Head Coach Shelby was a swimmer and water polo player for Yucaipa Swim Team and Yucaipa Water Polo. She continued to swim and play water polo for Riverside City College. She has been mentored under many experienced coaches such as John Ogden, Mark Shubert, and met and spoken with many others every year at the ASCA World clinic. Shelby accepted the Head Coach position in 2020. She has helped coach all levels from our beginning age groups, up to our senior group. She is ASCA level 3 certified and ASCA level 5 educated and continues to take courses to continue to educate herself and her staff.  It is her passion to continue growing this team and helping each athlete to reach their individual goals.

Hi all! My name is Samantha Nickell and I am currently the junior advanced and gold beginner coach for Yucaipa Swim team. I wanted to give parents and swimmers an opportunity to get to know myself and my swimming history a little better!

At age 11 I started swimming on this team and fell in love with the sport, from yucaipa swim team I moved to Palm Springs piranhas and then to Riverside Aquatics Association where I finished my club swimming career. In these years from ages 11-18 I earned my first junior Olympic cut at age 12, soon following sectional cuts at age 13 and got my first junior national cut at age 14 and continuing to receive my first US open cut at the age of 17.

Through all of this hard work I was blessed with the opportunity to commit to two D-1 athletic programs starting with Boise Stare which unfortunately cut their team in the midst of COVID, soon following I found myself at the university of Hawaii at Manoa swimming for them on full scholarship. In 2021 I got into a motor vehicle accident that inevitably ended with me having to leave the sport I love so much behind.

With all of that being said, my interest in becoming a swim coach stems from nothing other than continuing my passion but in a different way. You and your kids are the next generation of the sport we have all put so much time and emotion into and I love that I get to be a part of their journey and help prepare them for what’s to come in their swimming careers. 

My name is Ashlynn Griffin, I am the gold advanced coach and silver advanced helper here on YST!

I started my swimming career on YST when I was 8 years old. I was in the learn to swim program over the summer and quickly started to love the sport so I transitioned into the full on club team! From there I continued to swim for a total of 15 years! Through those years I was able to accomplish many things thanks to swimming. I swam varsity at Redlands East Valley high school all four years, was on the honor all four year, was a swim captain my senior year,  and was able to help my team get two CBL championships and second place at CIF. This led to me getting a full ride swim scholarship to Biola University where I was able to help my team become champions of the PCSC conference in 2021 with a fully undefeated year! I swam all four years at Biola and graduated in May of 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in business management, as a swim captain my senior year, and on the deans list all four years.
I now have the opportunity to work in insurance and coach a wonderful group of kids!

Swimming has been such a big and important role in my life for all my life. It has helped me become the person I am today by bringing me almost all of my closest friends and mentors. It given me so many amazing memories and it has shown me that I can do anything I put my mind to.

I have continued being a part of swimming by coaching on YST and I have loved every minute! I decided to coach because not only did I love the sport but I also know how hard it can be at times. I want to be able to help kids get through the hard parts of the sport with the right mindset in order to love it and keep going with it. I hope to help kids accomplish the love for the sport and be able to push through while still working hard and not only having fun with it, but looking forward to practice, meets, and all that swim has to offer! I want to be at each and every one of the swimmers college signings in a few years!!!

I hope to see more of you all soon and thank you for letting me make an impact on your kids lives as their coach!!

Hii!! My name is Mahayla Reyes I am the coach for both Bronze Beginner and Advanced, and the Silver Advanced Group.

I’ve began my swimming career at the age of 6 with Pass Stingrays, where I swam seasonal for a few years. After discovering my love for the sport I joined the club team at RST for a few years before I came back to Pass Stingrays where I later joined their club team Pass Plus. I joined YST summer of 2019, and stayed with YST until I left for college. I continued swimming all the way up to my freshmen year of college at the University of La Verne.

I was then approached by YST and asked to become a Coach. I was beyond grateful and excited to start as soon as possible! When I am not on the pool deck, I am Naturalist/Rec Lead for San Bernardino County as well as a Lifeguard for the Regional Parks over the summer!

Swimming has always been a big part of my life. Swimming has always helped me recenter myself and decompress especially now as an adult. Playing any sport can help your mental health, but swimming in particular has helped me.

I’m excited to have the opportunity to coach and influence the next generation of athletes. With having fun and challenging practices that will set them up for success in their future endeavors in and out of the pool!
 

Hi! My name is Alyssa. I am a biology pre-med major at the University of California, Riverside. I have swam for YST since I was 7 years old and within those years I have had many memorable experiences. I’ve swam in many meets around the US and have reached high levels of competition, which has allowed me to swim with some of the best in the country. I have been through many ups and downs in the swimming world and I think these experiences well be able to help me relate to what your swimmers are going through and help them through it. I’ve learned a lot in my years of swimming and I can’t wait to share what I know with the younger swimmers as well as learn more about the coaching side of swimming and new techniques. 

Coach Steve has been a swimmer most of his life and was a NCAA Division 2 Champion in the 100 breaststroke for the University of California San Bernardino.  He has been coaching since 1990, much of that time spent at Riverside Aquatics Association (15) and Corona Swim Club (10).  After surviving a stroke, he began a coaching career with Yucaipa Swim Team for the Masters team.  Steve enjoys coaching and the relationships he has with the Master Swimmers.