Meet the Team

Because Starfish is a year-round swim school, most of our staff members are swim instructors who teach swimming professionally. Overall, we truly believe that we have the best instructors in the area. They are impressive. Their dedication to teaching is obvious seeing them in the water with your children. We list our Instructor Employment Qualifications to indicate the type of swim instructor you can expect at Starfish: very, very experienced; loves children; wears a smile all day long; sensitive and caring about the needs and fears of their students; arrives and finishes on time, neatly dressed, capable of teaching the last lesson of the day with as much fun and enthusiasm as the first.

Many of our instructors have certifications from other institutions, but all of our staff have their CPR and Life Guard Certifications.

Note: For your child’s safety and your peace of mind, all of our instructors undergo an intense screening before they are hired as a Starfish instructor.

For questions or to check-in about your child's progress, you may send an email. When sending an email, please write the instructors name in the header so we know which instructor to forward your email to. Send an Email to an Instructor

Marc Endres - Aquatics Manager
Marc was born in Texas but didn't move to Colorado until the summer of 1996. Before moving to Colorado, Marc began his swimming career in Germantown, Tennessee at the age of six. After moving to Denver, marc continued swimming competitively for such local teams as Foothills, ACES and STARS. In addition to swimming for year-round clubs, Marc was also a member of the Regis Jesuit swim team in high school. While swimming for Regis, Marc was part of four-state swimming championship teams, one national championship team and was an all-state qualifier as a senior.

After graduating from high school Marc went on to college where he is currently pursing degrees in Economics and Sports Industry Operations from Metro. While attending college, Marc has also been working full-time in the Aquatics Industry because of his love of swimming and being around water. In the past five years, he has taken the necessary steps to obtain his CPO (certified pool Operator) certificate and American Red Cross Instructor
certificate. In addition to obtaining these certificates Marc also coached at Colorado Athletic Club at Inverness and was the Swim Lesson Coordinator at the Lone Tree Rec. Center. Marc is extremely excited to be a part of the Starfish team and looks forward to helping your children learn and excel in the pool.

Diana Olson - Assistant Aquatics Manager
The swimming pool has always been a major part of Diana's life and she is excited to have the opportunity to pass her expertise on to the youngsters at Starfish Swim School. She has been a competitive swimmer and water skier her whole life, swimming competitively through Junior High and High School. Between swim team and school, I received my WSI (water safety instructor certificate) and taught youth swimming at North High School and surrounding pools.

Diana is the proud mother of four and the water and water safety has always been the forefront of their lives. Since Diana's high school days , she recently updated her WSI and currently teach swimming and water safety at Henderson Water-ski Club to some members with visiting guests who may not be comfortable in the water. Diana enjoys teaching children of all ages to have respect for the water, learn to swim, and have fun doing it.

In her spare time Diana continues to compete in local water skiing tournaments and swim events. She also enjoys water sports, winter sports, and family activities, which include her four Pembroke Corgis who are also big fans of the water! Diana looks forward to meeting you and your children for a year filled with lots of instructional fun. She will see you at the pool!

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Victor Milian
Victor Milian was born in Mexico City, Mexico. He is bilingual and a big asset to the children at Starfish that have need an instructor that speaks Spanish. He studied Marine Biology for three years in college and is a father to one daughter.

Victor has spent his life devoted to teaching children the lifesaving skill of swimming. He was trained by Nelson Vargus at Nelson Vargus Aquatica, a premier swim school in Mexico City. He taught lessons there as well as at he YMCA. He moved to California where he worked for 10 years in Valencia, California. He also coached the Santa Clarita Valley swim team and life-guarded.

Victor has a physical challenge which is what took him in the direction of working with children with special needs. He worked with Adaptive Sports and Recreation in Simi Valley, California as an adaptive aquatic specialist.

Mr. Victor, as many call him, is a friendly, hard-working professional. He has assisted in the training of many of the Starfish staff. He is very appreciated and liked by the entire Starfish Staff and most of all, he is loved by his students and their parents.

