HEAD COACH Chuck Jacobs returned to CBAC in 1998 and now has over 25 years of coaching experience. From Olympic to Novice levels, Coach Chuck has done it all. He is a former All-American and Olympic Trials qualifier in both breastroke and I.M. He resurrected the St. Mary's College of Maryland swimming program in 1984, and propelled it from Club level to winning several conference championships, and produced the school's first-ever national qualifiers.

He met with similar success when he founded STAR Swim Club in 1985, which is now known as the Chesapeake Bay Aquatic Club. Chuck is a two-time Maryland Swimming Coach of the year. He is an active member of the Maryland Swimming board - Chair for Open Water, Camps & Distance swimming and is also a Life Plus member of the American Swim Coaches Association. He has had several Maryland State, Area, and Zone record holders.

Prior to his return, Coach Chuck had the opportunity to work for an elite national USA program in Orlando, Florida. His vast experience provided the chance to work with top athletes from all over the globe, including swimmers from the national teams of Australia, Brazil, Japan, Norway, and the United Kingdom.

Coach Chuck coached the Trinity Aquatic Team in Florida which held National YMCA Championship titles (Women's and Combined Team Champions). He was nominated for Coach of the Year twice in Florida. He served on the Florida swimming board and committees for 6 years and has two Olympians to his credit and several National Age Group record holders.

Coach Chuck is involved with all swim groups at CBAC and can be reached by email at swimcoachcbac@aol.com.

Coach Julio Zarate is in his forth year of coaching the senior level Gold group for CBAC. In the four seasons coach Julio has run the Gold group, it has grown in size, strength, and talent. In three seasons, Coach Zarate's Gold group has seen 2 U.S. open cuts, 4 Sectional meet qualifiers, and 2 Maryland high school swimmers of the year. As an age group swimmer, Coach Julio swam for Curl-Burke Swim Club, a U.S.A. Swimming Gold Medal swim club. While at Curl-Burke he trained with Olympians and World record holders Tom Dolan, Markus Rogan, and Ed Moses. Coach Julio is a former Curl-Burke team record holder and recipient of the Bunkey Lewis Memorial scholarship given to one male and one female graduating senior of Curl-Burke Swim Club that best exemplify character, sportsmanship, and dedication to swimming. In addition to coaching the Gold group swimmers at CBAC, Coach Julio is an assistant coach for the St. Mary's College of Maryland Seahawks. Coach Julio finished his swimming career at St. Mary's College as the most decorated swimmer in school history.

Julio was a three time team MVP, one time coaches award winner, multiple All-CAC team member, and CAC Rookie of the year.

Coach Susan Shannon, a native of Pittsburgh, PA, started swimming at age 7 and continues swimming laps today for the great exercise! Her swimming experience includes years of summer league, AAU, YMCA, 4 years of varsity high school swim team (where she was elected captain), and college swim team at Indiana University of PA, where she also served as team captain.

Susan’s coaching experience involves working with most levels of swimmers from beginner to the master’s level. She has coached various summer league teams, age group and masters teams in Pittsburgh, PA, Annapolis and Montgomery Counties in MD, and now in St. Mary’s County. Coach Susan coaches the Bronze group at CBAC.

In addition to coaching, Susan spent 12 years as an elementary school teacher. She still works part time as a resource specialist in the Partners for Success Resource Center for Families and Schools (located at Green Holly Elementary School). Her work with Partners for Success provides resources and support for parents of children with special needs.

The discipline and hard work necessary for success in swimming has opened many doors for Susan throughout her life. As a coach she truly enjoys working with swimmers and watching them improve skills and make friends with their teammates.

Coach Pat O’Dell coaches the Red Hotz group at CBAC when he is not traveling as the Director of Government Sales for Life Fitness. Pat has over 20 years experience coaching age group and masters level swimming. Pat’s swimming and coaching career began at Town Creek in the early 80’s. He eventually moved over to Patuxent River NAS to become the Fitness and Aquatics Director. During his tenure at Pax River he assisted Chuck Jacobs coach the championship CAC St. Mary’s College Seahawks. Pat also was head coach for the SMAC age group swim club and also started the SMAC masters swim club.

Even though Pat left Pax River in 1997 to pursue a career at Life Fitness, he has always maintained his close ties to Southern MD swimming and aquatics. He currently is a certified American Red Cross Lifeguard, CPR, and AED Instructor Trainer and conducts the in-service training lifeguard program for Pax River. He also holds numerous other fitness training certifications from ACSM and the Cooper Institute. His daughter Savannah (6) and son Chase (3) are the reason he now volunteers his time for CBAC and looks forward to seeing them swim competitively.

Coach Lydia Morris began her first year of swimming under Head Coach Chuck Jacobs at the age of 8 with Star Swimming (predecessor of CBAC).  She also swam for years with the Pax River Dolphins summer league team.  While in high school she helped coach the Novice-level group for CBAC while also spending hours in the pool as part of the Senior group.  She continued as an assistant coach for CBAC, and the Tall Timbers summer league team, while home for summer breaks during her 4-years at Lewis University, a Division II private college in Illinois.  Under a full swimming scholarship, she was co-captain during both her Junior and Senior years.  After traveling Nationally for meets, she ended her swimming career as a two-time All-American in the 800-free relay and holds multiple Honorable-Mention All-American awards in relays and the 200 fly.   

Lydia returned to CBAC to coach the Red Hotz and Fireballs with Chuck Jacobs in September 2006.

Coach Laurie Stone started coaching with CBAC in 2004. Her swimming background began in her yourth and continued through college. She started coaching summer league while still in college in Pennsylvania. She worked as an assistant coach for Kutztown University before moving to St. Mary's County and working as an elementary school teacher. Coach Laurie works with the Fireballs group.

Most recently Coach Brandt spent 3 years at Asphalt Green in New York City working with the 10 - 13 year old age group swimmers. During his time there, Coach Brandt had a 3 time National Record Holder and 6 time Metro LSC record holder, 5 Metro LSC record setting relays, 9 top 16 relays (including the #1 ranked 11-12 girls 400 free relay in 2006), 3 individual top 16 swimmers and 9 individual Zone team qualifiers.

In the spring of 2007, Coach Brandt was named the Metropolitan Swimming Age Group Coach of the Year for the 2006-2007 season.

It is important to point out that the Coaching staff has taught hundreds of children to swim. While the Head Coach designs all aspects of our program, the specific coach assigned to that group oversees training. The goal is to provide a program with natural progression of training and skill development. We are fortunate to have a great staff.