Tracey Blaine
Head Coach,Swimming

Rich Gordon
Assistant Coach, Swimming

Rich has been teaching seventh grade science at Robinson for eight years, but his passion for swimming dates back to his youth. He swam summer league for Freedom Park from 1978-1989, the last two years of which he served as assistant coach.

He returned to summer swim from 1990-1997, this time as head coach for the Holmes Run Acres Hurricanes. Here he helped the team win four division titles and two consecutive relay carnivals. In 1999, Rich was named the head coach for the Hamlet Green Feet. His success with the team in 2000 includes capturing fifth place in the NVSL league-wide relay carnival - an impressive feat for a Division 2 team. While it's not surprising the team rose to Division 1 the following year, it is nonetheless impressive that Hamlet finished fourth place its first year in this fiercely competitive division - out swimming two long-standing Division 1 teams.

Rich has been a great complement to the Robinson coaching staff, working closely with head coach Tracey Blaine in the impressive wins last year. He returns for his fourth year as an assistant coach for the Rams.

John Appleman
Head Coach, Diving

John has been coaching diving for the past five years at all levels from summer league to U.S. Diving. He began coaching at the age of 15 at Commonwealth Swim Club as the assistant dive coach. The following summer, he took the reigns of another NVSL team, Rolling Hills Swim Club, as the head dive coach and led them to an undefeated season in Division 2. This was a huge accomplishment for a first year head coach-yet alone one that was 16 years old. That winter he started his U.S. Diving coaching career with York Dive Club assisting with novice divers as well as children at the JO level. In the summer of 2001, he returned to Rolling Hills and coached them in Division 1. The following summer, he switched teams to coach North Springfield Swim Club, another Division 1 team. Last year, in addition to coaching with York Dive Club, John coached with Patriot Dive Club at George Mason University. He also began coaching the Robinson High School dive team in 2002-03- the year swim/dive team won its first VHSL AAA state championship. He looks forward to continuing that success for seasons to come.

John started his diving career at the age of seven with Lakeview Swim Club, since his summer pool did not yet have a dive team. Due to his great passion for diving, his father started a team at Commonwealth Swim Club, and at the age of eight he began diving for that team. At 13, he began his U.S. Diving career with York Dive Club and continued diving there until graduating from high school. As a U.S. Diver, John competed at the national level completing his U.S. Diving career with a top 30 finish at nationals. John also competitively jumped trampoline and in 1998 was the U.S. Trampoline Champion for his age group. John dove in high school for Robinson from the 1997-98 season to the 2000-01. As a member of this team, he helped the men's dive team to four consecutive state diving championships. All four seasons he was a state finalist finishing at least in the top six every year. During this time, the swim and dive team went undefeated in the Patriot District never losing a dual meet or District Championship. After graduating from high school, John continued his diving career at N.C. State University. While there, he suffered a season ending injury. As a result, he transferred to George Mason University and is continuing his diving career there. As a member of the GMU dive team, John was able to qualify for the NCAA Zone B championships and finaled on the one and three meter events. He also holds all the diving records at GMU.