Sebastian Jarrett
Sebastian is the first student of Ann's to be trained and hired as an instructor. He is incredibly capable and takes great care and concern for each child that he teaches.  His love for swimming led to a competitive swim career in his teen years.

Sebastian is also involved in Sea Scouting where he is pursuing knowledge in the maritime field .  He enjoys the study of piano tuning and website design.

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Andrew Hunt
Andrew Hunt was born in Littleton, Colorado but raised in Greenville, Missouri. He has family living in Idaho, Guam and Louisiana. He is an active outdoors man and and enjoys hiking, fishing, and camping. He states that he grew up playing every sport possible. He has swum and dove competitively.

He attended the University of Mississippi for two years. He life guarded throughout high school and into college. He has a particular interest in teaching swimming because it is his chance to teach a life long skill. He feels that there is a sense of accomplishment that once can get when they learn to swim. To kids not only swimming but swimming well due to his teaching gives him a tremendous sense of satisfaction.

Vivien Simmons
Vivien grew up in Southern California and took advantage of the warm weather to spend every opportunity swimming. As a child, she taught herself how to swim in her grandparent's pool. As a teenager she was MVP of her high school swim team.

Vivien graduated from California State Fullerton with a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal studies with an emphasis in elementary education. During this time she was also a one on one aide at the Learning Academy at Teri Inc., a non public school for children with developmental disabilities.

Vivien is married with three wonderful children. Two of them are three year old twins and the other is a one year old son. It brings her great pleasure to use her educational background in the swimming pool.

James Endres
James was born in Livingston, New Jersey. He is the middle child in his family of three children. At the age of six he began swimming competitively with the Memphis Swordfish. In 1993 his family moved to Colorado. At this time he continued swimming and joined the Foothills swim team and later moved to the Stars at Regis where he swam through high school. He began teaching swim lessons at the age of 15, and was involved as a coach with the Cook Creek Wahoo's summer swim team during the summer of 2009.

 James swam all 4 years of high school on the Varsity team. During his freshman season he swam at Regis Jesuit where his name is on a State Championship title. He also attended Ponderosa High School where he was the Varsity captain his Jr. and Sr. seasons.

James is currently enrolled at the Metropolitan State University of Denver. In his off time he enjoys skiing. He also enjoys watching any and all sports, especially college football and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Bridgett Darnall
Bridgett was born in Denver and moved to Durango when she was ten. Bridgett had the opportunity to raise goats, pigs, horses and corws. She also parcipated in Varsity softball, swimming and Track. Bridgett recently graduated from Colorado State University where she played water polo and studied Spanish. Bridgett also loves to travel and wants to continue to see the world. She has been to many countries but her favorites are Spain and Costa Rica. Her greatest travel aspiration is to go cage diving with a great white shark in South Africa.

Bridgett started swimming competitively at the age of five and was on a team for thirteen years. She recently moved back to Denver and hopes to share her passion for the water with her students.

Mandy Hinkhouse
Mandy started swimming competitively at ten years old. She swam all through out high school and was even captain of her swim team senior year. Her favorite pace was the 500 free style. Her love of the water has led her to teach swimming for the past six years and she can not imagine doing anything else.

Mandy and her husband have a 21 month old, little girl who is the love of her life, and who is enrolled as a student at Starfish.

Currently, Mandy is finishing her degree in business marketing at Metro State. She loves the water, sports in general and snowboarding.

Deyanira Haro
Being a California native Deyanira Haro is instinctively drawn to the water. At the age of 16, Deyanira moved with her parents to Denver.

Pam Scott
Pam graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Early Childhood Education. At this time, she also obtained her WSI (Water Safety Instructor certification). She has been teaching swimming lessons ever since. Pam states, “that she loves to teach children.”  It is her passion, and love in life, to watch children develop, grow, and learn new and exciting things that add meaning, value and enjoyment to life.

