COACHES

In 1990 he started as an Age Group Coach for SOLO, and became the Head Coach in 1992. Unlike many other Head Coaches, Coach Tom works with all levels of swimmers. His daily activities includes being in the water teaching the youngest swimmers, helping Age Group swimmers with their strokes, and running practices for National level swimmers.

Coach Tom is also the Head Coach for Menlo-Atherton High School’s swim team. In 2006 the MA girls finished undefeated in the PAL league and finished fourth in CCS. Four girls made All-American for the second year. On the boys side there were great improvements moving into the second place in PAL with boys finishing in the top 16 in CCS. The size and depth of the team has really been tremendous the past five years that Coach Tom has worked with the program.

Following his older brothers to the pool put Tom on his first swim team at the age of four. As a high school swimmer things really took off as a member of the Greater Columbus Swim Team. He was a walk on swimmer at Ohio State as a freshman, which lead to coaching the sport. As a masters swimmer Coach Tom broke the World Record in the February Fitness competition in 1995 and again in 1996 swimming over 725,000 yards in a month. The purpose of which was to show the swimmers that if they wanted to achieve success they needed to work toward a goal. For Tom that turned out to be 25,000 yards per day which took eight hours.

Johnny Bega, Head Coach, Water Polo

Coach Johnny Bega played high school water polo in Atwater, California where he was a two-time All-American. He then continued to play at Merced Junior College, where he was also honored as an All-American. Coach Bega transferred to Long Beach State on a water polo scholarship, where he graduated in 1999.

Johnny coached the Long Beach Shore club water polo program for 7 years before creating his own aquatics club, Long Beach Viking. At Long Beach Shore, Bega coached his teams to win seven national titles (at Junior Olympics and Speedo Cup). He also made it to the final game at five other national championships. This past three years as the head coach of SOLO Water Polo Club, Coach Bega has transformed the athletes into a competive club and designed a league for all levels and gengders to play. The Peninsula Bay Youth Water Polo league was formed in 2006 and has grown to 12 different clubs participating. SOLO water polo club has also traveled to San Diego, Southern California multiple times and this past summer to Hungary in Europe.

Johnny has also coached and played internationally. He has traveled to Brazil, Spain, Hungary, Holland, Greece and Japan. He is considered one of the top age-group coaches in the nation. At the high school level, Bega has coached Long Beach Millikan High School from 2001 to 2005. He has taken Millikan Boys and Girls water polo teams to top CIF Division I status. He has brought his teams to the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern California Division I championships all four years and a strong contender in Southern California. Coach Bega was also the assistant coach at Long Beach Wilson High School from 1996 to 1999, where they were the CIF Division I Boys Water Polo Champions three years in a row. In the past three years as the Head Coach at Menlo Atherton high school the Bears have improved dramatically. In 2005, the Bears made it to the CIF-CCS Semi final game and finished a solid year. In 2006, the MA Bears finished the season in the CIF-CCS Division Championship game where they lost in overtime by one goal. In 2007, the much improved Ma Bears won the CIF-CCS Division Boys Water Polo Championship and gave Menlo Atherton high school it's first championship ever in school history.

Coach Bega has also put in a lot of time towards coaching USA Water Polo national teams and camps across the Nation. He has been the coach of Premier, Cadet, Youth, and Junior National Teams over the course of his career. He has also been the head coach for the National Age Group Camps in Colorado Springs. He continues to run the Florida and helps in the development of many athletes on the east coast. Coach Bega is now the Associate Head Coach at San Jose State University for the women's team. The women's program has finsihed each season in the top 7 teams in the Nation and NCAA since becoming the assistant coach at SJSU. He oversees all aspects of recruiting, goalie training and works closely with Lou Tully with every asset of the program. Johnny Bega has the experience to create a championship water polo family at Solo Aquatics, Menlo Atherton High School and the Bay area. Bega is a role model to younger athletes and he brings a positive attitude to Menlo Atherton. He is capable of developing a program to championship status and helping student-athletes to achieve their highest goals. Coach Bega is happily married to Alexandra Bega (Coach Alex) and resides in San Jose, California.

Jill Rissi, Assistant Coach, Swimming

Coach Jill graduated from University of Illinois with a BA. Coach Jill joined SOLO Aquatics (then SOLO Swim Club) in 1990 with two daughters. Since 1990 she has volunteered as Volunteer Coordinator, Meet Director, and President of the Swim Club. Masters world record holder for the most yards swum in the month of February 1996 at 467,533 yards.

Coach Jill became Racers and Dynamo’s coach in 1998, increasing the number of swimmers in her groups. She is an American Swim Coaches Association Certified Level 2 coach.