• Has coached swimming at age group, high school and summer league levels for over forty(40) years.
• Has worked with swimmers from beginners to State Champions (USS & High School), numerous High School All-Americans, Junior National & National qualifiers and Olympic Trials qualifiers.
• Started out swimming as an Age Group swimmer and swam through college level.
• Known for extensive stroke knowledge and working on stroke techniques and helping his swimmers develop in all areas; mental preparation, race strategies, nutrition, training, goal setting, etc.
• Certifications: United States Swimming, American Swim Coaches Association, National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association, Indiana High School Swim Coaches, Indiana Girls Swim Coaches.
• Married, has five(5) sons (all swimmers)
• [email protected]   260-637-0340

Ben Sutton joined FORT Wayne Swim Team January 2015.  Ben is our Head Coach leading our Senior program.  Previously Ben served as our Head Age Group Coach for 6 years while being Lead Coach for Blue Group & Senior 2.  Ben was also Lead Gold Group coach for 5 years as well as Lead Coach for Bronze Group, Silver Group, & White Group before taking over as Head Age Group Coach.    Before Ben moved back to Indiana, he served for four years as Head Coach for Saint Johns Sea Lions and before that served as Assistant Coach for 3 years at Dexter Community Aquatic Club while living in Michigan.

• ·         Current Age Group Chair for IN Swimming & in 9th year of Service on IN Swimmings Board of Directors
•           2025 IHSSCA Girls State Coach of the Year
•           2025 Head Coach Team Indiana Duel in the Pool in Dallas, TX
•           2023 IN Swimming Olympic Development Camp Coach at Olympic Training Center
•           2023 Indiana Swimmings Jim Clark Memorial Award for Outstanding Coach
• ·         2023 & 2019 Head Coach for Team Indiana at Central Zone Championships.
•           2022 Team Indiana Coach at Age Group Elite Camp at the US Naval Academy
•           2022 Team Indiana Head Coach at Mid-States All Star Championship
•           2021 Indiana Swimming Jim Hartzer Award Recipient for Outstanding Contribution to Indiana Swimming
•           2020 & 2019 Team Indiana Lead 13-14 Coach at Mid-States All Star Championship
•           2019 Indiana Swimming Age Group Coach of the Year
• ·         2019 Selected to represent Indiana Swimming at USA Swimming’s Leadership Summit at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO
• ·         2018 Lead Boys Coach at Indiana Swimming Age Group Development Camp
• ·         2017 Team Indiana Assistant Coach at Central Zone Championship in Pleasant Prairie, WI

Ben grew up swimming for Fort Wayne Aquatics and graduated from Concordia High School.  Ben earned a scholarship to swim at Eastern Michigan University where he met his wife Laura.  Ben and Laura have a son Cameron, who is currently a Freshman at Carroll.  Ben has a love and passion for the sport of swimming, Indiana Swimming & FORT Wayne Swim Team.  

Kara grew up here in Fort Wayne and began swimming at the age of seven. She swam for New Haven Barracudas, FWCY Sharks, and finally for Fort Wayne Aquatics. Her early coaching history includes New Haven & Avalon summer leagues, North Side & Canterbury High School, and Three Rivers Aquatics Club.  After that, she took several years off to focus on her family. She rejoined the swimming community in 2019. Kara has been on staff at Pine Valley Country Club since 2019 as a coach and then the swim team director. She has been with us at FORT since July of 2020. Kara has a degree in Early Childhood Education and taught for 12 years before becoming a business owner. She continues to pursue her own personal growth in the water by being an active member of a local Master’s team and she believes deeply in value of youth sports and focuses on not only athletic development, but character develpment as well.

