Coaches
Tony Batis: Head Coach and Seniors Coach
Tony has been Head Coach for the Palo Alto Swim Club since 1992. He is only the third head coach in the club’s fifty year history. Prior to joining Palo Alto, Tony was the Head Age Group coach for Salinas Valley Aquatics which was also the club program he grew up in. He was voted Age Group Coach of the Year for Pacific Swimming in 1991 while coaching in Salinas.
As Head Coach for Palo Alto, Tony has had numerous athletes in the Top 16 nationally along with CCS Champions, Junior National Champions, Pacific Record-holders, National Finalist and Olympic Trials Finalist. The program continues to thrive and will be stronger with our new merger with SCRA.
He is a 1988 graduate of the University of Southern California, with a B.S. degree in Business Administration. He also swam at USC for four years and competed in the 1988 Olympic Trials. Tony also manages the swim department of the Palo Alto Sport Shop in downtown Palo Alto.
Ricky Silva: Juniors and Junior+
Ricky began coaching in 1991 in Southern California, where he coached for four years (both high school and age group swimming.) In 1995, he became a coach for both a local USA swim team and a summer league team. Ricky joined the Palo Alto Swim Club in 2001.
Ricky has been actively involved in Pacific swimming during the last eleven years. He was been the head coach for several Pacific swimming elite camps, head coach for the pacific swimming quad team and western zone team and is currently the pacific swimming coaches representative for the age group committee.
As a coach for the Palo Alto Swim Club, he has coached a wide range of swimmers, from novice to top 16 in the country. During Ricky's five years with the club, he had several USA top 16 ranked swimmer, several USA top 16 relays and numerous Far Western qualifiers and finalists. In 2003, he was nominated as Pacific Age Group coach of the year.
He graduated with a BA in Communications from California State University, Fullerton. In addition to coaching for the Palo Alto Swim Club, Ricky is Head Masters Coach for the California Sports Center-Sunnyvale.
Ben Chung: Age Group and Advanced Age Group
Ben is a 2003 graduate of Vassar College where he earned his degree in sociology with minors in French and American Literature. While at Vassar, Ben is proud to have broken 9 school records and to have been selected as captain of the swim team during his sophomore, junior and senior seasons.
Ben has been a part of PASC for the last five years, competing and training with Tony’s senior group during school breaks. During his senior year of high school in 1999, as a member of PASC and the Los Altos High School swim team, Ben finaled at CCS in both the 200 Free and 500 Free, and was part of the 400 Free Relay that also made finals that year. Prior to his involvement with PASC, Ben was a member of the Los Altos Mountain View Aquatic Club for ten years.
Ben has taught at numerous swim clinics and sports camps and coached both Covington Swim Team’s 11-12 age group and SCRA’s Red Group during the summer of 2003.
Tisha Steimle: Sharks and Killer Whales
Tisha came to Palo Alto as Head Age Group Coach in the fall of 1988 after a successful run as Head Age Group Coach for Oregon City Swim Club in Oregon City, Oregon. Currently in her 18th year as a coach, Tisha has coached 15 Junior Championship qualifiers, 2 Senior National qualifiers and 2 Pacific Age Group Record holders. She was nominated for Pacific Swimming’s Age Group Coach of the Year in 1997.
Tisha’s coaching philosophy is to provide the tools and the knowledge to use the tools,
with her swimmers taking responsibility for their actions. Watching
a swimmer achieve his or her first 'A' time is the most rewarding thing
I do. Seeing the self-esteem rise and the confidence of a swimmer grow
is what keeps me coming back to the pool day after day.
Tisha is a 1985 graduate of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Art with an emphasis in drawing and photography.