Ridgefield Aquatic Club Welcomes New Head Coach and CEO Jay Benner

Ridgefield Aquatic Club Board of Directors is happy to announce the hiring of their new Head Coach and CEO, Jay Benner. Jay comes to the club with a wide range of both National and International experience as both a coach and a swimmer. Most recently, Jay has spent the past several years in Dubai, United Arab Emirates as the National Team Coach. There he built the national program from the bottom up and provided training direction, encouragement, motivation and nutritional advice to help prepare athletes for games, competitive events and tours. Jay's charge in the UAE was to help develop the sport of swimming and help swimmers improve so they could start to compete on the international stage. The key to his success was teaching his athletes that swimming is not a sport where you see results overnight. He taught them that they needed to set goals, make a commitment, and work hard in order to compete at a high level. While in the UAE, Jay brought a swimmer to both the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.

Before moving to the UAE, Jay was Head Coach of the Tacoma Swim Club for over 10 years. TSC was a USA Swimming recognized Gold Medal Club during his tenure. While at TSC he was awarded the USA Swimming Developmental Coach of the year in 2005, inducted into the Pacific Northwest Swimming Hall of Fame in 2010, served as a coach on several US National Teams, and placed half a dozen swimmers on the US National Team, including two Olympians, Dana Kirk (2004 Olympics, 200M Fly) and Olympic Gold Medalist, Nathan Adrian (2008 and 2012 Olympics, 100M Free, 4x100M Medley and Free Relays). Jay also spent the better part of a year as the Head Coach of the Gold Medal Mecklenburg Aquatic Club in North Carolina. Earlier in his career he served for eight years as the Assistant Coach at Washington State University.

A graduate of the University of Washington, Seattle, Jay was also a very accomplished swimmer. He was ranked in the top 25 in the world in 400IM, 1500 and 800 Free, 1984-1988; a US National Finalist, 1985-1988; All American–University of Washington, 1986; US National Team Member, 1994-1997, representing the USA at the 1995 Pan Pacific Games and the 1996 World Cup Championships; and competed for ten years on the professional open water circuit.

Jay is recognized as one of the nation's top club coaches and an excellent mentor for young talent. Sandra Smith, President, said "We are thrilled to have him join our team and help our community achieve higher levels of success in competitive swimming." Visit www.racswimming.org to find out more about the Ridgefield Aquatic Club and their programs for beginner, competitive and adult swimmers.