Coach Cindy Passalacqua (Head Coach)
Coach Cindy is back for her third year as Water Rat coach!
Cindy grew up lakeside, swimming in the seaweed with the snapping turtles, and couldn’t wait to swim in beautiful blue chlorinated pools!! She is a swim mom turned coach and started the BCC Barons USA Swim team in 2002 with 12 kids. The team grew to 125 swimmers and, in 2009, Coach Cindy took ownership of the team and changed the name to Jersey Devilrays Swimming. Her teams produced numerous JO qualifiers and several of her swimmers were ranked top 10 in the country. Coach Cindy was also the owner and co-head coach of the Deerwood Tritons summer team since 2016. Cindy has been coaching for MLY Phoenix since 2019 and is the head coach of the Minis and Junior 2. She is the assistant coach of Senior II. She is super excited about coaching for the Charleston Water Rats and can’t wait for the new season to start!
Tim Konowalik (Assistant Coach)
Tim comes to Charleston with decades of coaching experience:
He started coaching swimming at the age of 15 with Nova Centurion, a regional high performance program in Nottingham, England. He worked with multiple junior and senior international swimmers, British age group champions, and British age group record holders.
Between 2004-2008, he was the Head Coach for The University of Manchester Swim Team. During his time coaching the University, the team achieved their highest ever finish (second place) at the 2005 British University Swimming Team Championships. In 2005, he received The University of Manchester Coach of the Year Award and in 2004, the team received The University of Manchester Team of the Year Award.
Tim is currently an Assistant Age Group Coach with the East Coast C-Cerpants. He generally works with kids ages 9-13, but has worked with kids of all ages and skill levels.
His favorite swimmer of all time is Alexander Popov because he made fast swimming look incredibly easy!
From Tim: “I am super excited to join the Charleston Water Rats! I hope to help the swimmers develop a love for competitive swimming which leads to long-term participation in the sport. Go Water Rats!”