Coach Mike graduated from Carroll HS where he was a multiple State qualifier and school record holder.    Mike then attended & swam 4 years at Miami University and graduated with a BS on Sports Leadership and Managementt.   Following graduation Mike was hired as the Head Coach at the Makos-Miami of Ohio Aquatic Club.   Mike led that team 2014-2017.   Coach Mike was Volunteer Asst Coach at Georgetwon & George Washington 2017-2019.  Coach Mike then moved to be Assistant Coach at Binghamton University 2019-2024.    While there Mike was also the Head Masters Coach at their club team there.    While at Binghamton Coach Mike's teams were 2x Men's America East Champs, 2x Coaching Staff of the Year, had 4 Indiviual & 5 Relay Conference Records and 10 school records.    Mike is married to Lauren and they have a                and a dog, Nala

Coach Stephanie swam club for 14 years, including in high school and college. She swam for Colorado State all 4 years on an athletic scholarship and was team captain her senior year. She began coaching at Autumn Ridge when she moved back to Ft Wayne in 2016. The following fall she started at TRAC with the Platinum group. She was chosen to coach the 11-12 age group at the Mid State Championship meet in 2024. She has led Pocahontas swim club to second place finishes as well as grown their team to more than double from when she stated. Stephanie has coached top 10 placing athletes at Age Group State as well as Senior State. She coached Snider boys and girls swim team in 2017 and led them to become SAC Champions and she also had swimmers place top 16 at the High School State Championship meet. She has coached Luca McGee to two SAC records. In addition, she has also coached Olympic Trial qualifier, Finn Brooks and Paralympic Trial qualifier, Cali Prochaska.  She is married to Carlton and they have 3 kids together; Kieran, Koa, and Kalei.

Coach Bryce is a native of Fort Wayne.   Bryce was a 4-year varsity swimmer at Homestead HS.    Bryce studied Psychology at Indiana university.   He has been involved in swimming since 2005 as  swimmer, coach and manager for several different teams, including SCA. POCO, Indiana University, Fort Wayne Country Club and he is the current Head Coach for Concordia Lutheran HS.   Bryce's experince ranges from learn-to-swim lessons to collegiate & national level competitions.   Bryce is recently married.    Bryce is excited to pursue his passion of swimming and is looking forward to being a role model & supporting the FORT swimmers.

Ciana has been involved in swimming for 18 years. She began swimming at 8 years old and was one of the original members of NACS/FORT Swim Team. Ciana graduated from Carroll High School where she was a multiple State Meet qualifier and still holds the 100 breaststroke school record. She then got a scholarship to swim at the University of Toledo, where she received the spirt and hardest worker awards.   Ciana was the head coach at Club North Pointe from 2015 to 2018. She also was an assistant coach for the University of Toledo in 2018-19, where she worked with the swimmers in the pool and in the weight room. Ciana has a BS in Exercise Science from UT and is working towards a master’s degree in Kinesiology Sports Performance from Ball State University. She is currently a certified personal trainer through NSCA and works at RISE Fitness. Ciana is excited to help athletes reach their goals.

• 2023-24 Indiana Swimming Represnative for USA Swimming's  Women Swim Coaches in Governance 
• 2023 Team Indiana Coaching Staff at Dual in the Pool

• 1997 Graduate of Concordia Lutheran High School where Joe was an All American Swimmer.
• Swam for and graduated from Indiana University.
• Currently teaches at Leo.
• Previously coached summer league here in Fort Wayne, club coach in Wisconsin and High School coach in Colorado.
• Joe has been an assistant coach on FORT for 3 years and is now in his second year as Lead Silver Group Coach.

Coach Ronda has coached as a 10-under coach for ten years at a couple local area swim teams.   She loves working with kids and helping them master new skills and techniques-strokes, starts and turns.   She believes learning how to swim and be water safe is extremely important.   She loves having the swimmers learn and grow and have lots of fun going it.   Ronda has been a NICU nurse for 27 years.   She and her husband Eldon have six children-Leiah, Jonah, Mercy, Jarah, Micah and Jaiel.

Angelina grew up in Oklahoma City and was in club swimming for many years, as well as a summer league coach and private swim instructor.  Angelina was recruited to swim breaststroke at Purdue and swam there for 4 years while getting a degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering. Angelina says "I am most excited to pass on my love of swimming to young athletes with Fort Wayne Wayne Swim Team- I hope to inspire them to find a community in swimming and help them to find success in and out of the water".