’s swim teams, Harvey has turned ABSC from a small, local swim program into a clearinghouse for the some of the south’s top talent. Under his guidance ABSC swimmers have won numerous individual titles at the Georgia State Meet, Southern Sectionals, Junior Nationals, Senior Nationals, and the World University Games. Because he has been able to coax such results from his relatively small band of swimmers, Harvey has garnered for himself an impressive array of individual coaching honors.
 

He has served in the past as a coach for USS select camps, the U.S. National Team Distance Camp, and the U.S. Olympic Festival team. His colleagues have more than once voted him Georgia Senior Coach of the Year, and he is a member of the Arkansas Swimming Hall of Fame. He is a Level 5 Coach, which is the highest level of certification given by the American Swim Coaches Association (ASCA), and in Spring 2022 he was inducted into the ASCA Hall of Fame as part of the 2022 Hall of Fame Class. 
 

Harvey, and his wife Wendy, live in Athens.  His son, Billy, works for the Athletic Association of the University of Texas.  His daughter, Pirie, was a four year letter winner at Georgia Southern University and currently works in Austin, Texas as a realtor.

Jonathan Foggin Associate Head Coach and CEO

Since arriving in Athens in 1989, Jonathan Foggin has dived head-first into Georgia swimming. Originally from Knoxville, Tennessee, Jonathan was lured away from the Volunteer state by the prospect of swimming with Coaches Jack Bauerle and Harvey Humphries at the University of Georgia. After a four year letterman’s career, during which he was named 1993 UGA Scholar Athlete of the Year, Jonathan joined the ABSC staff as Dawgs coach, and has been developing young talent ever since.
 

He has served multiple times as the camp director for the Georgia LSC Catch the Spirit Camps, and has worked as an assistant at the Jack Bauerle Swim Camp. His own swimmers have earned National Age Group Top 16 ranking, won individual events at the Georgia Age-Group State Meet, held Georgia Age-Group State records, and under Coach Humphries’ continued tutelage, have gone so far as to win individual events at Senior Sectionals, Junior Nationals, and compete at Division I NCAAs. In his current capacity as CEO & Associate Head Coach, Jonathan oversees the Senior 2 group, and the Dawgs group (ABSC's top 15&U group). He is our meet director and he works behind the scenes to budget and execute the financial aspects of the program.
 

Jonathan has a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Georgia. He also runs a small publishing company and is a minister in the Anglican church. Jonathan, his wife, Clayton, and their children, Will, Charlotte, and Henry, live in Athens.

Adam Sasso Head Senior Coach

Adam grew up in Watkinsville, graduated in the first graduating class of North Oconee, and began his coaching career his freshman year at UGA with ABSC. Adam earned a degree in Athletic Training and Sports Medicine, and after graduating from UGA, he continued to coach while working at the AOC SPARC Facility doing general and sports performance physical therapy.

 

In 2014 Adam moved to Augusta to take a job working with he Chief of Orthopedics at the Medical College of Georgia. While there he also coached part time with the Aiken-Augusta Swim League. In 2015 Adam was asked to become the head coach of ASL after their head coach was offered a college coaching position. Adam accepted the job and began his full time coaching career. While at ASL, Adam had multiple swimmers earn junior national cuts as well as a swimmer qualify and compete in the 400IM at 2016 Olympic Trials.

         

In April of 2018 Adam took a position coaching in Potomac Valley Swimming with a club called SNOW Swimming. At SNOW, Adam was site director of their Claude Moore facility and the direct coach to 150 swimmers. After a year with Snow, Adam was offered a coaching position on the other side of the Potomac River in Frederick, Maryland called the Monocacy Aquatic Club. At MAC, Adam had swimmers earn state titles, break state records, sectionals, futures, and juniors qualifying times. In December of 2019, Adam got a call to return to Athens and coach with ABSC again. This was truly a dream come true for Adam. Adam and his wife Megan moved back to Athens in March of 2020. Along with coaching ABSC, Adam also is a volunteer coach for UGA Swimming and Diving. Adam and Megan are grateful to be a part of the ABSC Family and look forward to the many years to come with our great swim club.

Mike Radford Head Age Group Coach

An avid swimmer growing up, Mike Radford competed at the Sectionals level for Tidal Wave Swimming under Coach Jim McGinnis, and was a four-year letter winner and Senior Captain of the North Cobb High School swim team. After graduating from high school and ostensibly leaving swimming behind him, Mike moved to Athens in 2011 to attend UGA. That led him to apply for a job with ABSC, where he was hired as volunteer assistant to the Pups group.

His coaching career grew into a full-time role over the next 5 years.  In the fall of 2015, he assumed the role of Lead Developmental Coach for ABSC to oversese the progression of our developmental groups, and in the Fall of 2021 Mike was named Head Age Group Coach He has an American Swim Coaches Association Level 2 certification in stroke technique, and has worked as a coach of the Georgia Zone team on three separate occasions.  In his time at ABSC, Mike has coached numerous top-10, top-3, and State and Northeast Divisional champions. He is still active in the summer league ranks, having coached summer league since 2009, and is currently the Head Coach of the Oconee Club Stingrays.

