Bill Brenner is USMS’s new Club and Coach Services Director, and he is dedicating himself to expanding the quantity and quality of our local clubs and coaching. A mid and long distance freestyler who also places well in the longer breaststroke events, Brenner, 53, swims for the Sarasota YMCA Sharks and has also served as meet director for numerous Masters meets. A longtime Masters swimmer and coach who has a Level 2 Masters coach certification, Brenner is a natural leader who demands excellence of himself and those around him. Brenner has been an active board volunteer within the Florida LMSC and has served as its Top 10 recorder. He has also attended the last three annual conventions and has been a member of both the Championship Committee and the Coaches Committee.

With “clean burning fuel” and a sprinter’s mentality, Becky Fenson swam the recent 10K Little Red Lighthouse Swim in New York’s Hudson River all butterfly. For the second time.

Fenson, 44 and a part of the Virginia LMSC, was a meat eater and sprint freestyler in college at the University of Michigan. She is neither now, although she says she still tackles her races like a sprinter.

Do you know which USMS program is most popular? It’s not a meet, although Spring Nationals will often get close to 2,000 participants. It is the Nike Go the Distance program. The year-long event has seen tremendous growth since GTD was conceived by the Fitness Committee in 2007. Nike began sponsoring the event in 2009 and offering free prizes for different milestone achievements. Nike wanted to connect with fitness swimmers and encourage them to set milestone goals to keep them motivated. Of course, many competitive swimmers started to take advantage of this great program as well.