Coaching Staff
Bill Garrels
Head Coach
Bill is an accomplished athlete finishing every race he has started from 2x Horsetooth 10k swim finisher, 2x Hawaii Ultraman finisher, Hawaii IM, and numerous other crazy events over the last 25 years.
He loves sharing the fun and excitement of training, racing, and learning how to reach your personal goals, and beyond!
Specialties: Open water swim psychology, triathlon, and beginners. Chief hugger and motivator.
Carole Sharpless
Coach Manager
Carole was born and raised in Maryland.
She is an Olympic Trials qualifier in the 200 back and swam for the University of North Carolina where she majored in psychology.
Carole is a former professional triathlete. During her tenure she held the Ironman Louisville swim course record, and holds 5 top-five Ironman finishes, placing 2nd at Ironman FL 2006.
She also maintains the record for the most amount of broken bones from bike crashes...:).
In her downtime, she enjoys playing the jazz flute, beatboxing, video games, and creating origami. Carole lives in Boulder.
Kimberly Goodell
Assistant Coach, BAM Manager
Kimberly was born and raised in the Bay Area, California. From there she moved up the coast and graduated from Willamette University in Oregon with a B.A. in Digital Imaging.
She has a lot of experience coaching USMS swimmers. Since 2012, she has been a USMS Masters Coach in Madison WI, Menlo Park CA, San Jose CA, and now Boulder, CO. Since 2018, Kimberly has also been a USA Swimming age group coach and swim instructor in Boulder. Her experience does not end there! Currently, she is also the Head Coach for CU Boulder Swim Team, and she is a Triathlon Coach with LifeSport Coaching (online endurance coaching).
Kimberly swam non-competitively on her competitive high school team, and then she found her love for triathlon in 2004. As of 2023, she has completed 104 triathlons. She raced professionally from 2016 to 2022.
​Kimberly's goals as a BAM coach are to tap into whatever excites people about swimming (improving skills, making muscles burn, spending time with friends, practicing math, etc.) and to keep swimmers motivated and engaged with workouts that meet those needs.
Glynde Mangum
Assistant Coach
Glynde (pronounced: Glenn) is an accomplished swimmer, triathlete, and entrepreneur. He was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and raised in northeast Louisiana.
Glynde was a member of the USA National Swimming Team and an Olympic Swimming Trials Finalist in 1984.
He was also an NCAA All-American at Southern Methodist University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration from the SMU Cox School of Business. To add to all of this, Glynde lived and worked in Japan from 1987 – 1999 and speaks fluent Japanese. He was the head coach of the People’s Swimming School in Japan and coached two swimmers to the 1988 Seoul Olympics where they set national records.
He was also on the USA National Triathlon Team and competed internationally as a professional triathlete from 1991 to 1997.
He and his three boys: Jackson, Tucker, and Cooper love the year-round active lifestyle that Boulder allows. Glynde loves all forms of swimming and thrives on sharing that passion with others.
Megan Coney
Assistant Coach
Megan was born and raised in Colorado and started swimming at age 8.
She has a B.S. in environmental engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and is starting her M.A. in educational psychology this summer!
Megan has been coaching swimming since she was 16, and she currently works as a high school science teacher and is the head swim coach for the girl's and boys' swim teams at the school.
Megan started racing triathlons in college and has completed several 70.3 and just finished her first Ironman in May. She has two 70.3 age group wins and has also competed at Ironman 70.3 World Championships.
When she's not teaching or on the pool deck, Megan loves a good bike ride, hanging with her dog, Goose, and trying new recipes!!
Gwynnie LaMastra
Assistant Coach
Gwynnie was born and raised in Atlanta, GA. Growing up, she swam with Dynamo Swim Club and qualified for Junior Nationals.
She swam at Johns Hopkins University where she majored in Behavioral Biology and was captain her senior year. While at Hopkins, she qualified for NCAA Championships all four years and was an All-American. She still retains the team records for the 100 and 200 yard breaststroke. While her main focus was on breaststroke, she has experience in all four strokes and open water swimming.
She is now a triathlete with a 70.3 Ironman and full Ironman on the calendar for this year and will be attending the University of Colorado - Boulder for an MBA and Masters of the Environment dual degree program.
She also enjoys hiking, camping, and traveling!
Darren De Reuck
Assistant Coach
Coach Darren has a wealth of knowledge and experience in and out of the pool. He has worked with all levels of athletes, from club level to elite, and all ages and abilities. He has been coaching swimming since 2015, and he provides the Boulder triathlon community with top notch coaching coming from being a triathlete himself.
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Not to age Darren too much, but he has been a competitive athlete for over 40 years, and he has also coached runners for over 30 years. He strives to infuse his workouts with all strokes and IM to challenge and engage BAM members.
