Leadership. Character. PERFORMANCE.
Orinda Aquatics is uniquely fortunate to have a coaching staff of individuals who have a deep passion and talent for coaching and working with children. Each member of the staff has ties to the origin of the team, either as a coach or a swimmer. They are all extraordinary individuals and exceptional coaches and unduly committed to creating the best program and experience possible.
Ron Heidary
Co-Head Coach/Founder
Senior 4 - ASCA Level 5
ronheidary@gmail.com
Ron has overseen the thirty-member National Group for Orinda Aquatics throughout the team’s history. His ability to develop high-level athletes and create an unprecedented leadership culture has driven Orinda Aquatic’s national success, and possibly the highest per capita National and Futures level performance in the nation. 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 Head Coach of Sleepy Hollow Swim & Tennis Club in Orinda.
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Campolindo High School Swimming is regarded as one of the top high school programs in the nation, finishing as the top public high school in the United States in 2013, finishing second the state of California in 2023, and winning the CIF State Championship in 2026 (with all Orinda Aquatics swimmers).Campolindo has dominated North Coast Section (NCS) swimming over the past thirty years winning an unprecedented 20 NCS titles and producing over 150 High School All-Americans. At the summer recreational level, Ron has won an unprecedented ten championships at the Contra Costa County Swim Championships with Pinole and Sleepy Hollow.
Ron was voted California Coach of the Year in 2006 and has been named the Contra Costa Times Swimming Coach of the Year numerous times, is an NCS Honor Coach, and received the Positive Coaching Alliance Double Goal Award in 2013 (only three recognized nationally). Ron was also voted the Pacific Swimming Age-Group Coach of the Year for 1998. He has been a presenter at several workshops and clinics for swim coaches around the country, including the American Swim Coaches Association.
Matt Ehrenberger
Junior 2 Coach, Program Director, Membership
matt2coach@comcast.net
Matt Ehrenberger has over thirty-five years of coaching experience. His history includes building County Championship teams (seven), and training countless County Champions and finalists with the Pinole Seals and at Sleepy Hollow. Matt has been instrumental to the development and success of Orinda Aquatics, in a myriad of capacities. Matt’s responsibilities at Orinda Aquatics include coaching the Junior Group and overseeing the entire age-group program.
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Matt is also the program director of Orinda Aquatic’s seasonal programs including Fall Swimming, High School Pre-season, Spring Clinics, and the Fall Jamboree, and he oversees membership of the team.
At Orinda Aquatics, Matt has coached numerous nationally ranked, age-group swimmers, as well as Pacific Swimming record holders. He has a highly disciplined and methodical approach to stroke and race development. With a relatively small group (averaged less than fifty swimmers in the Junior Group), Orinda Aquatics has been a perennial top team at JO’s and Far Westerns, and as seen in the ASCA National Age-Group team rankings as the #1 small club in the nation. As the Head Coach of Sleepy Hollow Swim & Tennis Club, the team has remained among the top OMPA and County teams for thirty years.
Tiffany Forbes
Head Masters Coach, Junior 1, Admin Support
tforbes267@gmail.com
Tiffany is well-known (and well-respected) to many in the community as a long-time passionate coach with extensive experience in the broader sport of swimming, from rec at OCC and MCC, and now as the inaugural head coach at the newly formed Orinda Moraga Swim Club, to Masters programs at Orinda Aquatics, Cal, Temescal, and Boulder.
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Tiffany also has extensive learn-to-swim experience, running several swim schools, and she is a certified lifeguard instructor. Tiffany’s knowledge of the sport and her connections run deep throughout USA Swimming and collegiate swimming. She also competed at a national level. Tiffany primarily works with the Junior 1 Group, and she is Head Coach of the Masters program. Tiffany also oversees recruiting and onboarding for new members. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder with an M.S. in Exercise Physiology.
Don Heidary
Co-Head Coach/Founder
Senior 3/Junior 3 - ASCA Level 5
don@orindaaquatics.org
Don has a forty-five-year history in coaching with success at all levels, including summer-league (youth development), high school, and as the Co-Founder and Co-Head coach of Orinda Aquatics, USA Swimming, all in Northern California. He is a World Swimming Coaches Association (WSCA) Board Member, was a two-term President of the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA), served on the USA Swimming Board of Directors, and has served on the Pacific Swimming Board of Directors for twenty years overseeing Club Development and Senior Swimming.
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Don has taught and/or developed the ASCA Level 1, 2, 4, 5 (Small Club’s Guide to Success) certification courses, as well as extensive coursework relating to age-group development, club development, parents, and team culture, and contributed to USA Swimming’s coach education curriculum on character. He has lectured on character, culture, leadership, team travel, and age-group/athlete development at several World Clinics, and club, LSC, and national workshops, for USA Swimming, as well as internationally in China, Africa, Mexico, Ireland, and India. He, with Ron, authored, presented, and donated a 350-page character guidebook to ASCA, and has been a regular contributor to Swimming World Magazine. Don recently authored the coach education manual, The Professional Swim Coach, for the World Swimming Coaches Association, which has been distributed and taught worldwide. He is also an advisor to The Glenmark Aquatic Foundation in India.
In addition to being Co-Head Coach and Co-Founder of Orinda Aquatics, Don was the Head Coach of Miramonte High School’s Varsity Swim Team for thirty years. Miramonte has been one of the most successful teams in North Coast over that period, winning five NCS Championships and placing in the top three twenty-seven times. Don also coached the recreational swim team at Meadow Pool in Orinda for fourteen years, helping develop that program into a dominant Lamorinda team. In 2013 he was awarded the Positive Coaching Alliance’s National Double-Goal (performance & culture) Award. Don is a past North Coast Section Honor Coach, East Bay Coach of the Year, Pacific Swimming Age-Group Coach of the Year, PacSwim/USA Swimming Service Award Winner, 2025 ASCA Top 5 Age-Group Coaches in the nation, and 2026 ORCA recipient of the Lifetime Service Award.
