Our team is led by our amazing swim coaches who have years of experience in the sport and a deep commitment to helping us achieve our goals. These coaches bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our practices and meets, and they inspire us to work hard, push ourselves, and have fun along the way. We are incredibly lucky to have such talented and supportive coaches on our team, and we can't wait to see what we can accomplish with their guidance and leadership.
Mackenzie Curtis - Head Coach
Mackenzie Curtis started swimming at age 9. She excelled in butterfly, backstroke, and IM and participated in the Contra Costa County Championship Meet from 2012 to 2018. With over 10 years of coaching experience, she's thrilled to be back with the LMYA Swim Dolphins as the Head Coach. Coach Mackenzie aspires to be an elementary school teacher and enjoys time with family, gaming, yoga, and music.
Heidi Farr - Assistant Coach & Head of Gutter Guppies
Coach Heidi grew up on Dana Hills Swim Team, starting at the age of 5 and continued her swim career until aging out at 18. From the ages of 15-18, she was a junior coach for Dana Hills & loved every minute. Coach Heidi swam for Clayton Valley High School, one year on JV, and 3 on Varsity. She loved breaststroke, & the 500 free. After high school, she moved to San Luis Obispo in 2017 where she attended their community college for a couple of years, was a lifeguard for the local city swim center, and was also the “baby & me” swim instructor.
Coache Heidi works for McGuire Harley-Davidson in Pacheco. I started back in 2019, for 2 years she worked in the clothing department, then moved over to the sales department for 3 years, and now she focuses her time as their marketing manager.
Out of the pool, Coach Heidi enjoys riding her motorcycle, (and going on rides with my husband), working on their little farm (they currently have 3 goats, 1 pig, 1 turkey, 3 ducks, & soon to be replenishing our chickens), hiking, being a blue collar wife, weightlifting, playing with her dog & animals, & spoiling her nieces & nephews.
Keaton Curtis – Assistant Coach
Coach Keaton is Coach Mackenzie’s brother and has been part of swim since he was 6 years old. He swam until he aged out and always enjoyed the camaraderie and love for the sport he shared with his teammates. Coach Keaton’s favorite stroke used to be butterfly (up until a shoulder injury sophomore year), but he eventually learned to love breaststroke and backstroke as well.
Beyond swim team, Coach Keaton has also been a lifeguard at a local pool for just under 10 years, has three associate’s degrees (Business and Psychology completed, Electrical Technologies in-progress) from Diablo Valley College, and is very into video games, electronics, LEGOS, and just about anything he can get his hands on.
Cait Mendelssohn – Assistant Coach
Coach Cait grew up in Lamorinda and swam summer swim until high school where over the years she swam for OCC and Rancho Swim & Tennis. Both of her parents worked as head coaches locally throughout the decades. Coach Cait’s family was a big-time swim family. She likes to joke that swimming is practically in her blood! Coach Cait’s favorite stroke is backstroke.
Coach Cait graduated from UCSB in 2023 with her bachelors in Anthropology after getting her associate’s degree in Communications from DVC, but she just finished her pre-requisites for nursing school and will be starting in the Fall.
Coach Cait has two dogs, Tilly who is a black lab and Bo who is a German short-haired pointer who she loves to take on hikes in local open spaces, go fishing, go out to dinner and play pickleball when she have free time on the weekends.
Mason Wendler - Assistant Coach
Coach Mason has been swimming since he was 6 years old. He started his swimming journey over the summers with the Walnut Country Stingrays and found a passionate drive for the sport. He transferred to club when he was 12 and has been swimming for the Terrapins swim team ever since and now is a division one athlete at the University of Santa Barbara California. Coach Mason was a junior national finalist, futures champion, sectionals highpoint winner, Big West individual finalist and relay champion, North Coast section individual and relay champion, DAL individual champion, state record holder in the 200-yard free relay, individual state finalist, and 3-time recipient of the scholastic all-American award.
Coach Mason is currently an economics and accounting student athlete at UCSB. Outside of the pool & school, he enjoys hanging out with friends, listening to music, eating food, playing pickleball and badminton and playing video games.
Dean Goodson - Assistant Coach
Coach Dean is a former LMYA swimmer starting at age 10 through 15 and an LMYA junior coach from age 13 through 15. As an LMYA swimmer, Coach Dean won high point at the conference meet when he was 12 and again at 14. He broke the butterfly record as a 14-year-old. From age 15 through 18, Coach Dean swam with the Aqua Bears while also swimming varsity for Acalanes. Coach Dean made it to Far Westerns and NCS for his 100 butterfly, which is also his favorite stroke.
Coach Dean recently graduated from the University of Silicon Valley with a BA in Game Design with a concentration in Game Writing. He currently owns a game studio and is pursuing his passion for creating video games.
If he’s not at his computer working on video games or playing them, you can find Coach Dean at the gym or spending time with his family and friends. He also loves reading and playing the guitar.