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He has also served as an integral training partner and coach to his wife, 4-time Olympian Colleen De Reuck since 2000.
Pete Nestel
Assistant Coach
Pete grew up in New York and Vermont, still Colorado has always felt like home and where he has spent the majority of his life.
As a toddler back east, he learned how to swim from his father who swam at Purdue. Pete was nicknamed “Fish” at 8 years old, already showing his skills in the water and his competitiveness as a youth swimmer.
He attended Stony Brook University and competed as both a swimmer and diver. The distance events always had a special draw for Pete, hence developing a passion for the sport of triathlon after college, motivating him to compete over the next 20+ years as a top age group triathlete. As the relatively new sport of triathlon evolved and matured, so did Pete. He soon began a natural transition to coaching… sharing his knowledge, experience and his passion with other master’s swimmers and triathletes.
In 2005 he was named Head Men’s and Women’s Swim Coach at Purchase College – State University of New York. Over the next 15 years at Purchase college, Pete earned Coach of the Year awards 5 times and remains to this day, the winningest coach in the history the school. Pete believes swimming is a great way to enjoy the feeling of working your whole-body system, practicing breath control all the while feeling weightless with near zero impact. He coaches all ages, abilities, sizes, shapes, skill levels and genders to be a fish like himself; Pete has a keen eye for the biomechanics and skills in the water and helping everyone find the “Fish” in them!
Coaching at BAM is a wonderful opportunity for Pete to work with a broad range of competitive swimmers and triathletes and share decades of knowledge, experience and his unending love of the water and sport of swimming.
Tiffany Forbes
Assistant Coach
Tiffany grew up swimming in Indiana, and she attended undergrad at Southern Illinois University – Carbondale. A shoulder injury made for a very short collegiate competitive career, but it also served as a motivating factor in my coaching philosophy. It became a personal goal to coach swimmers in a way that did not lead to compromised shoulders.
On the path to creating that philosophy were many stops along the way, interacting with many who were influential in the final philosophy. These stops included 🡪
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a position with USA-Swimming doing research with Olympic athletes; (1987 and 1988/89)
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a graduate degree in Exercise Physiology while head-coaching an age group team, and coaching with BAM; (1989 -1998)
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work with former Olympians Jim Montgomery and Jerry Heidenreich, and master coach Bobby Patten in Dallas, TX; (1998/99)
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working for the Olympic Club in the Bay Area, with many former Olympians; (1999 fall to 2001 spring)
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working for BAM and founding and running the Boulder Swimming Academy, a swim school focused on swim lessons, off-season swim clinics for the local BVSSL swimmers, and adult learn-to-swim classes. Some video analysis was also done on request; (2001 to 2011)
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6 years working with nationally renowned stroke technician Steve Haufler at Orinda Country Club, and caoching masters with Orinda Aquatics. Other coaching influences: Karen Moe Humphreys, two-time Olympian (1972 and 1976), and Cal Women’s head swimming coach from 1983 to 1999. Also Sheila Taormina, my swim technique idol.
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on staff with USA-Synchro (now Artistic Swimming) National team from the fall of 2014 through December of 2019
In the 90’s and early 2000’s, I competed regularly in masters swim meets, and some open water. Since moving from Boulder in 2011, competition subsided, and fitness fell away while work took over all time. I’m happy to be back in Boulder, working towards better fitness, and enjoying swimming with a group of great people again! I look forward to being a part of BAM again, the best masters program I’ve encountered in the country.
Simon Lessing
Assistant Coach
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Over twenty years of experience competing as a professional triathlete gaining both national and international recognition.
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Athlete advisor to the British Triathlon Federation.
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Resident athlete at the British National Training Centre, University of Bath, England.
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Founder and owner of Boulder Coaching LLC coaching all levels of ability. (2008 to present.)
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Masters swim coach at Flatirons Athletic Club and CAC Boulder.
(2009 to present.)
Career Highlights
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5 Time World Triathlon Champion.
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3 Time Vice World Triathlon Champion.
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3 Time European Triathlon Champion.
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2 Time Goodwill Games Gold Medalist.
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Member of Team Great Britain in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
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Member of Team England in the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games.
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Winner of over 200 professional races.
National and International Awards
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Inducted into the 2014 International Triathlon Union Hall of Fame. (International governing body for the sport of triathlon)
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Inducted into the 2012 Boulder Sports Hall of Fame.
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Awarded the title of Member of the British Empire (M.B.E) at Buckingham Palace by Queen Elizabeth II for contribution to sporting excellence.
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British Triathlon Gold Pin Award for significant and long-standing contribution to triathlon.