Team Sponsors

Coaches & Directors

Dave Schurhoff, Donnie Heidary, Matt Ehrenberger, Ronnie Heidary, Marc Cavallero

The coaching staff of Orinda Aquatics brings extensive experience, strong ties to the community, and a deep passion for coaching and working with children. Its two co-founders, Ron and Don Heidary, run Orinda Aquatics. Both have enjoyed tremendous success at the recreational, high school, and USA Swimming levels. They have a combined over 60 years of coaching experience and are ASCA Level 5 certified at the USA Swimming and High School levels.

Ron and Don created the Polar Bear Fall Swimming program in 1984 with twelve swimmers. The program currently hosts over 500 Fall Swimmers in the Lamorinda area. In January of 1995 they created the year-round team, Orinda Aquatics, from the fall program. From a humble beginning with twenty recreational swimmers, the program has achieved remarkable success. In the year 2000, Orinda Aquatics was possibly the youngest and smallest team to ever win Junior Nationals (short course in Anchorage, Alaska). Orinda Aquatics qualified twenty swimmers for the long course Junior Nationals that year and had the second most entries in the meet, again with a team of less than 100 swimmers. The team qualified six swimmers for the Summer Nationals in 2002 and four for the Spring Nationals in 2003. The team has also won Long Course Sectionals, Far Westerns, and the Pacific Swimming Age-Group Championships, and had twelve (former) OA swimmers qualify for the 2008 Olympic Trials, with two - Kim Vandenberg (800 Free Relay) and Peter Varellas (Water Polo) making the team and receiving medals. As mentioned earlier, the team achieved a Silver Medal in 2006 in USA Swimming's Club Excellence program, and finished first for teams under 150 members in USA Swimming's Virtual Club Championships in 2009. Ninety percent of Orinda Aquatics's graduating seniors go on to swim in college. The group in 2010 graduated with an average GPA of 3.8 (see senior list and letters).

The Head Age-Group Coach is Matt Ehrenberger. Matt is life-long friend of Ronnie and Donnie with over twenty years of coaching history with the two. Matt is regarded as one of the top age-group coaches in Pacific Swimming.

The coaching philosophy of the team is based on efficient training, motivation, discipline, integrity, teamwork, and close personal relationships. With all of their swimming success, the swimmers remember Orinda Aquatics coaches most for the positive impact it had had on their lives. It is truly a "big picure" philosophy at Orinda Aquatics as life lessons are employed everyday, in ever aspect of the program. The overriding theme is CHARACTER FIRST.

Coaching Staff

Ron Heidary

Co-Head Coach/Founder

In addition to being Co-Head Coach and Co-Founder of Orinda Aquatics, Ron is the Head Coach of Campolindo High School in Moraga, and was the Swim Team Director for Sleepy Hollow Swim & Tennis Club in Orinda. Campolindo High School has dominated North Coast Section (NCS) swimming over the past eight years winning an unprecendented seven NCS titles and producing over 25 High School All-Americans. Campolindo High School Swimming is regarded as one of the top high school programs in the State and Ron was voted California Coach of the Year in 2006. After the 2003 high school season, Ron was named the Contra Costa Times Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year and in 2005, Ron was named the Contra Costa Times Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year. At the summer recreational level, Ron has won an incredible ten championships at the Contra Costa County Swim Championships with Pinole and Sleepy Hollow. Ron was also voted the Pacific Swimming Age Group Coach of the Year for 1998. Ron also managed the renowned Canyon Pool Swim School for five years. He has been a presenter at several workshops for swim coaches around the country, including the American Swim Coaches Association. Ron is a 1984 graduate of UC Berkeley with a BA in Economics and was a member of the Varsity Water Polo team.

Don Heidary

Co-Head Coach/Founder

Don is co-head coach and co-founder of Orinda Aquatics. In addition, he serves as the head coach of Miramonte High School’s Varsity Swim Team. Miramonte has been the most successful team in North Coast or the past two decades, winning five NCS Championships since 1990. Don also coached the recreational swim team at Meadow Pool in Orinda for fifteen years, helping develop that program into the dominant Lamorinda team. Don recently spoke at the ASCA (American Swim Coaches Association) World Clinic on "Selling the Vision - Building the Team" and Commanding the Workout". Don is a ASCA Level 5 coach for US and High School swimming, and was the North Coast Section Honor Coach in 2004. Don is a 1984 graduate of UC Berkeley with a degree in Political Economy, and he was a member of Cal’s Varsity Water Polo team.

In addition to coaching, Don has worked as an Institutional Equity Trader for the past 20 years at Charles Schwab, Robertson Stephens, and currently part-time for Eastourne Capital Management in San Rafael.

Matt Ehrenberger

Head Age-Group Coach

Matt Ehrenberger brings over twenty-five years of coaching experience to Orinda Aquatics. Matt is Head Age-Group Coach with complete responsibility for the development of the Junior Group, and he is the Director of the Orinda Aquatics Polar Bear Fall Program. Additionally, Matt is the Head Coach of Sleepy Hollow Swim and Tennis Club in Orinda. Matt began his coaching career with the Pinole Seals recreational swim team and was an integral part of their seven Contra Costa County Championships. Matt’s Junior Group swimmers from Orinda Aquatics are consistently among the best prepared and fastest in Pacific Swimming. Matt is an ASCA Level 3 Caoch and a 1990 graduate of Sacramento State University with a degree in Physical Education.

Dave Schurhoff

Assistant Coach, Senior Group

Dave Schurhoff currently assists witht the Senior Group of Orinda Aquatics. Dave has been with OA for many years and has served in various capicities. He was our original Masters Coach and has been one of the cornerstones of the successful Fall Swimming program for many years. Dave is currently the Co-Head Coach of Moraga Country Club, a team of 375 members, and is the Co-Head Coach of the NCS dominant Campolindo High School swim team. Dave has been coaching in the Lamorinda area for over 15 years and is 1996 graduate of UC Davis.

Marc Cavallero

Assistant Coach, Junior Group

Marc grew up in Moraga swimming for the Moraga Tennis and Swim Club from ages 4 through 14. At 15 he moved on to year-round swimming with Orinda Aquatics where he was a team leader and a Team Captain. He swam for Orinda through high school (3 years at De La Salle and 1 year at Campolindo) and went on to swim for Greg Wilson at UC Santa Barbara where he was the Team Captain in his last year (2002-2003). His coaching career began at age 17 as an assistant coach at MTSC (Moraga Swim & Tennis Club). He coached MTSC for 6 seasons, the last two as Head Coach. He spent two seasons as the Varsity Swim Coach at Dos Pueblos high school in Santa Barbara while I was attending UCSB. After graduating, Marc worked for two years at Aqua Stars Swim School in Lafayette, teaching learn to swim lessons while receiving his Master's Degree in Sport Management from the University of San Francisco. His current involvement with OA includes coaching the Junior Group with Matt, and he runs the Springbrook site of the Polar Bear Fall Swimming program. Marc is the Head Coach and Swim Team Director at Springbrook Swim Club. Marc is a former National level Breastroker with extraordinary leadership skills who has made a career commitment to coaching, and Orinda Aquatics is extremely fortunate to have him.