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Ella Reintsma
Head Coach Contact: Coaches@5280synchro.com "Hello all! My name is Ella Reintsma and I am so excited to be coming on as the new Head Coach in training for the upcoming 5280 Synchro season. I was a competitive artistic swimmer for 10 years based here in Colorado with several years of experience as a National Team trials/JOs/US Nationals athlete. This season will be my first in a Head Coaching position, but with prior coaching/teaching experience and with the guidance of Coach Becky, I feel more than prepared to lead us into a great 2021-2022 season. Over the years having seen many different coaches and coaching styles, I've been blessed to learn and develop my own values and philosophies: to me, one of the most important things is to value each swimmer as the whole individual, not just an athlete (this includes supporting my swimmers both physically and mentally, in & out of the pool). My priority is and always will be TEAM, so get ready for a season of relationship building!
I'm also pleased to announce that my sister, Liv Reintsma, who swam for 9 years also at a competitive level, will be joining us as the new Novice coach. In addition to artistic swimming, Liv has a background in group dance and I am thrilled to see the welcoming energy she will bring for the newcomers this year. We are both ecstatic to be diving back into the artistic swimming world after a few years break due to higher education studies and whatnot. Please feel free to reach out to either of us with any questions, comments or concerns. We look forward to meeting and working with you all!" Thank you! Ella Reintsma |
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Becky Meitin
I began synchro my sophomore year of high school in Berea, Ohio, when my best friend wanted to go try out for the club team and high school team. She quit after the first year, and I have been involved off and on since. I swam at Florida State University for four years as an undergraduate and one year of graduate school before I went to Africa for eight months of field projects. I was president of the club my senior year and that team "competed" in creative aquatics, which was more like modern dance.
After grad school I moved to Boulder to work at NCAR, and started to helped coach the Boulder Aquateens (now 5280). My college duet partner was also living in boulder and we started to competed again in creative aquatics for about two years.Taking off some time for job and family until 1989 when Boulder Country Club asked me to start a class there. I had some really good girls (including my daughter!), and they competed as BCC that year - the next year they joined Aquateens and competed there, when I was asked to be the head coach. I coached seven successful years with Aquateens - we were usually in the 40s in membership, and routinely won the Regional Trophy. In 2001 I started swimming again in Masters swimming along with coaching. The first three years I swam solo in my age group, and a team in the 30s with several local coaches. I won solo every year, which was a surprise to me, and the team was second once and fourth twice. After that, they decided they wanted to swim in the 20s, and I just did solo for a few years. I went to my first World Masters in 2004 in Riccione, Italy, and placed fifth. It was quite exciting to swim off and hear your scores read in Italian! After that, I was hooked, and went to Worlds in Perth, Australia, San Francisco, Sweden, back in Riccione, Montreal and Budapest. I stopped coaching Angelfish after I got cancer in 2010 (though I did compete in Sweden six weeks after surgery and placed fourth). After a couple years, I came back as figures coach for Aquateens, and then a couple years as that and coach for some routines. When I was no longer needed there, I went to coach Orcas for a couple years. Now, I am happily back at Aquateens/5280. I've also taken a break from Masters, after my daughter and I won duets at Nationals in October 2016, but started working out again this summer. Carol and I will hopefully swim together, and we hope to get a Masters' class of new people (interested parents!) soon. I love watching the swimmers grow into confident, talented people, in addition to learning a sport they can do for life. |
Liv Reintsma
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Hello! My name is Liv Reintsma and I will be the novice coach for 5280 Synchro this year. I grew up swimming for Northern Colorado Synchro for nearly 10 years alongside my sister Ella, and I am delighted to be coming back to the sport as a coach with her! Since my synchro days, I have earned my bachelor's degree in communication studies from the University of Puget Sound, and I hope to eventually become a counselor or social worker. I am so excited to share my love of artistic swimming with our novice swimmers and hope to create a special, supportive community for them to explore their talents!
Liv Reintsma she/her pronouns |
Carol Dimeff
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Hello! My name is Carol Dimeff and I’m very happy to return to the 5280 team coaching the intermediates! I started my swimming career racing for East Side Swim Club in California at the age of 5. My specialties were back stroke and long distance swimming. However, even though I had won many races, I found long distance swimming a little boring. In elementary school, a friend told my mother about synchro and I was thrilled to join the Santa Clara Aquamaids, who, at the time, were the world champions. At the US Nationals, I won a gold medal in figures, a silver in duets and a bronze in team competitions. Since then, I have been a swimming teacher and synchro teacher (off and on) around my careers as a micro-biologist, software engineer, mother and professional photographer. I consider myself mostly a figures coach letting the other coaches write the routines. One of my favorite jobs was to join with SGI-USA and the U.S. Airforce by coaching, directing and performing in a 200 girl water ballet off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii for an audience of 20,000+ as part of America’s bi-centennial celebration. I look forward to working with 5280 and helping the swimmers develop both in figures and as human beings.
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