
Benji E DeMotte
Head Coach
Email
Coach DeMotte became
the AmberJax swimming’s head Coach in March 2007. Among Head Coach Benjamin “Benji”
DeMotte’s greatest accomplishments was coaching one of his
swimmers to compete in the 2004 Olympics in the 50-freestyle, and
recruiting
Binghamton
University
’s first Olympic medalist in the
process. His swimmers hold the Austrian
200-backstroke and Hungarian 50-freestyle records and he has
coached seven All-Americans in Divisions I, II
and
III
. Additionally, he has coached six Conference
Athletes of the Year and earned the Conference Coach of the Year on
six separate occasions. His coaching career holds 11
conference records, 92
Binghamton
team records, six
University
of
Arkansas
team records and he has coached four Binghamton
Athletes of the Year. Benji was the head age group coach
for the Northwest Arkansas Aquatics in
Bentonville
,
Arkansas
. Before that, he held the positions of
assistant coach for women’s swimming and diving at the
University of Arkansas, associate and then head coach for
men’s and women’s swimming and diving at Binghamton and
president of the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Swimming Conference
in Binghamton, New York. Since joining the
AmberJax the club has grown from 14 swimmers 1
facility and 1 coach with a national ranking of
1180th to over 250 swimmers 4
facilities 15 coaches 1 nutritionist, 1 team
administrator and a national ranking of
168th.
Benji earned his Bachelors of Science
in exercise physiology from
Syracuse
University
in 1994 and his Masters in Business Administration
from
Binghamton
University
in 2002.
Cell: 904.735.7417
Pool: 904.396.5751, 1643
.JPG)
Carla Shaw
Administrative Assistant
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Carla Shaw joined the staff of the
Amberjax in the Summer of 2011 and is currently Episcopal’s
Administrative Assistant and works as Receptionist for Episcopal
School of Jacksonville.
Carla has been involved in swimming most of her life. As a
child, she swam at Fort Caroline Country Club, which is now Fort
Caroline Flying Fish in the River City Swim League. She was a
lifeguard, taught swim lessons, assisted with coaching and
administrative duties at University Country Club, now known as The
USA Swim Team in the River City Swim League. Carla became
involved in swimming again in 2001, when her daughters began
swimming at Arlingwood Swim Club. In 2002, Carla became a certified
Swim Official.
Carla’s daughters, Emily and Madison have been members of
the Episcopal Amberjax since 2008.

Stephanie L Schuster
ESJ Gold Group Coach
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Stephanie
Schuster joined the Amberjax coaching staff in May of 2009.
Currently she is an assistant coach for the Episcopal High School
Swim Team and coaches the Gold group at the EHS
location. Stephanie began swimming when she was ten years old in
the state of Alabama with Brian Evans Swim Team. She swam three
years in high school for The Bolles School and their club team. She
is currently earning her bachelors degree in Social Science
Education at the University of North Florida. Coach
Stephanie has been a Coach for Folrida Swimming's All Star Team for
the last 3 years and has been asked to the the head coach for this
elite team in 2013.

Doug Schuster
Program Developemant / ESJ Silver Coach
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Coach Schuster joined
the Episcopal swimming staff in June 2007 as the head Age Group
Coach. Before joining the Episcopal coaching staff, Coach
Schuster most recently was an assistant coach for the Savannah swim
team and served as the head high school coach in Dutch Harbor,
Alaska. He has also been an age group coach with The Bolles
School and the Coast Guard Swim Team in Mobile, Alabama.
Coach Schuster has knowledge and experience in all levels of age
group and senior programs; including seasonal plans, practice
structure, junior coach development, all phases of day or overnight
camps, swim lessons, clinics, home meet preparation,
championship meet prep. Coach Schuster consistently develops
swimmers to their full potential. Year after year swimmer
reach national top 16 awards. Coach Schuster has led the
AmberJax JO team from a 36th place finish to 11th in just 2
years. Coach Schuster is a graduate of
Western Kentucky University and currently serves as
Episcopal’s Director of Campus Safety & Security.
Doug is the AmberJax Director of Club Developement and the Silver
Coach.
Cell: 904.868.1490
Office: 904.396.5751, 1607

George Garcia
ESJ Senior Assistant
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Coach Garcia joined the
Episcopal swimming staff in January 2007. Coach Garcia was a First
Coast high school all-star in Jacksonville. After high school he
attended the University of Florida where he was a team manager for
the Gator swimming and diving teams. Coach Garcia was the
head coach for the Ponte Vedra Country Club swim team and is
currently the Associate Episcopal High School Head Swim Coach and
the Senior Assistant swim coach with the Episcopal AmberJax year
round swim team. Coach Garcia is also in his second year at
Episcopal, teaching History for seventh and eighth
grade.

Andy J Bergren
Masters Coach / Website Manager
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Coach
Bergren joined the AmberJax swimming staff in August 2008 after
wrapping up a successful swimming career at Clemson University.
Coach Bergren was a First Coast high school all-star and state
champion in the 200 I.M. for Wolfson. After graduating high school,
he received a swimming scholarship from Clemson University where he
set numerous school records and received awards for both,
“Performance of the Year” and “Coaches Award for
Outstanding Leadership.” He has extensive experience in the
Jacksonville swimming community and throughout the state of Florida
and still holds Florida age group records and a 13-14 Junior
Olympic record in the 200 breast. He is currently earning his
Masters in Business Administration from the University of North
Florida.

