Michael Jacobson
Age Group Gold
Mike still loves swimming even after 33 years of competitive swimming. He also enjoys teaching and coaching swimmers of all ages and has been doing this at various levels since 1984. In the last 5 years he has been coaching Open Water swimming over the Spring and Summer months. Mike is a ASCA level 2 swim coach and he is also a PSIA level 1 Ski Instructor at Liberty Mountain where he can be found on many weekends from December to March.

Mike started competitively swimming when he was 7 years old for the Vienna Aquatic Club which is part of the Northern Virgina Swim League. He also started swimming in the winter for the AAU team Starlit Aquatic Club. He excelled at backstroke, mainly because it did not require him to put his face in the water. Eventually he stuck his face in the water and started to excelled at free and fly too. While at Starlit he had the fortune to be coach by Melisa Belote (4 gold medals in 1972 Olympics) and Greg York (now Head Coach of the York Swim Club).

 Michael Jacobson After the Starlit team lost its facility and disbanded, he swam for Tom Healey (Auburn Staff) at Solitar and Burke (now CurlBurke). As a age group swimmer he was nationally ranked in Backstroke and middle distance Freestyle. For College, Mike went to North Carolina State University where he swam for the famous Don Easterling (ASCA Hall of Fame).

Locally, Mike has been swimming and Head Coach the Masters program at Ellicott City and Catonsville YMCAs since 1999. He is also the current United State Masters Swimming's (USMS) Maryland Chairman. For the past couple of years he has run stroke and turn clinics for age group and masters swimmers at the Ellicott City YMCA. In the Spring, he also runs open water clinics and practices with the goal of completing the Bay Swim (1 or 4 miles). This also includes a weekly practice in the Severn River starting in the early Spring.

This is Mike's 1st year of coaching for RAC and he is happy to be part of this great program.
mikej@comcast.net