Meet Your Coaches
Vicky West
Vicky grew up in Redlands, California and now hails
from Hertford, North Carolina. She has swam for clubs and schools in
California including Northwestern University where she earned her bachelor's
degree in psychology. She also earned her master's degree in kinesiology
from Cal State Long Beach. Vicky has experience swimming for the United
States National Team as well. She has been a swim coach for 22 years and
she won the ASCA Age Group Coach of the Year for SoCal Swimming. Her
hobbies include swimming, stand up paddle boarding, painting, photography and
scuba diving. Vicky's advice to her swimmers is to have fun because
swimming is an activity that can be done for the rest of your life!
Josh Dreano
Josh grew up in Virginia
Beach and swam for Bayside High School. He has been working for the City of
Virginia Beach as a lifeguard since 2013 and became a Water Safety Instructor
in 2014 and has been assisting with coaching ever since. This is Josh's second
year coaching for the Gators. Outside of the pool, he doesn't stay inside
because he's surfing, fishing, or most likely out playing/teaching disc golf.
Josh's advice to his swimmers is always put your best effort forward. When you
give more effort than you think you can, you've created new limits to break.
Roberta (Roby) Hudgins
Roby grew up in Naples, Italy and started swimming at
the sporting club, San Gorgio, in Italy. As she got older, she swam
competitively in middle and high school on a year-round team. She
competed at a national level in Italy, with the 100-meter butterfly being her
best event. Roby has traded in her competitive swimming days for offering
swim instruction to both adults and children, and has been a Water Safety
Instructor for eight years. This year marks Roby's seventh season as a
coach for the Great Neck Gators. She coached Broad Bay swim team over the
summer and learned more working with coaches from Cox High School while at
Broad Bay. She enjoys spending time with her family, company and
photography. Roby's advice for swimmers is to remain focused, try hard,
and most importantly, have fun.
Billy Campbell
Welcome to the team! I am your swim team
representative. I have worked for parks and recreation for over 10 years
now. I spent 5 years as lifeguard, coach, and swim/surf instructor with Virginia Beach, 2 years
as pool manager and training instructor for the City of Norfolk, and I returned
to the City of Virginia Beach of as a recreation specialist. I have a personal
training and fitness certification earned from Tidewater Community College.
I grew up right here in Virginia Beach and love the community I serve. I
am an avid sports fan, CrossFit enthusiast, and outdoorsman. My advice to
our swimmers is focus on fitness and other skills will become easier.
Great Neck Swim League Supervisor: Billy Campbell
Swim League Coordinator: Karen Connolly