Lauren M Smith
Age Group Coach
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Lauren Smith joined the Amberjax
coaching staff in May of 2011. Lauren had been swimming for
the Episcopal Amberjax since 2004. Lauren graduated from Stanton
College Preparatory School in 2009. While in high school, Lauren
was All-Conference, a state qualifier for 3 years, and holds
numerous school records. Lauren, attended Florida International
University. At FIU, she holds numerous school and was All-Academic
in the Sunbelt Collegiate Swimming Association conference. Lauren
was also awarded for most service hours on her team.

Samantha M Boden
Age Group Coach
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Alyssa Yarbrough
Cecil Age Group Coach
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Coach Alyssa moved to Florida
after high school. When she arrived here her involvement in
swimming began when
she got a job as a lifeguard at Gulf Coast Community College, in
Panama City. After working there for one year, she received
her Water Safety Instructors certificate from the American Red
Cross and began teaching swim lessons. Shortly after, she
became the novice coach for Panama City Swim Team.
While coaching with PCST, she obtained her Level 2
Certification through ASCA. In 2007, she moved to
Tallahassee to attend Florida State. While in Tallahassee, she
coached for Area Tallahassee Aquatic Club. After her graduation
from Florida State, she moved to Jacksonville to attend law
school. she coached the novice and FLAGS swimmers for North
Florida Swimming for two years after moving to Jacksonville.
Currently, she is in her third year of law school,
and finishing the ASCA level 3 test.

Axie Phillips
Cecil Age Group Coach
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Axie Phillips joined the Amberjax
coaching staff in December of 2008 and has been coaching at the
Cecil location since January 2010. She swam competitively for ten
years with The Birmingham Swim League, The Bolles School Sharks and
The Episcopal Amberjax. Along with being homeschooled thru high
school, she competed for and was team captain of the Wolfson High
swim team. She previously coached for five seasons with
JaxParks City swim team and is currently the
JaxParks Swim Team Program Manager. She is
currently finishing her Bachelors of Arts.

Mantha Phillips
Cecil Age Group Coach
Email

Kitzi Friedman
JCDS Age Group Coach
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Kitzi
joined the Amberjax staff in August, 2010, bringing with her 30
years of instructional experience to the club. Originally
from Virginia, she discovered competitive swimming in high school
when her family moved to Oklahoma. She lettered in swimming,
track, and was the feature twirler for the high school
band. At the age of 16, she was off to Wofford College as a
chemistry major, a club swimmer, and a lifeguard/swim instructor at
the local YMCA. Throughout college and graduate school,
academics took priority, but swimming followed a close
second. Her career path led her to NIH in cancer
research laboratories at Ft. Detrick in Frederick, MD, but her
spare time was spent submerged. She and her husband
moved to Jacksonville in 1993 and aquatics became her main
vocation. Since then she has been a familiar face at pools
all over Jacksonville, swimming, teaching and coaching all ages at
UNF, Brooks, numerous country clubs, high schools, backyards
and now JCDS with the Amberjax. She resides in St. Johns
county with her husband and their two (almost grown)
children.

Sanjin Kadric
JCDS Age Group Coach
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Katrina Friedman
JCDS Age Group Coach
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Mike Dingfield
Mandarin Senior Coach
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Coach Mike began coaching at
AmberJax in 2009. Mike swam for Western Kentucky and has many years
of coaching experience. His knowledge of the sport and personable
skills as a parent made him a perfect fit with the team. Mike and
his wife Angie currently have four children swimming on
AmberJax.

Shannon Smithers
Mandarin Age Group Coach
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Shannon joined the Amberjax
coaching staff in August 2007 she worked at our Cecil Field
location with our younger swimmers until December of 2009.
Currently she is at the Jacksonville Country Day School location
where she continues to work with children that are newer to
swimming in our Garnet and Bronze groups helping them to develop
proper stroke mechanics. Every summer Shannon runs our River
City team where both our year round swimmers and summer only
swimmers have a chance to participate in a fun city wide
recreational league. Her son Kyle is a year round swimmer
with the Amberjax.

Cameron J Pfahler
Age Group Coach
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Amanda Singleton
Age Group Coach
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Amanda Singleton
has been swimming in the Jacksonville area since 2003. She began
swimming at Bartram Trail High School, as the teams first home
schooled swimmer. After competing for them for 3 years, she
competed on the first Women’s Diving Team at Bartram Trail
her senior year. Her senior year Amanda signed with Pfeiffer
University on a full ride. She completed her freshman year earning
the title of All-Conference in the Bluegrass Mountain
Conference.
After one year
at Pfeiffer, Amanda returned to Jacksonville to attend and swim for
the University of North Florida, where she is currently majoring in
Nursing. Amanda competed for UNF for one season where she earned
the status of All-Academic in the Costal Collegiate Swimming
Association, as well as being awarded an athletic letter.

Shannon S Blizzard
Age Group Coach
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Shannon Blizzard
has been swimming for the Episcopal Amberjax since 2004 and holds
numerous club records. Shannon graduated from Stanton College
Preparatory School in 2009. While in high school, Shannon was
All-Conference for 4 years, a state qualifier for all 4 years, and
holds numerous school records. Also while in high school, Shannon
was a USA Swimming Scholastic All-American for having over a 3.5
GPA and for having Junior Nationals qualifying times. Shannon has
also qualified for Winter Nationals in the 100 Fly. Currently, she
is attending Florida Gulf Coast University. At FGCU, she holds a
freshman record and was All-Academic in the Coastal Collegiate
Swimming Association conference.