O*H*I*O Masters Coaches
Bob Babiak
Bob has coached the Ohio Masters for over 30 years and is a Level I and II USMS Certified Coach. He has over 45 years of Age Group, High School and Masters coaching. Most of his career has been spent in the Age Group programs.
Bob has been involved with the following clubs: Lakewood Swim Club, Lake Erie Swim Club, Lake Erie Silver Dolphins-West—Assistant Coach and Head Coach for 24 years. Westshore YMCA—Head Coach 4 Years, O*H*I*O Masters—29 years. Bob has been Head Coach at Westlake, Berea, and Fairview High Schools.
Chuck Beatty
Chuck started swimming in Midland, Texas in 1969 (yes, before goggles). He swam age group, high school and one year of college, then swam on and off for the next 35 years.
Chuck joined U.S. Masters Swimming and O*H*I*O Masters in 2013. His personal focus is on distance freestyle events and open water swimming. To apply his craft, Chuck took on swimming across Lake Erie; once as a relay team member and once as a solo. He’s been coaching the Akron General Lifestyles workout group since late 2018 and earned his USMS Level 1 and Level 2 coaching certifications in May 2019.
Chuck is the event director of the Brogan Open Water Classic, serves on Board for O*H*I*O Masters and serves as the Open Water Chair of the Lake Erie LMSC.
Marisa Celeste
Marisa grew up swimming and dancing. She always enjoyed the atmosphere of athletics. However, she realized swimming is where she is the most energetic and shows the most passion.
She was born and raised in Rocky River, Ohio, and swimming has played an integral part in her life. She started swimming competitively for Lake Shore Swim Club until high school where she attended Gilmour Academy. She swam 3 years varsity while graduating early. She attended Hiram College, graduating in three years there as well. She specialized in breaststroke and sprint freestyle. She then worked towards her Masters Degree in Sport Administration from Cleveland State University. During this time she instructed swimming at Goldfish Swim School and Rocky River swim league.
Marisa experienced life in Spain for the next three years, teaching physical education, dance and English. She also put her Masters degree to good use, working in operations for the local Madrid basketball team. Now back home, she is head coach for the Westlake Waves Swim Club, coaches for O*H*I*O Masters Swim Club, and teaches for Wilhelm Dance.
She’s looking forward to continuing to pursue her passion working within aquatics.
She’s excited to share her love for the sport and to have fun!
Dan Cox
Dan started swimming masters in the spring of 2001 and participated in his first master meet that same year in December. His goal was to swim the 100 free under a minute, which he did in 2003 at his alma mater, Ohio State University. He went on to be on 12 Top-ten relays and one All American relay.
Dan has been an active member of U.S. Masters Swimming. In addition to being a certified coach (he is Level 1 and Level 2 certified), Dan has served as O*H*I*O Masters president, Lake Erie LSMC chair, Great Lakes Zone Chair, a Meet Director for O*H*I*O Masters and the International Federation of Gay Games when they came to Cleveland.
Dan received the U.S. Masters Dorothy Donnelly Service Award in 2011 for his contributions to U.S. Masters Swimming. Dan is a past member of the U.S. Masters Swimming National Board of Directors.
Pete Finefrock
Pete started competitive swimming in 1957 at the Sportsman’s Club in Oklahoma City. He joined the Berea Swim Club (AAU) in 1961 and swam for Berea High (Class of ’66) and The College of Wooster (Class of ’70) as primarily a backstroker and IMer.
Pete started coaching in 1967 for the Wooster YMCA and Wooster Swim Club for several years.
He returned to coaching in 1997 as head middle school coach for Hathaway Brown School for many years and Assistant Head Coach for University Swim Club for 20 years. He also assisted Laurel School MS swimming team. He spent 13 years coaching the Shaker Heights Country Club team.
Currently, Pete is the head middle school coach for University School for 20 years and works with their Varsity program, the Aquatics Director and Swim Coach for Canterbury Golf Club, the lead swim instructor pre-K through 5th grade at University School and long time O*H*I*O Masters coach at Orange High School.
Gabby Kariotakis
Coach Gabby grew up around the pool, starting to swim competitively at age 6. She swam for Lakeshore Swim Club and Rocky River High School where she was a conference MVP, a state qualifier and finalist, as well as captain her senior year. She swam her first 2 years at Norte Dame College in South Euclid before a 2nd shoulder injury forced her to make the tough decision to stop.
Once out of the pool she realized that it was hard to stay away from the sport she loved and began coaching shortly after that. She began coaching in 2012 with the Lakewood Rangers Swim Team, becoming Head Coach in 2015. On her club team, she has coached swimmers up to the Junior National Level. She continues to run the USA team.
She has also been coaching at Bay High School since the 2014-2015 season, assisting with coaching the Boys State Champ in the 50 and 100 free that year. She started as assistant and eventually became Head Coach in 2017-2018. She has sent kids to State every year with podium qualifiers up to 3rd place. Her Bay High swimmers have also broken multiple school records. This past season she was named Morning Journal’s Coach of the Year.
Gabby has an intense passion for swimming and loves the training process–constantly trying to find new ways to get the most effective and fun training in as possible. She is looking forward to coaching and challenging a new group in the pool and she’s very grateful that O*H*I*O Masters has given her the opportunity to do so.
Judi Norton
Judi is a lifelong swimmer, having started as a “Minnow” at age 6 in the Lakewood YWCA. She switched to competitive swimming at age 11 with Lakewood Swim Club (currently LRST) and continued at Rutgers University where she was a two-time DI All American (200 IM and 200 Back).
After graduation, she coached Fairview High School Boys’ Team for 13 years and added the girls’ program for the last 3 years. She started swimming with O*H*I*O Masters in 1981 and has continued with the club in various roles including board member, coach, and President.
Her favorite role with the club is “teammate.” She also serves on the LELMSC Board. In 2018, Judi received the USMS Dorothy Donnelly Service Award, which recognizes USMS members whose volunteer service has contribued to the growth of U.S. Masters Swimming on local, regional, and national levels. She is also a USMS Certified Level 1 and 2 Coach and an Adult Learn to Swim (ALTS) Instructor.
Mark Stewart
Mark started swimming as an adult, and joined O*H*I*O Masters over 15 years ago. Before Masters Swimming, Mark had dabbled in various sports, and he expected to last a month or two before moving on. Years later he’s still here. It’s the swimming, and it’s the people.
Tom Spence, a veteran Lakewood Masters swimmer, often says, “Swimming a Masters workout adds another healthy day to your life.” As a fitness swimmer, Mark embraces this motto.
Mark is interested in the physics of swimming, which is not surprising as he retired from a career at NASA that focused on fluid mechanics—how objects move through liquids and gases.
