Heather Fort
Assistant Coach
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Heather
Fort is the lead coach of age
group swimmers at the YMCA and coaches the Junior squad. Previous
experience: Age group coach at Gulf Coast Swim Team in Ft. Meyers,
Florida, where she developed young swimmers who are now competing
at the USA Olympic Trials; age group coach at PAWW in Peoria.
Heather swam competitively from age 5 to 20, was a Junior Nationals
finalist, a 3-time USAS Scholastic All-American, Florida Swimming
athlete representative, and MCC conference champion for Cleveland
State University. She is married with three kids. Husband Patrick
swam on scholarship for Northern Illinois University. Heather still
enjoys getting in the pool for a great
workout.
Paul deDianous
Assistant Coach
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Paul
deDianous coaches the Novice and Transition squads.
Previous experience: Head Coach of Marlins swim team (2009 season)
and age group coach with Marlins since 2006. Paul ran cross
country in his youth for the Southern California Road Runners and
was a member of their national champion team in both the 11-12 and
13-14 age groups. He graduated from Cal State San
Bernardino, served in the Air Force Reserves, and is
currently a Database Systems Administrator for State Farm.
Paul and his wife Arleta have four children, two sets of twins.
Michelle Bos
Assistant Coach
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Michelle Bos coaches the Novice and
Junior squads. She is a junior at Illinois State University
majoring in art education. Prior to coaching for the WAVES,
Michelletaught swimming lessons, ran high school track, and swam
for the Sterling Stingrays and Morrison High School swim
teams.
Jen Schafman
Assistant Coach
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Jennifer Schafman coaches
the Novice squad. She previously coached for the Mavericks
USAS club in Naperville and has coached or taught swimming for the
past three summers. Jen swam for the Naperville Riptides,
Naperville Y, the Mavericks, and Naperville Central HS. She
worked the past year as an assistant teacher in an elementary
school classroom. Jen is a freshman at ISU, majoring in
bilingual elementary education.
Angela Lugg
Assistant Coach
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Angela Lugg coaches the
Novice and Junior squads. She is a sophomore at Illinois
Wesleyan University in the nursing school. Angela has swum
competitively year-round since age 10 in Woodbury, Minnesota, and
currently competes for the IWU varsity team where she holds school
records in the 200 FS and 500 FS. She has worked as a
swimming instructor for the previous two summers.
Scott Clegg
Assistant Coach
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Scott
Clegg coaches the Senior
squad, and is Head Coach of Central Illinois Masters swim team. He
is an expert on stroke technique. Scott swam for Streator YMCA and
was manager of the University of Illinois men’s swim team
where he received his BS degree in AG Economics. He is married with
two children. Wife Kristen runs marathons and is studying for her
Masters degree in Exercise Physiology at ISU. Scott serves on
various committes at St. John’s Lutheran church, enjoys
reading history, swimming workouts with his masters team, and has a
goal to swim a 5k open water race.
Charles Yourd
Head Coach
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The WAVES swim program
is directed and supervised by Head Coach
Charles
Yourd. He has been the WAVES
head coach since August 1998, and coaches the Performance 2012
squad. Coach Yourd is certified by the American Swimming
Coaches Association (ASCA) as a Level 5
coach, ranking among the top 2% of
ASCA member coaches.
Awards
2007 ASCA Coach of
Excellence
Illinois
Swimming:
2008 Senior Coach of the Year
2007 Senior Coach of the Year
2006 Senior Coach of the Year
2005 Senior Coach of the Year
2002 Age Group Coach of the Year
Coach Yourd is a graduate of the University
of California, Santa Barbara, with a BA in Economics. In his spare
time he enjoys reading history, running, and being a fan of pro
cycling.