After college Pam was an Assistant Director at the daycare / preschool where she grew up. She moved to Denver became the director of two large child care centers. When her own children were old enough to both start school, Pam took a break from working as a director and took a position with United Airlines.  She missed working with children so much that she obtained a job teaching swimming lessons at Heartwood Athletic Club during the summer.  She was furloughed from United Airlines and sought a position with the Cherry Creek School District where she currently works as a preschool teacher at Indian Ridge Elementary. She decided that she needed something to occupy her time in the summer and found her way back to her love of teaching swimming at Starfish Swim School. Pam feels that this is an outstanding program for teaching children to learn how to swim.

Christina DeCrescentis
Christina was born and has been raised in Colorado. She began swimming as a small child and has been a swimmer on her high school swim team for three years. She became a lifeguard this past year as her passion for swimming and water safety continued to increase.

She has loved working with children and has worked in the daycare at Heartwood Athletic Club as well as teaching Sunday school at her church. She was part of the church’s puppet ministry where she traveled and did puppet performances for children of whom most of them lived in orphanages.  

Christina is enthusiastic about becoming a swim teacher and having the opportunity to work with children in the water. When Christina is not working she enjoys listening to music and spending time with her friends.

Heather Jarrett
Heather Jarrett was born in Alaska, but has grown up in Colorado. She began swimming lessons with Ann (Starfish founder and director) at the age of 11 months where she learned how to swim and roll on to her back to float. She has enjoyed swimming ever since and swam on her neighborhood swim team for many years.

John James
John moved to Denver from Fall River, Massachusetts in the fall of 2006. He is originally from Lafayette, Indiana where he began swimming at the age of nine years for a competitive swim club. During his high school years his family moved to New Hampshire where he continued to swim competitively. He helped his team win a state championship during his freshman year.

John attended Purdue University where he swam intramurals. He has been a member of the Theta Chi Fraternity. He has also volunteered with the Big Brothers, Big Sisters organization. He is continuing to pursue his career in engineering or industrial management.

In his spare time John also enjoys playing golf and lacrosse. He enjoys teaching young people how to swim and improve their swimming ability. He looks forward to meeting you and working with your child.

Kaile Roe
Kaile recently moved to Denver from Rochester, New York to try something new and to attend school. She is currently attending classes at the Denver Community College where she is studying to become a radiology technician. She has always had a desire to pursue something in the medical field.

 Kaile swam competitively throughout high school. Her favorite stroke is the butterfly. She also taught swimming lessons throughout this time. She loves watching the faces of children as they discover that they can do something new.

Kaile’s favorite hobbies are swimming, reading and listening to music.

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Jill Sorenson
Jill grew up in Littleton, Colorado and graduated from Columbine High School in 1996. Her two greatest passions in life are swimming and skiing. Since the age of ten years, she has been swimming and diving both in summer competitive swimming and diving teams. In high school she was also a competitive swimmer. After high school she attended Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat Springs where she swam on a masters swim team. By living in the mountains Jill followed her love of skiing and became a better skier.

 In 1998 Jill graduated with her Associates degree and moved back home to Denver. At that time she began working full time and after seven years decided to go back to college and complete her Bachelors in Psychology with a minor in nutrition. She will complete this degree in May of 2009.

In 2006 Jill became a certified scuba diver and went to Cozumel, Mexico to dive, which gave her a different respect for the ocean. In 2008 Jill became the proud mother of Evan which she feels so lucky to have him be a part of her family. Her new goals are making sure he is happy and healthy. Recently, Jill has been training for a triathlon and will hopefully compete in one soon and has more planned for the future.

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J. Evan Venrick
Evan is in his senior year at Metro State College. He is majoring in criminal justice.

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Ramon Hernandez
Ramon was born in Valencia, Spain. He started to swim at the age of five. At the age of nine he began training for the Don Bosco competitive team. He became a swim instructor in 2001 with the Spanish swim federation. In 2006, he began working as an assistant coach for the Don Boscoe team. He had excellent results as a coach in the Spanish championship of that year. After this experience he continued working as a swim instructor for children. He was also an instructor for babies and adults with physical disabilities.

