BAC Competitive Swim Team Coaches

Ben came to BAC in 2014 after many years as an athlete and a coach in the Bay Area. Ben grew up swimming in Los Altos for Los Altos-Mountain View Aquatic Club and for Los Altos High School, where making CCS Finals was a highlight of his prep career. After moving to Palo Alto Swim Club (now part of PASA) for his senior year in high school, Ben attended Vassar College, where he was a 4-year varsity swim team member, 3-year captain, and 9-time school record holder.

Upon completing his degree in Sociology with minors in American Literature and French from Vassar in 2003, Ben began his coaching career back in the Bay Area. Ben has guided multiple athletes who have broken Pacific Age Group Records, have placed in the National Top-10, have made finals at USA Swimming Junior Nationals, and who have earned accolades on local, national and international levels. Athletes that Ben has coached have gone on to represent Team USA at international competitions and have gone on to become NCAA All-Americans.

Ben is active on the Zone, LSC and National levels, having previously served as a Zone All-Star coach, a Pacific All-Star coach and Pacific Camp Coach. In 2018, Ben was named to the staff of the USA Swimming National Diversity Select Camp as an assistant coach, a true honor and highlight of his career. In 2020, Ben was appointed to the Western Zone Select Camp staff.

One of the underlying emphases of Ben’s coaching philosophy is that swimming can help open the door for athletes to new experiences and to an enhanced academic profile. Athletes that Ben has coached have gone on to swim at many of the country’s best colleges and universities, including UC-Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, USC, Harvard, Princeton, Brown, UPenn, Duke University, Northwestern University, Georgia Technical Institute, Amherst College, Washington University in St. Louis, and Harvey Mudd College, among others. Ben is committed to developing the student-athlete here on the BAC pool deck.

Coach Hondorf was destined to be a pool rat from the moment his parents met as swimmers at The Johns Hopkins University. With two parents that would teach and coach, Loki developed a second nature with swimming analytics. Stuck on the pool deck for much longer than what would be considered "healthy", swimming and what the sport embodies became ingrained into Him.

Though Loki would initially despise the sport, vowing to quit when allowed. The hard work and reward therein would eventually transform him. Through his high school career at Oak Ridge H.S. in Tennessee Hondorf would continue to develop physically as a swimmer, but also as a coach. Beginning to help coach, as his Coaches (parents) continued to teach him about swimming.

Following 4 record breaking years at ORHS, Coach Hondorf would go on to set team records at the Colorado School of Mines en route to qualifying for and ultimately competing in NCAA nationals. After a fulfilling career, Coach Hondorf attempted, and ultimately failed, to retire from the pool deck completely. Soon after graduating Loki found work with the age group program for Foothills Swim Team, before again turning his gaze west yet again.

Having traveled across the country as a swimmer, Coach Loki has had the privilege of interacting with many figure heads of the sport and learning from many schools of thought. Coach Hondorf has continued to learn and grow both as a Coach and as a human, and he hopes that by guiding young athletes through their career he may give back just a fraction of what this sport has afforded him.

After 12 years of coaching in the Bay Area, Golda came to BAC in November 2020. Golda grew up swimming in Ft Lauderdale, FL. She swam on teams such as FLST at the International Swimming Hall of Fame, Broward Aquatics, and Brandon Blue Wave. During her time on FLST, Golda became a part of 5 nationally top 16
relays.

Her time at Broward Aquatics and Brandon Blue Wave led to some of her highest athletic achievements.

In 2001, Golda competed in her first international competition for her native country of El Salvador, winning 7 gold and 2 silver medals, at the Central American Games in Guatemala. In 2002 she won 3 bronze in her speciality events, the 200, 400, and 800 meter freestyles at the Central American and Caribbean Games in the Dominican Republic. In 2006, at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Cartagena, COL, she won 2 golds in the 400 and 800 meter freestyles. Finally, in 2007, competing for the final time in El Salvador at a meet called CCCAN, she won 3 golds (200, 400, 800) and one silver (200 fly).


Golda was selected by her country to compete in 3 World Championships: 2003 in Barcelona, 2007 in Melbourne, and 2008 in Manchester. In 2007 she competed in the Pan American Games in Brasil, where she was a part of her country’s 800 meter freestyle relay, which placed 7th. It was the first time in El Salvador’s history that a relay placed in the top 8 internationally.


But Golda’s biggest honor and greatest achievement was competing in the 2004 Olympics in Athens and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.


It was after competing for 4 years at Florida State University, graduating with a BA in English (Creative Writing) and completing her MFA at National University, with a degree in English (Creative Writing), Golda moved out to the Bay Area to pursue a coaching career.


