Donny Brush, Colleen Kohm Hired By Germantown Academy

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Photo Courtesy: Germantown Athletics

FORT WASHINGTON – Germantown Academy head coach Jeff Thompson recently announced that Donny Brush (High Performance Coach) and Colleen Kohm (Age Group Assistant) have been hired to replace some of the coaching positions vacated with the loss of Caroline and Colleen Boland.

There is still controversy surrounding the GAAC club with head coach emeritus Richard Shoulberg being retired by the institution this year, even though he has no intention of quitting coaching at this time. GAAC, however, is moving forward by continuing to fill out its staff.

Here’s Thompson’s letter to the GAAC families pertaining to the two hires, which fully lays out the qualifications of each individual.

We have added two more coaches to our GAAC coaching staff, Donny Brush (High Performance Coach) and Colleen Kohm (Age Group Assistant). Donny officially accepted his position with GAAC on March 2, 2015 and Colleen accepted her position late last week. Donny’s start date will be April 1, however he will be accompanying myself and the GAAC athletes to the Olympic Training Center this spring. Colleen will begin her coaching with GAAC on Tuesday, March 3. The current coaching staff is very excited to have Donny and Colleen joining our team. Bringing in new coaches is not a task that is taken lightly, as a lot of time and consideration must be given to what is best for the swimmers, the current coaching staff, and most importantly, the future of the program. I am very confident that Donny and Colleen will be strong additions to our program and will make the coaching staff at GAAC one of the best, if not THE BEST, in the country. Colleen will work directly with the age group program in the evenings. Donny will spend the majority of his time working with the senior-level athletes but he also looks very forward to spending some time with the age group. Donny will also be working with the swimming classes during the day at Germantown Academy. Please join me in welcoming Donny and Colleen to our team.

Colleen Kohm ’94 swam competitively for GA, GAAC/Foxcatcher and Michigan State University. She excelled at distance freestyle, raced at the National level and was ranked nationally in the 800 and 1500 respectively. During her swimming career, she received All-American and All-Inter Ac honors and participated in several National Select Camps at the Olympic Training Center. Colleen retied from swimming in 1996 and returned to the Philadelphia area continuing her studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Colleen has over 12 years of experience coaching swimming at various levels of the sport. She began coaching by teaching swimming to children and triathletes at the Upper Main Line YMCA. Having a competitive background and placing several young kids on the team, Colleen was recruited to coach UMLY’s swim team. After the birth of her third child, Colleen was recruited by the Episcopal Academy as a lead age group coach where she coached for over 3 years. She took a leave of absence from coaching due to illness before returning to the sport coaching for the Agnes Irwin School. As her children grew so did their love of swimming, bringing Colleen and her family back to Germantown Academy.

Currently, Colleen spends her weekends working at the Chester County Hospital. An avid learner, Colleen is always continuing her studies – currently at Drexel University.

As a coach, Colleen believes in hard work, good stroke technique and having fun. She looks forward to working with the talented GAAC coaches and swimmers as they strive to achieve their goals in the water

Donny Brush is a professional swimming coach with over 20 years of diversified collegiate, age group, and high school coaching experience. He is an energetic and a motivational leader, with a proven record of program development and designing strategies and techniques that accelerate individual achievement. As a Terre Haute native, Donny graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Indiana State in 2001 and also received his master’s in student athlete development from Indiana State. Donny is coming to Germantown after one year with Fishers Area Swimming Tigers in Fishers, Indiana.

Prior to Fishers Donny served nine successful years at Indiana University as Associate Head Coach for men’s and women’s swimming and Assistant Head Coach for the coordination of training and student athlete development. Brush’s last season with Indiana he was the lead coach for the women’s team, focusing his efforts with the middle distance group. Brush previously concentrated his efforts on the sprint group, which posted five school records during the 2012-13 campaign.

In 2012-13 under the direction of Brush, the IU men set new school records in the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 200 freestyle relay, 200 medley relay and 400 medley relay. The Hoosier men finished second at the 2013 Big Ten Championships and posted a ninth-place finish at the NCAA Championships, the highest finish for the Hoosiers since 1980.

On the women’s side a total of four school records fell in 2012-13 as the squad placed second at the Big Ten Championships and 11th at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships.

With Brush’s guidance the Hoosier women won their third-straight Big Ten title in 2010-11, taking the crown in their home pool. The Hoosiers took home four individual and relay Big Ten titles and went on to earn a total of 21 All-American certificates at the NCAA Championships.

In 2009-10, Brush was part of a staff that saw the women’s program win its second-straight Big Ten Championship title and third in the last four years. Kate Fesenko became the first IU female swimmer to win an NCAA individual title when she smashed the school and Big Ten record in the 200-yard backstroke. In addition, Taylor Wohrley was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year. On the men’s side, Aaron Opell, whom Brush coached as an age grouper at Newburgh, won the Big Ten title in the 200-yard breaststroke and went on to earn All-America honors in the event. Sprinter Bryan Chovanec was a runner-up in the 50-yard freestyle at Big Tens.

Concentrating on the IU sprinters, in 2008-09, Brush saw his charges topple school records in the men’s 50 free and 100 free (Matt Lenton), place second in the 100 backstroke at the Big Ten Championships and earn All-America honors (Eric Ress).

Nowhere was Brush’s influence more obvious than in the performance of Ben Hesen. Hesen capped off his three seasons under Brush with an NCAA title in the 100 back in 2008, IU’s first individual NCAA swimming champion since 1976. Hesen’s winning time of 44.72 was a new school record and the second-fastest time in NCAA history. Hesen also set a new Indiana mark in the 100 butterfly and 200 back, and captured Big Ten titles in all three events. He was named the 2008 IU Male Athlete of the Year and is ranked 12th in the world in the 100-meter backstroke. At the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials he set a new American record in the 50-meter back.

