Swim Team Coaches
Coach Paul Dean
Coach Paul will be returning for his fourteenth season at Thornblade. He's been involved in competitive swimming for over 50 years, which makes him old, but keeps him young!
Having coached for over thirty years, Paul has experience with swimmers at every age and level. In addition to coaching in S.A.I.L. and serving as a Head Coach for a USA Masters Team, he’s served as Head Coach for two year-round, USA Swimming teams. He currently serves as Head Coach of Greer High School, Shannon Forest High School, and Sportsclub Swim Club.
In addition to working on technique and helping the kids to be more competitive, Coach Paul, along with the rest of our staff, loves to make swimming fun! His goal this summer is for The Blades to repeat as Purple Division Champions and continue their multi-year streak of taking home the Founders Cup quality award.
Coach Amy (Dean) Jones
Coach Amy will be returning for her sixth season on the coaching staff at Thornblade. She competed at a high level in year-round swimming for ten years and thoroughly enjoyed it, but discovered that she has even greater joy in coaching others!
Amy currently serves as an Assistant Coach for Sportsclub Swim Club, a year-round, USA Swimming team. She's an experienced swim instructor having taught private swim lessons at Sportsclub and other venues for the last six years. She's coached in stroke clinics working with swimmers from the developmental level to college swimmers, and offers private instruction for tri-athletes as well. Amy especially loves children and working with them on their technique.
Having been part of the Thornblade swimming culture for almost fifteen years, Amy not only loves the fun part, but the winning tradition as well. As always, she's looking forward to a big summer of swimming!
Coach Kylie Larkin
Kylie swam for the Blades for 10 years. She also swam for Team Greenville and her high school team, Christ Church Espiscopal School. Most recently, Kylie swam for the University of South Carolina Swim Team until she had to retire for a shoulder injury. Her favorite strokes are freestyle and backstroke, but she used to love butterfly, too (you can even find her name on the TB record boards). Kylie now enjoys swimming for fun. She loves to share her love of swimming through teaching swim lessons and now coaching for the Blades. She is excited to come back and coach for her second summer and hopes to help them bring home another trophy.
Coach Luke Workman
Luke is a sophomore at Clemson University. He is a member of their competitive club swim team. Luke has swum for Thornblade since he was guppy himself. He continued swimming every summer throughout his childhood, swam for high school at Riverside and club swim at YSSC. He was a guppy coach for 4 years and is excited to coach the big team this summer for the second year!
Guppy Coaches...
Mackenzie Grubb
A Freshman at Elon, Mackenzie has been a part of Thornblade’s swim team since 2009. Aside from Thornblade, Mackenzie has also swam for Team Greenville and Christ Church. Her favorite stroke is freestyle, and she especially enjoys the free relay. Mackenzie is looking forward to another fantastic season with the team and her third year as a guppy coach!
Mollie Mendelson
Mollie has been swimming for more than 10 years for various swim clubs in Maryland and in South Carolina. Prior to moving to South Carolina in 2022 Mollie was a Pre-Team coach for 2 years and won the Best Coach award in 2022!
Her favorite strokes were freestyle and breaststroke but most of all Mollie loves children and enjoys helping them find their way in the water. Mollie is a sophomore at St. Joe's where she is a cheerleader and plays Lacrosse. Mollie worked with the Blades Guppie team in 2023 and is excited to officially join the coaching staff for 2024.