Two new Coaches in the LMSC for the Raleigh Area Masters (RAM)

By Harry DeLong

Raleigh Area Masters has two new coaches on deck. We are fortunate to have for our morning sessions Blake Addison, who gets up at OOOh dark thirty to work the early rising swimmers and Julie Heyde who works the swimmers in the evenings. Both are young, active, energetic and upbeat and a welcome addition to the RAM swim team. I'd like to do a brief bio of each starting with the morning coach.

Blake Addison

Blake started coaching RAM in May. He is currently a Junior at North Carolina State University majoring in Business Administration with a Finance and Entrepreneurship Concentration. He has been coaching swimming for the past 7 years including 3 as an Age Group coach with New Wave Swim Team and 7 years with Planter's Walk (TSA Summer League Team) as an Assistant (5 years) and Head Coach (2 years). He swam with Raleigh's Enloe High School, Planter's Walk and also New Wave as an age-grouper and senior swimmer where he was a senior sectionals qualifier and breaststroke/sprint freestyle specialist. Blake was also a part of NC State's club swim team. He has high school and college coaching aspirations, and wants to make his workouts as fun as they are challenging. Since coming on board, Blake has found a new following in the morning swimmers who admit he works them hard but keeps a positive attitude in his approach.

Julie Heyde

Julie Heyde is the newest addition to the RAM coaching staff. She has a strong swimming background with coaching experience as a Coaching Assistant for the Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving program at NC State University. In addition, she has coached high school, age group, and adult competition in Raleigh and Massachusetts. She is currently the Assistant Director of Compliance at NC State University in the Department of Athletics and was the Director of Meet Operations for Swimming and Diving this past year. Julie has her Masters of Education in Higher Education Administration from NCSU and she is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Boston College where she was a member and captain of the track and field teams for the Eagles. In 2000, Julie was selected as the recipient of the Doug Flutie Award for athletics, academics and community service. Julie started coaching RAM this June. She has already begun to let the swimmer know she will work them hard, but they will have a positive experience in the effort. Love her response to “you are working us pretty hard tonight” which is “Gee, That's my intent!”

Both Blake and Julie believe in endurance, technique and speed. Hmmm, sounds like a good combination. RAM swimmers welcome these two coaches and feels it is fortunate to have attracted them for our morning and evening programs.