Jamie Greenwood
Head Coach
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Jamie comes to VACS with a wealth of experience and
knowledge of the sport of swimming. Growing up just outside
of Richmond, Jamie swam competitively for NOVA for 7 years.
After graduation for The Governor’s School for Government and
International Studies, Jamie attended The University of Virginia,
where he earned Academic All- ACC recognition while swimming for
the ACC Champion UVA Swim Team. In 2001, Jamie graduated from
UVA with a Bachelor’s Degree in Kinesiology. In 2002,
he returned to Charlottesville to pursue graduate education.
In 2004 he graduated with a Master’s Degree in Exercise
Physiology, earning his degree with an original research project
that examined how various methods of recovery following maximal
swimming effect blood lactate levels and subsequent performance,
his results were published in 2005. Jamie was accepted
to several doctoral programs but has chosen to stick with his first
love and pursue a career in coaching.
Jamie’s coaching career started at the Richmond
Country Club, where be built a small team of about 60
swimmers that rarely won a meet, into a team of 120 strong that won
several division championships along with two sportsmanship awards,
competing in the James River Aquatic Club. In 2003, Jamie
moved to The Country Club of Virginia where he led the devilfish to
their best ever season ever. In his years at both clubs, Jamie
coached 8 swimmers to JRAC league records. Jamie takes a
great deal of pride in developing swimmers who not only have a
great deal of technical skill but also excel in the areas of goal
setting and sportsmanship. While completing his research at
UVA, Jamie lent a hand as a volunteer coach with the Varsity
team. He has also coached Master’s swimming and served
as an instructor at the Central Ohio Advanced Stroke Technique
Camps in Columbus, Ohio.
Since coming to VACS Jamie has coached multiple swimmers
to state championships, as well as qualifying for Zones, Junior
Nationals, and a Senior Nationals. He works primarily with
the Senior group and Age Group Silver, but is responsible for
overseeing the overall direction of the club.
Bret Stone
Assistant Coach
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Bret comes to VACS
with over ten years of competitive swimming experience. Beginning
his career at NOVA as a freshman in high school, Bret developed
into one of the area's top butterflyers. He qualified for Junior
Nationals in the 100 and 200-yard butterfly. This earned him a
First Team spot in the 100 and a Second Team spot in the 200 on the
Richmond Times Dispatch All-Metro Swim Team. Following high
school, he attended James Madison University, and was a three
time CAA conference champion.
Bret's love for swimming and youth inspired him to coach
several summer swim teams in Virginia and North Carolina not to
mention teaching swim lessons for the SwimNOVA swim school in Short
Pump, VA. Bret served as a volunteer assistant coach for his alma
mater while finishing his B.A. in Business Administration, majoring
in management before taking a job with the Buckle. His
position with the Buckle led him to his beautiful wife Layci.
They have two sons, Nekoda and Samuel and a newborn daughter,
Lucy.
Bret is currently an ASCA level II coach,
works part-time with masters’ level swimmers and triathaletes
at American Family Fitness. During the summer he leads the
Wood-Dale Dolphins Swim Team and operates a learn-to-swim program
where he shares his passion for swimming and youth. Bret leads
the Novice, Junior and Age-Group Gold programs and has coached
numerous swimmers to top sixteen finishes at Virginia’s Age
Group Championships as well as the Eastern Zone Age Group
Championships.
Shannon Royster
Assistant Coach
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Shannon is in his fourth year as an
assistant coach for VACS. He began his swimming
career at Wood-Dale at an early age of 4 b/c he wanted to follow in
his older siblings footsteps. He joined the year
round swim team of at the age of 8 called the Tritons of
Petersburg, which became VACS. He enjoyed great
success as a swimmer as he won several events at the Virginia
Junior Olympics and swam with the Virginia All-Star team in
Buffalo, NY at Zones.
Shannon went on to juggle many sports
through high school as he played football and basketball while
still trying to swim competitively with Poseidon as VACS merged
with BRAC. During this time, he developed a love
for coaching as he was an assistant coach for Wood-Dale for 4 years
before becoming the head coach. He also started
giving swimming lessons there as his love for younger children
grew. During that time, he went on to swim in
college at Longwood where he displayed swimming leadership and
became captain of the team for 3 years. In 1999,
Shannon graduated with a BA in history with the purpose of becoming
a 4th generation educator.
He returned to his hometown of Hopewell,
VA and taught 8th grade civics for 6 years at Carter G.
Woodson Middle . During which time he married his college
sweetheart and attended Virginia State University where he received
his Masters in School Administration. In 2005 he became the
6th grade assistant principal at Carter G. Woodson
Middle School. Shannon’s love for coaching children became a
passion as he created the sports program at the middle school, of
which he is now athletic director. He has
coached the middle school basketball team from its inception to 3
consecutive championship titles with 69 wins and only 3
losses. In addition he has been an assistant
baseball coach for the middle school. In 1999 he began coaching
varsity football for Hopewell High School. He was the passing
coordinator for the 2003 State Championship team while coaching the
wide receivers.
Shannon completed his 10th season as the
head coach at the Swim and Yacht Club in Colonial
Heights. He has coached the SYC Barracudas
to five Southside League Championship regular season titles
– 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2009.
His team has also won the first place title at the Championship
meet in the years of 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2009.
Currently with VACS, Shannon works with the Teen Fitness and Novice
Groups.
