Head Team Coach, Senior Elite Lead Coach and Junior Select Co-Lead Coach
Head Coach Mike Parratto is a USA Swimming National Team Coach and the leader of the Riptide staff. Mike is an ASCA Level 5 coach with 42 years of coaching experience. Mike is best known for coaching highly-decorated Olympian Jenny Thompson as well as World Record holder and 2020 Olympian triple medalist, Regan Smith. Mike has been a coach on many National Team trips, most recently on the coaching staff for the 2017 World Junior Championships and the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships. Mike, an American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) Hall of Fame member, and the 2019 ASCA Coach of the Year is internationally renowned for his ability to challenge swimmers across all disciplines.
Senior Elite Co-Lead Coach
Michelle has coached all levels at Riptide since its inception. An elite swimmer herself, Michelle is former captain of the University of MN Women's Swim Team where she received a B.S. degree in Scientific and Technical Communications. She also served as an Age Group and Masters coach with Twin Cities Swim Team at the U of M for eight years. A full-time mother of three, she and her husband are busy with their active teenagers, all who have grown up through Wise and Riptide! She is credited with developing the Wave Swim Team at Wise Swim School and is one of the founding coaches of Riptide. Michelle is an ASCA Level 2 Certified Coach.
Head Age Group Coach, Bronze Lead Coach, Junior Select Co-Lead Coach, Masters Co-Lead Coach, Team Manager and Meet Director
Amy joined the Riptide coaching staff in the fall of 2012. She has coached both swimming and diving since 1983 in New Hampshire and Indiana. Amy is an ASCA Level 4 certified coach. In addition to her coaching duties, she serves as Riptide's team manager. Amy is a graduate of Wellesley College ('83) where she swam and dove all four years and earned a B.A. in Psychology and Studio Art. She is a five-time All-American in diving and was inducted into the Wellesley Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018. Amy and Mike have coached together since 1984. They have two grown daughters - Melissa (33) and Jessica (29), a 2016 Rio Olympian in the indidual and synchronized platform events and 2020(1) Tokyo Silver Medalist in synchronized platform diving. In her spare time, Amy enjoys participating in Riptide's Masters practices, meets and open water swimming.
Gold Lead Coach, Masters Coach
Sissy grew up a swimmer and competed for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She has worked and instructed in the fitness industry ever since. Sissy is a personal trainer who managed the Little Rock Athletic Club and has thirty years of worldwide experience instructing aerobics, step, spinning, body pump, and yoga. She completed two Iron Man triathlons, a 50 mile trail race, and remains a masters level swimmer. Sissy is excited to combine her favorite sport with her passion for bringing out the best in children. Sissy has a son (Hunter) in our Senior Elite program.
Senior Prep Lead Coach
Amanda grew up in Burnsville, swimming for Burnsville Swim Club (now Black Dog Swimming), Burnsville High School and later Minnesota State University, Mankato. As a swimmer, Amanda specialized in distance freestyle, swimming nothing shorter than a 200. Amanda began coaching the Faithful Shepherd Stars swim team in 2018 and joined the Riptide staff shortly thereafter. Amanda has a bachelor’s degree in Community Health, which she puts to use as a Strategic Account Executive at StayWell, a population health promotion company. She and her husband, Paul, have three sons, Charlie (who swims on Riptide), Zachary and Peter. In her free time, Amanda enjoys swimming with the Masters group, crocheting, hiking and camping in the Minnesota woods.
8&U and Rec Team Lead Coach, Clinics and Events Coordinator
Olga grew up in Kazakhstan and attended the University of Business Management and Law where she attained her teaching degree, while expressing her passion for swimming with a local city team. She moved to United States 15 years ago and pursued her desire working with children. Olga shared her swimming experience with young swimmers at one of the MN family-operated swim schools, where she developed and implemented swimming curriculum that helped many children succeed and establish love for the sport for many years. At Riptide, Olga is overseeing community based swim program, developing and running specialized clinics and coaching 8U group. Olga is an active member of MN Swimming and is on the Safe Sport Committee and MN Officials Commitee. Olga is an ASCA Level 4 Certified Coach, who served as Team Minnesota Assistant Coach for Central Zone Championship in 2023. In her spare time, aside from working as a teaching aid in special education program and coaching swimming; Olga loves to spend time with her 3 kids and participate in various activities like skating, snowboarding, mount biking, rock climbing and hiking.
Anthony Schmidt
Silver Assistant Coach
Anthony grew up in Plymouth, MN and started swimming when he was 9 for the New Hope YMCA. After spending a few years with the YMCA and local clubs including Dolphin, Hopkins, and the Mach 3 Flyers, Anthony joined the Wayzata High School Swim and Dive team when he was in 7th grade and continued swimming up to his senior year of high school. After high school, Anthony attended the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and continued swimming for another 4 years, focusing on the Individual Medley and backstroke events. In 2012, he was named to the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s All-Time Swimming and Diving Team. Anthony’s coaching experience includes being the head coach at Hudson High School in Wisconsin, being an assistant coach for the Eagan High School Boys swim team, and last year he helped coach the Senior Prep group. Anthony currently works for Ecolab as a Study Director and lives in Apple Valley with his wife Devyne, daughter Daelynn, and son Darren. Both of their children swim for Riptide and are excited to have Dad on deck.
Silver Lead Coach
Penny's swimming history includes 13 years of competition, including MN state championships, finals at Junior Nationals, and swimming at Big 10 championships as a Golden Gopher. Penny is the lead coach for the Silver Group. A proud parent of a Riptide swimmer, Penny is also a stay at home mom who loves working with kids, helping them learn, and watching and cheering them on as they progress!