 

Mike holds a degree from UGA in Social Studies Education and is coaching full time with ABSC. He and his wife Devon had their daughter, Wells, in March of 2020, and they are having a son in late August 2022. 

Ana Matthews Swim School Director

ABSC is excited to welcome Ana Gabriela Matthews back to the ABSC staff as director of
the Bulldog Swim School. Originally from Brazil, “Coach Gabby” the lead developmental coach at ABSC from 2003-2005, and has more recently overseen swim schools at Gulliver Prep (FL), Mission Viejo (CA) and CalElite Kids (CA).

 

She has taught swim lessons and has coaches all ages and skill levels, from babies to adults, people with special needs and elite level athletes. Coach Gabby graduated with a Bachelors in Physical Education from the University of Mogi das Cruzes, SP – Brazil, and Masters in Science with emphasis in Organizational Leadership from Brenau University.

 

She is a USA, Red Cross, AFO Certified, SwimAmerica Director & ASCA Level V certified coach. Gabby and her husband and daughter are excited to return to Athens, and ABSC is excited to welcome her home!

Aidan Rickaby Lead Coach

Aidan is from Norcross, GA and has been swimming since the age of 5. After falling in love with the sport through summer league as a kid, he began swimming year round for Swim Atlanta. He graduated from Greater Atlanta Christian School in 2019, setting two school records and finaling at GHSA State Championships two years in a row. Aidan is currently a fourth year political science student at UGA. He has swam for the club swim team all four years and is currently the team's Treasurer. After graduating UGA, he plans to pursue a master's degree in public administration. This is Aidan's second year with ABSC and first year as lead coach of the Senior 2 group. 

Lydia Amerson Lead Coach

Lydia grew up in Watkisnville, GA and swam in Oconee county from the ages of 5-18 on summer league, high schoool, and year round teams. She has coached private swim lessons as well as with various swim schools throughout her swimming career. She became an asistant coach for her summer league team after graduating high school and coached there in the summers while attendings UGA. She graduated from UGA with a double major in marketing and management. She is also the head coach of the Shamrock Swim Team in the summer. This will be Lydia's second year of cooaching with ABSC. She lives in Watkisnville with her husband, Kelby, and puppy, Winston. When she's not on a pool deck, Lydia can be found working for her professional organizing company that she owns called Stored Simply based in Athens, GA.

Lydia Scharff Lead Coach

Lydia grew up in South Georgia competitively swimming for Area Tallahassee Aquatics Club and Savannah Swim Team. After graduating high school she swam collegiately at Emmanuel College for 2 years and transferred over to UGA to finish her education. She is currently a Senior at the University of Georgia studying Sport Management, and this is her second year coaching with ABSC. Swimming has always been a part of her life and she is so excited to continue with a career that gives her the opportunity to share her love for the sport.

Maddie Hope Lead Coach
Ben Prestel Assistant Coach

Ben Prestel grew up in Marietta, GA competitively swimming for Stingrays and after transfering to UGA started coaching with ABSC.

Alex Reyman Assistant Coach

Alex Reyman is a Senior at the University of Georgia studying management with an emphasis in supply chain as well as a certificate in entrepreneurship. He first began his swimming journey with his neighborhood summer league team to eat candy at meets and accidentally fell in love with the sport. 

Maddy Wilson Assistant Coach
Aneesa Ndiaye Assistant Coach
Isabella Lyons Assistant Coach
Sara Thompson Assistant Coach
Mary Howell Assistant Coach
Elizabeth Blanco Assistant Coach
Hi everyone!
My name is Elizabeth Blanco and I'm a freshman here a UGA. I am from Roswell Geogia and ive always loved swimming and love coaching even more. I'm super excited if you coulsnt tell :) . I've been doing summer league coaching since freshman year with the last 2 years of highschool summers I was head coach of 2 different summer league teams. I also coached on Chattahoochee Gold for a year. I actually swam on that team for 6 years making it to the national group. I love backstroke, hiking, climbing, and water sports. If you have have any questions please feel free to reach out!
Sam Krosner Assistant Coach
Grace Van Brunt Assistant Coach
Bentley Huff Assistant Coach

After falling in love with swimming at a young age, Bentley learned to love the sport more and more as he grew older. Bentley began his swimming career at the summer league level under Coach Mike Radford, whose tracks he followed all the way to ABSC. Similar to Radford, Bentley competed at the national and sectional level for Tidal Wave Swimming under coach Jim McGinnis and was a four-year letter winner and Senior Captain of the North Cobb High School swim team. He now is in his first year at the University of Georgia where he is studying biomedical physiology. This is Bentleys first year coaching for ABSC. He lives on campus at UGA and spends every bit of his spare time at the pool. 

Clayton Foggin Treasurer
Laura Templin Lead Coach
Board of Directors
Harvey Humphries email
Jonathan Foggin email
Clayton Foggin [email protected]