Pinole Seals Swim Team

Millie Hancock joined the Seals as a 5 year old and aged out last year at age 18. She played two years of water polo and swam for Diablo Valley College. She is currently studying Business at Sonoma State University. Millie began coaching at age 12 as a volunteer junior coach for the Seals and continued doing that for 6 years until she was offered an assistant coach position in 2023. Along with coaching the Seals, she also helps coach the Pinole Valley High School swim team! The Seals have been a huge part of her life for as long as she can remember. She is so excited to continue being part of the team and is looking forward to a great season! (And the kids are so excited to have her back!) 

A Bay Area native, Matt started swimming when he was 6 and swam competitively with San Ramon Valley Aquatics. He played water polo at the University of Iowa, and also coached on a local year-round age group swim team while in school. Matt is also a former coach and swimmer with the Davis Aquatic Masters. Matt has two kids Amelia(10) and Ella(7) who previously swam with the Seals, and now swim on Albany Armada Aquatics. Matt enters his 4th season coaching the younger Seals.

Alex Ziem swam for the Seals for 13 years. She’s been involved with the Pinole Swim Center as a lifeguard and swim instructor for the past 6 years. Alex is a sophomore at SFSU studying criminal justice with a minor in sociology. She was an assistant coach during the Seals fall Clinic last year and continued mentoring kids by teaching private swim lessons throughout the winter. Not only will Alex be on the deck coaching the Seals this season, she is also the pool manager and city swim lesson coordinator! 

Jack Bañuelos was a Pinole Seal for 8 years. He currently attends DVC and is on their water polo and swim team. 2022 was Jack’s last season on the Seals and he enjoyed providing his teammates with helpful insight and tips when they asked. After seeing them reach their goals and get the times that they wanted, it really inspired him to want to be a coach. This will be Jack’s second season as a coach. 

Mark started swimming at age four taking lessons at Canyon pool swim school. He began competitive swimming at age nine for two years on the Crocket swim team. In the mid seventies he joined Silvercreek (now Pinole Seals) when the community pool opened up its team to the general public. During his teen years he was a lifeguard and taught swimming at the Pinole pool and at Canyon Pool Swim School in El Sobrante. He later coached for several years swimming and water polo at Salesian High School and this year is part of the coaching staff of Pinole Valley High School. For the last several years he has been the Seals starter at home meets and is excited now to contribute to the team as part of the coaching staff.

Laura Feeney joined a swim team in Pennsylvania for the first time in 8th grade and, since then, has swam on teams in California, Morocco, Ecuador, and England. She played club water polo in college in Massachusetts and joined her first Masters swim team when she moved to California at age 22. Laura is a middle and distance freestyler who loves open water swimming with a strong preference for warm water, but has swam from Alcatraz to Aquatic Park twice. She’s a member of the Manatee Aquatic Masters team in Emeryville where she begrudgingly drives to practice before dawn, but never regrets it by the time she drives home to Pinole. She tries to plan her vacations around swimming whether it’s exploring the waters off Hawaii, Greece, Baja or visiting local lap pools. Her kids, Kai (8 YO) and Rae (5 YO) will be joining the Seals for their second year and she hopes they, too, will become lifelong swimmers.

Serena Horn grew up in southern CA and swam competitively there from ages 5-22. She competed 4 years for UC Irvine, specializing in 100, 200 fly and 100 back. Serena has coached girls frosh-soph and various swim clinics. She also enjoys open water swimming, and worked and competed as an ocean lifeguard for 6 years.