Prior to coming to the United Stated in August of 2008, Ramon was studying Catalonian Philology at the Valencia University. Ramon is married to Laura who works as a Spanish teacher at the Denver International School. Ramon spends his free time training for the Spanish championship of apnea. He is the 3rd of the Valencia community and the 12th in Spain in this modality. He also spends his free time playing other sports such as basketball, water polo, baseball, taekwondo and skiing. Ramon and his wife feel that the United States brings him and his wife great opportunities for the happiness that they have been looking for.

He feels that he must work hard to see great results with his children. He also feels that he must remain friendly and optimistic with the students that he is teaching. He truly enjoys teaching swimming and this is apparent when you watch him teach.

Renee Scott
Renee is the daughter of instructor Pamela Scott. She has been a swimmer since the age of five. She attends Smokey Hill High school where she in in the AP program and has made the honor roll since middle school. She has swam competitively for the her high school but currently swims on the MACS swim team. Renee is a very responsible young lady that along with a busy school and swim team schedule has made the time to devote to her job life guarding here at Starfish.

Russell Johnson
Russell was born and raised in Colorado. He is very close with his mother, who raised Russell and his sister. Russell states that he has been swimming since the age of three years. He began to swim competitively when he entered high school. During his summers Russell has taught swimming lessons and worked as a lifeguard.

Russell will graduate high school in 2009. Russell plans to attend college and would like to pursue a career in fire safety or join the coast guard. When he is not busy going to school or working, Russell enjoys long boarding in the summer and snowboarding in the winter.

Tina Kucharski

If you need to contact Tina you can email her at tina@swimdenver.com

Joanna Michalkow
Joanna was born in Warsaw, Poland, and moved with her parents to New York at the age of twelve. Joanna began her administrative career working at a health club managing accounts, working with the clientele at the front desk and scheduling swimming lessons. She was then recruited by Jim Spiers to be the administrator for SwimJim, Inc, a privately owned swim school in New York City. During the five years that she was employed at SwimJim, she attended and graduated from the Katherine Gibbs School with a degree in Office Administration. While working at SwimJim she also met Michael, whom she married in 2003.

Joanna and her husband decided to move to Denver where they could enjoy a more family-oriented life style.  After moving to Denver, Joanna received a telephone call from her previous employer whom Ann had met at a swim school conference.  He told Joanna of the need for a qualified administrator at Starfish and she was hired soon thereafter.  
Since becoming a member of the Starfish Swim School team, Joanna has attended many USSSA conferences, continually expanding her knowledge and expertise in superior swim school management. Joanna is the mother of twin boys, Jakub and Filip who started in the Tiny Bubbles program in 2005  with mom and dad!  

Joanna is a huge asset to the school because of her caring customer service, organizational skills, and ability to speak Polish to our polish clientele!

If you need to contact Joanna you can email her at joanna@swimdenver.com

Lindsay Folker
Lindsay is a Colorado native. She grew up swimming and was on competitive summer teams.

She graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in political science. Lindsay left Starfish in the summer of 2006 to attend law school in Baltimore. She decided to return to Starfish in an administrative capacity after realizing that her passion was not in law and that she missed the beauty of Colorado.

Lindsay loves swimming and children and has been a part of Starfish Swim School for over three years. She enjoys watching her infant swimmers grow into toddlers that are swimming across the pool and loving the water. Lindsay was active with training new instructors. She has now returned to assisting the Starfish Staff in the office and will hopefully find her way back to the pool for a few hours of teaching. Lindsay looks forward to speaking with and assisting you with scheduling your child's swimming lessons.

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Teresa Gomez
Teresa was born and raised in Colorado and enjoys being out in the great Colorado weather when I get the chance.

She is the mother of a five year old daughter who will be starting kindergarten soon. In her free time she enjoys spending time with her family, reading and cooking.

She has worked in the customer service industry for many years. She has worked at children’s clothing stores and at a day care center where she has assisted many parents and children. She looks forward to meeting the family's and children that attend Starfish Swim School. She especially loves to hear from each child about their progress each day after their lesson.

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Patricia Held - Office Assistant
Bio coming soon.

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