Senior Elite Assistant Coach, Lead Senior Group Coach
Ethan started his swimming career with the Red Wing Swim Club when he was 7 years old. In addition to years of competitive swimming, Ethan played water polo both in high school in Illinois and college at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Ethan began his coaching career where he started his swimming career; the Red Wing Swim Club, where he spent his first two years coaching. He later moved to Milwaukee where he got the opportunity to lead SWMKE (Swim Milwaukee) as their Head Coach for 3 years. During his time at SWMKE, Ethan got the unique opportunity to work closely with and learn from ASCA Level 5 coach and former USA Swimming National Team Coach, Bob White. Ethan has a passion for coaching and the sport of swimming, and enjoys challenging, motivating and inspiring swimmers to achieve their best. Ethan is an ASCA level 4 certified coach.
Ray Barriuso
Silver Assistant Coach
Ray began competitive swimming at age 13 where he swam year-round with his local AAU swim team, the East Detroit Seals. He also swam for his junior high and varsity high school swim teams. Never really specializing in any single event or stroke, he swam wherever needed to help the team which usually included the 200 IM, 100 breaststroke, the 100 or 500 free, and the 50 fly on the medley relay. He has trained and competed with masters swimming for most of his adult life both in pool and open water events and helped write and run the workouts for the St Paul YMCA masters swimming program. He took a break from swimming in his forties and earned a black belt from National Karate in Eagan and later was a CrossFit Level-1 Trainer from 2016 to 2021. He retired from his job as a software engineer at the end of 2020 and joined the Riptide Masters swim team in the spring of 2021 where he still loves to swim and compete.
Max Rowland
Assistant Coach
Max Rowland joins the Riptide coaching staff after previously serving as an assitant coach for Edina Swim Club's age-group championship team. Prior to Edina, he enjoyed the opportunity to work with Lake Forest Swim Club in Lake Forest, Illinois, as well as Olympus Aquatics based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Max also serves as an assistant coach for Macalester College Swim & Dive.
A fifteen-year veteran of the sport, Max grew up swimming for St. Croix Swim Club in Stillwater, Minnesota. He graduated from Lake Forest College in 2022 with a degree in Communications. Spending two years as a captain for the Forester swim team, he left the program a seven-time Midwest Conference champion and school record-holder.
Benjamin Fowler
Assistant Coach
I started out swimming for Riptide in 7th grade, where I found out I was a natural breaststroker. I continued swimming throughout middle school and at Apple Valley High School. After high school I continued swimming at Gustavus Adolphus College before coming back to Riptide to help coach the Community Flex swim and with the Bronze and 8&U Groups. My primary stroke is breaststroke, and my favorite event is the 200 Breaststroke. Outside of the pool, I am a manager at Jersey Mike’s. Otherwise for fun, I enjoy building LEGOs and spending time with friends.
Stephanie De Leon
Assistant Coach
Stephanie swam for the Sandpipers in middle school and Team Rebel Aquatics for the University of Las Vegas National team in high school. She later swam in college at Concordia Saint Paul University. Stephanie was a member on the school record 200 medley and 400 free relays. She has an Associates of Arts degree from the College of Southern Nevada and is currently a nursing student aiming for a BSN. Outside of swimming, Stephanie works as a Behavioral Health Tech for HCMC.
Peggy Kratz
Masters Co-Lead Coach
Peggy started swimming competitively at age 11. She attended Hamline University before transferring and graduating from The College of St. Catherine. Her coaching career began in the early 80’s when she became the head swim coach for both Derham Hall and Cretin High Schools. She has been part of the coaching staff for several USS teams, high schools and colleges working with novice to collegiate swimmers. Peggy earned her master’s degree in Exercise Physiology from St. Cloud State University. Currently she works at Fairview Ridges Hospital as a Cardiac Rehab Therapist and has been there for over 25 years. She joined the Riptide Masters Team shortly after it began. As a masters swimmer, she enjoys competing in the pool, open water and occasional crazy e-postal swims. She lives in Apple Valley with her husband.
Wendy Peterson
Masters Coach, Assistant Coach
Wendy Peterson started her swimming career in northern California as a 6 year old and was a competitive swimmer in all strokes until she reached high school where she focused mainly on distance events. She moved to Madison, WI at the age of 13 and swam on her varsity high school swim team for 4 years, setting pool and state records in the 500 freestyle. She also competed at Junior Nationals in numerous events during her high school years. Wendy went on to be a Golden Gopher and swim varsity at the University of MN for 4 years. She is passionate about swimming and has enjoyed competing in triathlons and now open water events as a Riptide Masters Team member. Wendy enjoys working with the younger kids, watching them learn, having fun and improving in the water. She lives in Eagan with her husband and 3 children.
Billing
Cara grew up in Minnesota swimming, but started her swimming career in the 9th grade at Forest Lake High School. She swam competitively throughout high school and continued into college at the University of Wisconsin – River Falls. While at college, Cara was captain of the Falcon Swim Team for 2 years and qualified for Collegiate Nationals her senior year in the 50 free. She participated in her first triathlon while in college and has since competed in numerous marathons, triathlons and to date 4 full Ironman races. In addition to coaching swimming she is also a Personal Trainer and a USA Triathlon Coach. Cara lives in Rosemount with her husband and 4 children. Her daughter, Addison, swims for Riptide and loves to swim backstroke. Cara is passionate about the sport of swimming and triathlon and is excited to share her wealth of knowledge about either sport. When she is not swimming with the Riptide Masters team, you can most likely find her training for a race, teaching a triathlon clinic or watching her kids play sports.