At the age-group level, Don has development numerous nationally ranked age-group swimmers, NAG #1 rankings, Pacific Swimming record holders, and has produced an extremely high per capita level of Sectional and Futures level swimmers at the age-group level, with Orinda Aquatics being recognized as the #1 ranked ASCA Age-Group program for 2025 (small club) in the nation. Don also oversees character, culture and leadership for the age-group program.
Marc Cavallero
Senior Assistant Coach, Fall Program Head
mrcavallero@gmail.com
Marc is a long-time veteran of the sport, as an athlete, and as a coach. After growing up in the local summer-league, Marc became of the original members of Orinda Aquatics, where he was a team leader, a Team Captain, and a national-level breaststroker. He went on to UC Santa Barbara to swim for Gregg Wilson, where he was again a Team Captain. His coaching career began at MTSC (Moraga Swim & Tennis Club).
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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. Marc is the current Head Coach of Moraga Ranch, and has run the programs at Moraga Country Club, Springbrook (two second place County finishes) and LMYA. Marc also has extensive high school experience as the Head Coach of Acalanes High School where he coached numerous All-Americans.
His current involvement with Orinda Aquatics includes coaching the Senior Group (2 & 3), and he runs the Soda site of the Polar Bear/Fall Swimming program and the High School Pre-Season program. Marc’s deck presence and teaching methodology is extraordinary, and has led the Fall program to be highly regarded regionally. Marc has been the developmental coach to thousands of local athletes, many of which have gone on to highly successful careers.
Dave Schurhoff
Senior Assistant Coach
dave.schurhoff@gmail.com
Dave is a long-term veteran of the Lamorinda community with deep ties, and success, at the summer-league, high school, and USA Swimming levels. Dave has coached/run large and dominant program at the rec level in Meadow and Moraga Country Club and has coached the Campolindo High School team with Ron, to numerous NCS Championships.
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Dave has also been a long-time Senior Coach for Orinda Aquatics in the early years, and was the original Masters Coach. Dave is a Senior Assistant coach and will work on specific projects dedicated to Senior swimming. Dave is also a realtor with Compass Realty and lives in Lafayette.
(In Memory) Kati McDermott
Our Coaching Philosophy & Heritage
The coaching staff cannot begin to thank the extraordinary athletes that have not only gone through this program, but have built a powerful culture of character, humility, and leadership. It is these relationships that we are most proud of.
The team has been blessed to have virtually no coaching turnover throughout its history with Matt Ehrenberger and Marc Cavallero supporting the age-group and senior programs since inception, and long-time veterans Dave Schurhoff and Tiffany Forbes rounding out an extraordinary staff.
The Orinda Aquatics staff has a long history of success at all levels of swimming, deep ties to the community, and a strong passion for coaching and working with children. The team is run by its two co-founders, Ron and Don Heidary. Both have had tremendous success at the recreational, high school, and USA Swimming levels. They have a combined 90+ years of coaching experience and are ASCA Level 5 certified at both the USA Swimming and High School levels, and have made an impact on the sport domestically and internationally.
In 1984 with just twelve swimmers, Ron and Don created the Polar Bear (the PB in OAPB) Fall Swimming program for summer-league swimmers. From the Fall Program, in 1995, they created the year-round team, Orinda Aquatics (the OA in OAPB). From a humble beginning with twenty recreational swimmers, the year-round 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. And with less than one hundred swimmers, the team has also won Sectionals, Far Westerns, and the Pacific Swimming Age-Group Championships, and had twelve (current or former) OA swimmers qualify for the 2008 Olympic Trials, with two - Kim Vandenberg (800 Free Relay) and Peter Varellas (Water Polo) making the U.S. team and receiving medals. Other notable team finishes are: third at the 2012 Summer (long course) Junior Nationals (twenty-five points out of first), second at the National Club Swimming Association Junior Nationals (NCSA) at Stanford in 2004 and winning the Western Zone Senior Championship Meet (men & women) in 2019.
Averaging less than 150 swimmers over its thirty-year history, Orinda Aquatics has been a perennial Silver or Bronze Medal Club in USA Swimming's Club Excellence program and is a Level 4 team in USA Swimming’s Club Recognition Program. Orinda Aquatics consistently finishes among the top “smaller” (under 200 swimmers) clubs in USA Swimming’s Virtual Club Championships, at first or second in scoring, among nearly 2,000 teams, with the highest cumulative score.
Additionally, the team has averaged eight to twelve Junior National swimmers, over forty Sectional qualifiers (53 in 2026), and 20+ Futures qualifiers (28 in 2026). Ron and Don have coached over 250 high school All-American/national-level swimmers and thirty Olympic Trial qualifiers.
The team has very little “burn-out” or attrition with 90% of senior swimmers continuing in the sport and with 80% of Orinda Aquatic’s graduating seniors go on to swim in college (and all want to). The culture is extremely positive, driven by humility and respect, and the team does not travel with chaperones. The graduating class has averaged a GPA at 4.0. The overriding philosophy of OA is putting Character First in swimming and in life. Ron and Don have spoken on this topic (character and culture) for The American Swim Coaches Association and for clubs and coach’s associations nationally and internationally. ASCA published their manual on “Putting Character First”.
The coaching philosophy of the team is based on efficient training, discipline, integrity, teamwork, and close personal relationships, with the objective of elongating and maximizing the career of every swimmer. With all of their swimming success, the swimmers remember Orinda Aquatics most for the positive impact it has had on their lives. It is truly a "big picture" philosophy at Orinda Aquatics as life lessons are employed every day, in every aspect of the program.