Gary J Crowe
Head Coach
Email
Coach Gary Crowe became the head
coach at Midnight Sun Swim Team in September of 2009. Gary has
been a head coach for 20 years. He has coached all levels of
swimming from the novice to national level swimmers.
Beginning his career in Ketchikan, AK, his pursuit of learning more
and devoted himself to the pursuit of excellence and challenging
swimming to do their best. He has coached in Ketchikan,
Juneau, Champaign and Bozeman.
During his tenure, Gary has coached the female
swimmer of the year for Montana in 2007, the Alaska Swimming of the
year for males in 2001, and the high school male swimmer of the
year in 1991. He was the Alaska Swimming, inc Age-Group Coach
of the year in . He has sent swimmers to nationals, junior
national, sectionals, western zones, and y-nationals. His
girls team finished in third place at y-national in
2003.
Gary has also served in the Alaska Swimming,
Inc. Board of Directors, as the Senior swimming Chair, the Age
Group swimming Chair. He his spare time Gary likes to hike,
bike and fish.
Katie Paglini
Asst Coach
Email
Katie grew up in Chicago, Illinois and swam
competitively from the age of five to twenty two. During her swimming career she
excelled in mid distance Backstroke and IM. She won many Age Group
Championships as well as placing first in Illinois High School
State and Sectionals.
She also finaled at Junior Nationals, Nationals, and the US Open,
and swam at the Olympic Trials in 2000. She received a full scholarship
to Northwestern University, and graduated in 2006 with a degree in
Communication Studies.
Throughout Katie’s swimming career, she
has been involved with the development of young swimmers. She has taught lessons to
kids of many ages, worked at clinics and camps, and assistant
coached her high school team when she finished college. She has always enjoyed watching
young swimmers develop, and reach their goals, and hopes to
continue learning and growing as a coach.
Leah Lipka
Asst Coach
Email
Leah was born in Alaska and raised
in Fairbanks. An MSST alumni, she competed with the team for 12
years. She spent 4 years swimming for West Valley, all of which she
qualified to compete at the state championships. She went on
to attend Brandeis University outside of Boston where she swam
competitively and earned a Degree in Psychology and a minor in Art
History. At Brandeis she excelled in backstroke and IM. Her senior
year she served as a Captain of the Women's swim team, and
graduated with 4 all-time top 10 performances.
As a recent college graduate, she is thrilled to be back with
Midnight Sun and to continue with the sport from another
perspective. Leah looks forward to helping young swimmers develop
and enjoy the sport as much as she did.
