Senior Coaching Staff
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John Morse - Head Coach
 John
Morse is in his twenty-fourth year as the head coach of the Nashville
Aquatic club. After completing his swimming eligibility at the
University of
Florida, Coach Morse started coaching with the Florida Aquatic
Club. Following the completion of his education, he accepted
the job of senior assistant coach at NAC. He spent time
as the head age group coach, and the facility director, and in 1984,
was hired as the Head Coach of NAC. NAC has thrived under
Coach Morse's leadership. Since 1984 the team has won more than 25
Southeastern team titles, and established itself as the most consistent
program in the area at developing fast swimmers. NAC has finished
in the top 10 at nationals, as high as 2nd at the junior championship,
and has been overall team champion at Sectionals during this time.
Coach Morse has developed more than 40 Olympic
Trial qualifiers, over a dozen national finalists, four World University
Games qualifiers, Junior National Champions, National Team members,
and swimmers that went on to become NCAA champions and All Americans.
This past season, the team won the southeastern Championships for
the thirty-fifth time in the history of the club, and was selected
as a gold medal team for the seventh consecutive year (every year
the award has been given). Coaching honors received by Coach
Morse include the American
Swim Coaches Association Bronze Award of Excellence signifying
ten years of having a finalist at Nationals, and the Southeastern
Swimming LSC coach of the year in 1989, 2001, 2002, and 2004.
Coach Morse was selected to coach the USA national team in 1992, the
USA Swimming
National Junior Team in 2008, the Olympic development camp in 1994,
the Eagle camp in 1995, the Zone distance camp in 1997, and the national
select camp in 1998. Coach Morse also stays involved in the
politics of swimming. He has been a delegate to the United States
Swimming Aquatic Convention more than 12 different times, and has
served on the National Championship Time Standards Committee, and
the National Championship site selection committee, and currently
serves as a member of the National Club Development Committee for
USA Swimming.
Coach Morse is also a member of the Southeastern
Swimming board of directors and has served as the senior chairman,
technical planning director, outreach director, and swim-a-thon director
at different times. He also stays very involved in high school swimming,
and was instrumental in bringing the high school state meet to Nashville
in 1991. He has worked with the metro parks and Nashville sports council
to secure three national championships, 2 junior championships, and
1 Masters National Championships in Nashville. Coach Morse
is a graduate of the University
of Florida where he swam on conference and NCAA championship teams. He
is an avid fisherman, and has one dog named Jackson.
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Brad Kale - Senior Group
Coach
 Brad
Kale is currently in his second tour of duty as the Senior Assistant
Coach at Nashville Aquatic Club. Brad was a part of the senior staff
from 1996 to 2001 and returned to the staff fall 2007. Coach Kale
brings over 15 years of coaching experience including age group,
high school, and masters coaching. Prior to his first stint at Nashville
Aquatic Club Coach Kale was the head age group coach at the Pine
Crest Swim Camp in Ft. Lauderdale FL and Head Coach of the Jefferson
City YMCA in Jefferson City MO. Coach Kale has coached numerous
National Age Group top 16 swimmers, Junior National qualifiers,
and National qualifiers. In 2000 Coach Kale was named Southeastern
Swimming Age Group coach of the year.
Brad grew up swimming in Southeastern
Swimming competing for Jack Hazen at Middle Tennessee Swim Club
and then for John Morse at Nashville Aquatic Club. Brad continued
his swimming career at the University
Of Kentucky where he was a Southeastern Conference finalist
in several events over his four year career.
Brad is married to Deana Kale and has two kids Sydney (7) and Carson
(4)
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Charlie Hodgson -
Senior Group Coach
 Charlie
has been coaching since 1969 and was a 1984 Assistant USA Olympic
Coach which he earned by placing three of his own club swimmers on
the team, Michele Richardson, Matt
Gribble, and Jesse
Vassallo. All three swimmers started on his club team as young
age groupers. At 15, Michele was the youngest athlete on the entire
USA Olympic team from all sports and won the Silver medal in the 800
Free with a time of 8:28.82. Three of Charlie’s swimmers have
set world records in five events: David Wilkie in the 200 IM in 1974
with a time of 2:06.32 and the 200 Breast in 1976 with a time of 2:15.11
(Olympic Gold medal, 3.1 seconds under the record), Matt Gribble in
the 100 Fly in 1983 with a time of 53.44 (also 1983 World Champion)
and in the USA 400 Medley Relay in 1983 swimming the fly leg, and
Paul Wallace as a member of the USA 400 Free Relay in 1985 with a
split of 49.99. In 1985, Charlie was a member of the USA coaching
staff for the Pan
Pacific Games in Japan. In both 1983 and 1984, he was a finalist
for the American Swim Coaches Association Coach of the Year award.