Golda has coached many 10&unders, and have guided them to meets such as JOs and Far Westerns, and has had one athlete selected for the Western Zone All Star Team. Since joining BAC, Golda has branched out, learning how to coach athletes at a Senior level, as well as prepping them and getting them ready for college.


Golda’s swimming philosophy can also mirror her life’s philosophy: never be afraid to dream big. Golda is committed to helping her BAC athletes achieve their dreams at their highest level of potential.

Daniel started in Pacific Swimming, as a swimmer at 8 years old. After competing all the way through elementary and middle school, he decided to take his passion and educate our youth in water safety. At 13 years old he started off volunteering for his swim team during the summer, teaching his teammates younger siblings how to swim, correcting stroke and preparing 8 and unders to swim competitively. At 16 Daniel worked as a swim instructor and lifeguard, while helping re-start the swim schools
“Pre-Competitive” Swim Team.

Taking a break away from the pool and chlorine, Daniel started working with students with Autism. He got his Registered Behavioral Technician certificate and learned about the cause of different behaviors. He learned techniques that can be directly translated to coaching on deck.

Most recently Daniel joined BAC’s fulltime coaching staff in Sept 2021, after coaching for Piedmont Swim Team before Covid-19. He has been selected as a Pacific Swimming All-Star Coach in Zone 2, has coached swimmers to multiple Junior Olympics and Far
Westerns and is a member of ASCA.

Currently Coach Daniel is taking Kinesiology classes at College of San Mateo. He is striving to complete a Kinesiology Degree as well as his Athletic Coaching Certificate from College of San Mateo.

Tommy joined BAC in April 2023. Tommy started his swimming career as a summer leaguer in Lafayette at Rancho Colorados when he was 6 and continued until 14. In High School, Tommy joined Orinda Aquatics and found success in the mid-distance events qualifying for Junior Nationals in 200/500 Free, 200/400 IM, and 200 Fly. While swimming with OA, Tommy got his first coaching experience working with the 6&Unders, 7-8s and 9-10s at his old summer league team. After high school, Tommy continued swimming at Cal-Berkeley for 3 years where he was a part of two National Championship Teams in 2011 & 2012.

Following the conclusion of Tommy’s swimming career, he was recruited by a former Cal teammate to join the coaching staff at The Olympic Club. Between 2014 and 2019, Tommy had the opportunity to work with swimmers of all ages and abilities, from 8 year olds preparing for their first meets, to Junior Olympic (AGC’s) and Far Western High Point award winners, to Sectionals, Futures and Junior Nationalist qualifiers/finalists. TOC swimmers under Tommy have set Pacific Records, ranked in the top 10 nationally and gone on to swim at colleges including Cal, UCLA, Brown, West Point, Kenyon, Wesleyan, Colgate, and Carnegie Mellon. Tommy emphasizes teamwork and celebrating each success as an accomplishment of the group. Swimming is a challenging sport and our teammates supporting each other is critical for sustained success.

In addition to working with the 18&Under team, Tommy also ran workouts for The Olympic Club Masters team, again working with a wide range of ages and abilities running from post collegiate athletes to swimmers still competing at 95+ years of age. Coach Tommy oversaw a small post collegiate group of 7 swimmers that competed at the 2016 Olympic Trials in Omaha. While at The Olympic Club, Tommy was twice nominated for the ASCA Age Group coach of the year award based on the team’s results in the 12&Under age groups. Tommy left The Olympic Club in 2019 as the Head Coach of the Swim Team to return to UC Berkeley to finish his Bachelor’s degree in Data Science.

During Covid Tommy returned to the water as a master’s swimmer. Since 2021, almost 10 years after his last college meet, Tommy has competed at Masters Nationals, raced several Open water races and completed a relay crossing of the North Channel between Scotland and Ireland in a World Record Time. He is excited to help BAC swimmers set goals of every level and find a lifelong love of swimming. Tommy believes that there are many ways to swim fast, and his most important role as a coach is to provide his swimmers with the tools and knowledge to best achieve their own success.

Sam grew up swimming competitively, coaching, and teaching swim lessons here on the Peninsula. She swam competitively for 12 years, after joining her first swim team at 8 years old.

After undergrad, Sam took a step away from the swimming community to pursue education. Sam has a Masters in Education with a focus on Childhood Development. She taught 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade locally. Sam has a Masters in Education with a focus on Childhood Development.

Now, Sam works for an Educational Technology company that provides a Transition Curriculum that supports Middle and High School Special Education programs. With this new career change, she has decided it is time to get reinvolved with the swimming community and is ultimately extremely excited to get back on the pool deck in the afternoons and work with Barracuda I & II going forward.