YMCA Sharks swim coach captures USA Swimming Coach of the Year Award

BEVERLY — The USA Swimming National Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee has chosen YMCA of the North Shore’s Sharks Head Coach Dave Modzelewski because the recipient of the 2025 Jimi Flowers Disability Coach Of The Year Award at a latest awards ceremony in Denver.
This prestigious award, established in 2009, acknowledges coaches who show an distinctive dedication to selling the inclusion of swimmers with disabilities and advancing incapacity swimming inside their teaching sphere.
“I am so honored to have been selected for this award,” stated Modzelewski. “I feel so lucky to be recognized for doing something that I love.
“Through this amazing sport, I have had the opportunity to meet and train with so many incredible athletes who inspire me and encourage me to continue to do my part to spread awareness about this community of elite athletes,” he added. “My sincere thanks go to USA Swimming & US Para Swimming for this award, and to the YMCA of the North Shore for their support to be able to pursue this side of the sport.”
Modzelewski, who lives in Beverly and has been with the YNS for the final 4 years, serves as head coach of Competitive Aquatics for the YMCA of the North Shore Sharks Swim Team, in addition to the New England LSC’s Disability Coordinator.
He has additionally been on employees for quite a few Para swimming occasions, together with the 2022 Allianz World Championships, 2023 Parapan American Games, and was Team USA’s Head Coach for the CITI Para Swimming World Series in Scotland.
Modzelewski was certainly one of solely eight coaches chosen by the U.S. Paralympics Swimming to function an Assistant Coach for the 33 American swimmers who competed within the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.
Most not too long ago, he was named head coach of the Team USA Para World Championship Team, main Team USA to 18 Gold Medals (3x greater than the final Para World Championships) and a second place end on the Medal Table.
“Dave’s dedication to our swimmers with disability goes beyond the pool,” USA Swimming’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Team stated in an announcement. “From coaching achievements at the international level to his efforts pushing grassroots initiatives, his unwavering dedication to advancing inclusion for swimmers with disabilities has created meaningful change at the local, regional, and national levels.”