From 1973 to 1986, Charlie coached the University
of Miami in Florida. As assistant coach in 1975 and head
coach in 1976, his women's team won the AIAW
National Championships in 1975 and 1976 and set the American record
in the 200 yard medley relay four years in a row. As assistant coach
and later head coach, the men’s team consistently placed in
the top 10 at the NCAA’s. From 1975 to 1992, Charlie’s
Hurricane Swim Club team placed in the top 10 at US Senior Nationals
numerous times, produced many nationally ranked age groupers, developed
nearly 100 High School All Americans, won the FGC Junior Olympic Championships
20 times in a row, and at one time held over 50% of the Florida Gold
Coast records from 8 & under to Senior. Having moved to the Nashville
area in 2001, Charlie coached 12 & under swimmers at Excel Aquatics
before joining NAC in late March 2004. An innovator in the sport,
in 1974 Charlie created the idea of the men and women wearing panty
hose for training after a shaved meet to simulate “putting the
hair back on”. The panty hose idea caught the attention of the
Mike
Douglas Show and Charlie and three Miami women’s swimmers
were featured on one of his shows. Soon thereafter the idea of a drag
suit was created. In 1975, Charlie radically altered David Wilkie’s
breaststroke pull from a narrow tight pull to a wide sweep, and after
David set the world record in 1976, coaches around the world changed
to the wide pull which is basically still used today. Charlie served
as member and Chairman of the AIAW
National Committee in 1976 and 1977 and for many years was Chairman
of the Florida Gold Coast LSC where he worked hard to make decisions
that were good for swimming.
In 1989, Charlie started writing swimming software for Hy-Tek and
released Business Manager in 1989, Workout Manager in 1990, Track
& Field Meet Manager in 1993, and Track & Field Team Manager
in 1994. In 1998, he took over the Swimming Meet Manager and created
the windows version of Hy-Tek
which is used to run most meets in North America. Workout Manager
is used by over 1000 coaches around the world to create and analyze
workouts and to upload workouts to scoreboard pace clocks. Charlie
swam at Dartmouth
College where he received a BA in 1969 and a BE in 1970. Charlie
is married to Amy Hodgson and has two children, Dakota who swims for
NAC and is home schooled and Tara who plays soccer at the University
of Washington in Seattle.
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Age Group Coaching Staff
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Bryan Welter - Sportsplex
Head Age Group Coach
 Coach
Bryan Welter came to NAC in 2006 after coaching at the Bengal Tiger
Aquatic Club for two years. Prior to his work at BTAC, Coach Welter
was the Head Age Group Coach for the North
Central Florida YMCA for seven years in Gainesville, Fl.
He has also coached at the 300
Swim and Tennis Club, Oak
Hall School, Naples
High School, and Buchholz
High School. Coach Welter attended and swam for West
Virginia Wesleyan College before moving to Gainesville, Fl in
1995. Shortly thereafter, Coach Welter received his General Studies
Associate of Arts from Santa
Fe Community College. He is a 2004 graduate of the College
of Health & Human Performance at the University
of Florida. Bryan swam competitively at the age of 4 at
the Greater
Lee County YMCA, and proceeded to swim for Swim Florida and
Collier County
YMCA during his 14 years as a competitive swimmer.