In 2006, Hesen showed the most noticeable improvement under Brush’s tutelage, moving from a 31st-place showing in the 100-yard backstroke at the 2005 NCAA Championships to a fourth-place showing in 2006.

In 2007, Hesen made his presence known on the international level, finishing third in the 100-meter backstroke at the ConocoPhillips National Championships with a school-record time of 54.40. Along with that went a second-place finish in the 100-yard back at the 2007 NCAA Championships and the Big Ten title in the same event.

Todd Patrick also competed at the international level in the summer of 2007, picking up a silver medal in the 200-meter IM at the Japan International Swim Meet. He touched the wall in 2:00.59, setting a new school mark. Patrick set a new school mark in the 200-yard IM at the 2008 Big Ten Championships and went on to earn All-America honors with a third-place finish at the NCAA Championships. He set new IU records in the 200 fly and 50 free, and is ranked 17th in the world in the 200 IM. Both medley relay squads earned All-America status under Brush’s watch for the third-straight year in 2008, taking fifth in the 200-yard medley in school-record time, and 10th in the 400.

Brush served as a member of the New Zealand coaching staff at the 2008 World Youth Games, where IU’s Kurt Bassett set a new meet record in winning the 200 back. In all, the New Zealand squad produced five gold medals and meet records.

On the women’s side, Brush has guided the development of 2008 Olympian and 2010 NCAA Champion Kate Fesenko. In her first season at IU, Fesenko assaulted the record book with new marks in the 100-yard back, 200-yard back. 100-yard butterfly, 100-meter back, 200-meter back and 100-meter butterfly. She won Big Ten titles in the 100 back and 200 back and finished third and second, respectively, in both events at the NCAA meet.

Brush helped the Hoosiers eclipse seven school records en route to the 2007 Big Ten Championship. Leading the charge was 2007 IU Female Athlete of the Year Leila Vaziri who was victorious in the 100-yard back at the Big Ten meet and went on to finish third at the NCAA Championships. Brush was involved with the technique and power training of Vaziri, who took the swimming world by storm at the 2007 World Championships with a world record in the 50-meter backstroke.

During his initial season as a Hoosier, Brush also served as an assistant coach for the Ukrainian National Team at the European Championships.

Prior to helping lead Indiana University back to a perennial top 10 program in the NCAA, Brush served as an assistant swimming coach for Longhorn Aquatics in Austin, Texas, from 2004 to 2005. During his time in the Lone Star State, Longhorn was recognized by USA Swimming as the top Gold Medal Club in the nation. Additionally, Longhorn Aquatics won the 2004 ConocoPhillips Spring National team and women’s national championships as well as the ConocoPhillips Summer National team, women’s, men’s and U-18 national titles. Meanwhile, seven Longhorn Aquatics swimmers earned berths on the 2005 World Championship Team for the United States. In 2004, Brush assisted in placing 11 other swimmers on both the Olympic roster as well as the World Short Course Championship team. Overall, 49 athletes qualified for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials during his tenure.

Previously, Brush operated as the Head Age-Group and Senior Assistant Coach for the Carmel Swim Club from 2002 to 2004. At Carmel, he recruited to rebuild and revitalize the age group swimming program for the private swim club. His charges at the Carmel Swim Club captured the Indiana Long Course Age Group State Championship in 2002 and the 2003 Short Course Senior State title. Under his tutelage, the squad received national recognition as the top USA Swimming Silver Medal Club. During his two years at Carmel, the Greyhounds claimed both the men’s and women’s Indiana High School State crowns.

Prior to his time at Carmel, Brush served as the head swimming coach and CEO of the Newburgh Sea Creatures from 2000 to 2002. While at Newburgh he helped guide the Sea Creatures from to the Long Course Age Group Championship State title in 2001 and the Short Curse Senior State Championship title in 2002. Brush also developed seven athletes that achieved top 16 reportable times in 23 different events including a national age group champion.

Brush began his head coaching career in Terre Haute, Ind., where he served as the co-head coach for the Terre Haute Aquatic Club from 1993 to 1996, head swimming coach at Terre Haute South Vigo from 1996 to 1997 and head swimming coach for the Terre Haute Torpedoes from 1997 to 2000. The Torpedoes garnered six consecutive Central Indiana State Conference Championships during that time.

In Donny’s impressive career, he has worked with some of the world’s best swimmers including:

Over 100 NCAA All Americans

3 Individual NCAA Champions

16 USA National Team Members

11 Olympians

12 American Record Holders

28 World Record Holders

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Andy G
Andy G
9 years ago
Larry R
Larry R
9 years ago

Give it a rest. If you received the email from Coach Thompson, you’d know that their bios were being shared. If thats plagiarism, then every institution in this country is going down.

Congrats to GAAC on the coaching hires. They seem like great choices.

gramos
gramos
9 years ago

He has not officially started yet, so they used his current bio. What’s wrong with that?

Yahya Radman
9 years ago

Adda’boy DBrush!! Congrats man.

Taylor Roberts
9 years ago

Hey! Congrats, Donny Brush!

Andy G
Andy G
9 years ago

The point is, Thompson cut and pasted Donny’s old Indiana bio and acted as if he wrote it. It’s not his current bio. At best, it’s lazy. We hope Brush can bring something to help GA. It’s about to shut down.

Rob Seeberger.
Rob Seeberger.
9 years ago

I call BS on 28 world record holders.

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