Our coaches
Every group has a coach who knows it. Here is who your swimmer will be working with, and what they bring to the deck.
Who coaches which group
From a first lesson to a senior training squad, the same staff runs the whole pathway — so a swimmer moving up is handed to someone their last coach works beside every week.
| Group | Coach |
|---|---|
| Angel Sharks | Lauren Swicegood |
| Leopard Sharks | Enrique Cartas |
| Sand Sharks | Katerina Berman |
| Bull Sharks — the Pre-Team | Melanie Cartas |
| Blue Sharks | Isidro Planell |
| Hammerhead Sharks | Isidro Planell |
| Dusky Sharks | Melanie Cartas |
| Mako Sharks | Isidro Planell |
| Great White Sharks | Isidro Planell |
Dryland — the strength and conditioning work out of the water — is run across the competitive groups by Coach Adrienne.
The staff
Seven people run this programme, from a first lesson to a senior training squad. Open any one of them to read more.
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Isidro Planell
Program Director · Blue, Hammerhead, Mako and Great White
Coach Issy was born in Miami, lives in Cutler Bay, and came up through this programme himself — he swam for the AquaKids Sharks long before he coached them. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Sport and Fitness Studies, with a concentration in Physical Education, from Florida International University.
He serves as Program Director of the AquaKids Swim School and Head Site Coach of the AquaKids Sharks site of the South Florida Aquatic Club, a role he began in 2024. His coaching journey with the Sharks began in 2014, and he has worked with athletes at every level of the programme since. He also spent two seasons as a volunteer assistant coach with the NCAA Division I women's swimming and diving team at Florida International University, from 2018 to 2020.
He was part of FIU's Conference USA championship teams in 2019 and 2020, has coached at the Longhorn Swim Camp at the University of Texas, and was selected as an All-Star Coach for the Florida Gold Coast from 2020 to 2023. Throughout his coaching career he has helped develop several high school state finalists.
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Melanie Cartas
Bull Sharks and Dusky Sharks
Coach Mel has coached at AquaKids since 2024, and she has one of the most important groups on the whole pathway — the Bull Sharks, our Pre-Team. That is where swimmers cross over from lessons into competitive swimming, where all four strokes have to become race-legal, and where the habits that keep a child in the sport get built alongside the technique. She also coaches the Dusky Sharks, our middle school swimmers.
She is studying for a bachelor's degree in biology at Florida International University. She is a certified USA Swimming coach and is ASCA Level 1 and Level 2 certified.
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Katerina Berman
Sand Sharks
Coach Katerina leads the Sand Sharks, and came to coaching after eight years in the sport herself. That background shows in what she works on with a swimmer: proper breathing, stroke mechanics, and how the body sits in the water.
She enjoys working with children, and wants every swimmer in her lane to leave it more capable and more confident than they came in — technique stronger, and the sport something they want to keep doing.
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Enrique Cartas
Leopard Sharks
Known on deck as Coach Ricky, Enrique has coached at AquaKids since May 2025 and takes the Leopard Sharks, where butterfly and the breaststroke kick get added to the strokes a swimmer already has.
He has also been one of the driving forces behind our summer camps. He is studying for a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at Florida International University.
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Lauren Swicegood
Angel Sharks
Coach Lauren has coached at AquaKids since the fall of 2023, and takes the Angel Sharks — the group where confidence and the first real stroke technique are built together.
She is also head coach of the Westminster Christian School middle school swim team, so a swimmer who carries on into school swimming often finds the same coach waiting for them. ASCA Level 1 and Level 2 certified.
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Adrienne Brown
Dryland
Coach Adrienne has run dryland for the AquaKids Sharks and SOFLO for several seasons — the work out of the water that makes the work in it hold up. It is why every competitive swimmer is told to bring sneakers.
She holds a doctorate in exercise physiology from the University of South Carolina and a master's in the same field from the University of Georgia, along with a bachelor's degree from Emory University, and she teaches kinesiology at the University of Miami. She has spent more than a decade building fitness programmes and is a certified personal trainer through the American College of Sports Medicine.
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Shirley Oliver
Swim testing, placement and scheduling
Coach Shirley joined AquaKids in 2009 as an instructor in the swim school, teaching Learn to Swim and the Continuing Education classes, and still steps in to cover groups.
She now runs swim testing, class placement and scheduling. In practice that means when your swimmer is evaluated and placed in a group, or when you are working out which class fits around your week, she is very often the person you will be dealing with.
What every coach on our deck holds
Every coach is CPR and First Aid certified. Our staff hold coaching certifications through the American Swimming Coaches Association and USA Swimming, and AquaKids is a SwimAmerica program.
It means the coach teaching a three-year-old to blow bubbles and the coach running a senior practice are trained to the same standard — and it is why a swimmer can move up the pathway without starting over with a stranger.
Come and meet them.
Tell us about your swimmer and we'll point you to the right starting point.
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