Man O' War Swim Team

Coaches

One of the main strengths of the MOW Swim team is the dedication of our volunteer coaches. With our host site being at the YMCA Aquatic Center we are blessed to be able to tap a large number of coaches that have been involved in the sport of swimming most of their lives.  Three of our coaches have been former professional swim coaches  and many of our other coaches have extensive competitive swimming careers.

If you are interested in being a volunteer coach we would love to have you join us.  The more coaches we have the more individual attention we can give to our athletes.  We have had many High School swimmers and water polo players help us over the years.  Please contact Lucky Meisenheimer, M.D. at 407-352-2444 if you are interested in being a volunteer coach. Or you can just stop by our swim practice during season on Tuesday evenings at 7:00PM at the YMCA Aquatic Center on I-Drive.

Coaches listed below have been coaching the team three or more years.

Lucky Meisenheimer, M.D.  Coach Lucky was the founding coach of the program in 1994.  As the head coach of Team Orlando Masters, Lucky was asked by the YMCA Aquatic Center's board of Directors if he would start a Special Olympics Swimming program.  He agreed with the one condition that he would get the program going but he would only be able to coach for one year.  Now nearly a decade and a half later he is still coaching the team.  Lucky is a Level 5 certified coach with the American Swimming Coaches Association and is a life member with over thirty years of swim coaching experience.  He has been a past president of the Masters Aquatic Coaches Association.  Lucky also has 40 years of experience as a competitive swimmer. He has been a Masters swimming world record holder as well as a national Masters champion.  Lucky also has extensive experience as an open water swimmer, having been a national champion on triathlon relays as well as holding the Around Key West fin swimming record.  He hosts a daily lake swim at his house www.LuckysLakeSwim.com He holds the Guinness World Record for the largest yo-yo collection www.Yo-Yos.net has a film company www.LuckyRoseFilms.com is a Dermasurgeon www.OrlandoSkinDoc.com and serves as a board member at the YMCA Aquatic Center www.YMCAAquaticCenter.com

Larry Peck Coach Larry has been coaching the team since 1995.  Larry has over 30 years of professional swim coaching experience including coaching national qualifiers and national champions. A competitive swimmer all of his life Larry has been an AAU national qualifier as well as being a YMCA masters national champion and national masters record holder. Larry was the Meet Director for the 1998 United States Masters National Championships. Coach Larry runs the year round practice on Wednesday evenings 7:30PM and with Apryle Nickson started the Pre-Competitive program at the YMCA Aquatic Center.  Larry currently coaches with Team Orlando Masters and does private stroke instruction for swimmers and triatheletes.  For private instruction he can be contacted at 321-277-0363.

Apryle Nickson Coach Apryle has over 30 years years of competitive swim coaching experience.  Sixteen of those years she was a swim coach for  Dr Philips High School. Apryle was also a former champion swimmer for ROCOA.  She was a high school All American in both the 100 Butterfly and 50 Freestyle and she was an AAU national finalist in the 100 butterfly. She was selected as an assistant swim coach for the 2003 World Special Olympics games held in Ireland.  She has been a teacher of  adaptive PE in the Orange County Public School system for over 15 years.  Along with Coach Larry she started the Pre-Competitive Special Olympics program at the YMCA Aquatic Center. She has been married for 32 years and has four daughters all who were All American swimmers.

Lyn Walker-Meena Began coaching the Man O' War Swim team in 2002.  She was a masters swimmer for 15 years and also had  Masters National top ten rankings . She has taught special education for 15 years. Both of her sons were competitive swimmers at Trinity and one swam for the University of Florida.

Dave Tattersall  A triathlete, is a member of LuckysLakeSwim 100K club and has swam Alcatraz.  He is also member of the Freewheelers Cycling Club.   A cabinet installer extraordinaire he is the owner of Rightway Millwork. He has been coaching with the Man O' War swim team since 2006.