Some of his accomplishments as a coach include: 3 Age Group
National Record Holders (2005, 2009), 8 + YMCA Short Course National
qualifying swims; 40 + YMCA Long Course National qualifying swims;
50 + National Top 16 Reportable qualifying swims. LHSAA
Division 1 Women's State Runner-up (2005); FHSAA
Class 3A Women's State Championship (2002); FHSAA Class 3A Women's
State Runner-up (2000); Worked with 10 + NISCA
High School Academic All-Americans; Worked with 40 + NISCA High
School Athletic All-Americans; A.S.C.A. level 3 coach; Selected
Assistant coach - Louisiana Swimming Southern Zone All-Star Team
(2006); Selected Assistant coach -Florida Swimming Southern Zone
All-Star Team (2000, 2002 & 2004); Selected Head Coach -Florida
Swimming Southern Zone All-Star Team (2003); Florida Dairy Farmers
-Girls High School Coach of the Year - All Classes (2003); Gainesville
Sun All Area Coach of the year (2000, 2002 & 2003). Just this
past season Bryan was named Head Age Group Coach of the Year for
Southeastern Swimming and was the Head Coach of the Southeastern
Swimming Southern Zone All-Star Team. Bryan is also a Lifetime Member
of ASCA.
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Jack Hazen - Sportsplex Age Group Coach
Coach Jack Hazen has been with NAC for the past several years
as an Age Group Coach at the Centennial Sportsplex site.
Coach Hazen brings over 30 years coaching experience to the program.
Coach Hazen received his BA from the University
of Georgia, and a Masters in Education from Vanderbilt
University. In addition to his association with NAC,
Coach Hazen has been a metro area teacher for the past 30 years
and is currently at Granberry
Elementary School. Coach Hazen and his wife Dawn have
two daughters, Amelia and Lillian.
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Shantel Commander
- Assistant Age Group Coach
 Coach
Shantel Commander started with Nashville Aquatic Club in March,
2009. Previously she worked with the Area
Tallahassee Aquatic Club in Tallahassee, Florida as their
age group, high school conditioning and masters coach for 2 years.
Shantel graduated from the Univeristy
of Kentucky in 2006 with a B.A. in Integrated Strategic Communications.
While at Ketucky Shantel earned All-American Honorable Mention
Honors in the 200 Breaststroke and competed in the 200 Breaststroke
at the 2004 Olympic Trials.
Coach Shantel grew up in Murfreesboro, TN where she attended Oakland
High School and swam under Coach John Morse here at NAC. While
at NAC she qualified for Senior Nationals and earned High School
All-American and Academic All-American Honors. Shantel is currently
attending class at MTSU in hopes to obtain a Masters degree to
further her coaching career. She is currently an ASCA
Level II certified coach directing the Brentwood site at the Williamson
County Indoor Sports Complex.
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Jason
Davis - Assistant Age Group Coach
 Coach
Jason is in his 9th year as a swim coach. He started his coaching
career with the Birmingham
Swim League for 2 years as an assistant coach, then 6 years
with Excel
Aquatics in Brentwood/Murfreesboro, TN. After taking a 1-year
hiatus from coaching, he is now in his first year with the Nashville
Aquatic Club.
Coach Jason is an ASCA
Level 3 certified coach. He has coached at all levels, from Masters/Tri-athletes,
to the 4 year old learning how to swim. His swimmers have achieved
TN State High School Championship Qualifying times, SES Championship
Qualifying times, Age Group Sectional times, Senior Sectional times,
USA Swimming Top 16 times for individual events and relays, team records,
as well as SES Records.
His most recent years of coaching were in Murfreesboro, TN for
Excel Aquatics
as the Site-Coordinator. His role was to start-up a program and
produce quality, well-rounded swimmers. In less than 2 years, his
swimmers placed Top 8 at the Southeastern Swimming Championships
and Top 16 in the U.S.A. in the individual and relay events.
He has published articles include USA Swimming's SPEEDO™ tip
of the week for June 28th, 2004. Other articles include the Murfreesboro
Post and the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal. To check out his SPEEDO™
Tip of the Week on Breaststroke, click
here.
Coach Jason is a graduate of Belmont
University, with a Bachelors of Business Administration degree.
When asked why he is a swim coach, he responded with a smile, "my
3 reasons for coaching are to make sure swimming continues to be
fun for all swimmers while pursuing excellence in training &
competition; I love working with kids; and, I love swimming."
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