Meet the Team

Austin Aquatics and Sports Academy has assembled a world-class team of experts that share our mission, goals, and vision to see each person reach their potential. Our goal is to bring in accomplished, well-educated, enthusiastic, and committed coaches.

RORIC FINK

HEAD COACH/
SENIOR 1 LEAD COACH

Roric Fink graduated cum laude from both the University of Phoenix in 1986 (master’s in business administration) and Whitworth University in 1986. In addition, he spent his first three years as an ASU Sun Devil.

Roric recently completed his eighth season as associate head coach with the University of Texas women. During that time they had six top-10 NCAA finishes and eight Big 12 Championships. Fink came to Austin from The University of Missouri where he served for two seasons as associate head coach. He has coached collegiately since 2003, spending eight seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Arizona from 2003-2010 where they won both Men’s and Women’s NCAA Championships in 2008.

NATE CHESSEY

HEAD MASTERS COACH/
AGE GROUP SWIM COACH

Nate Chessey graduated with an MS in Sport Performance and a BA with a concentration in Sports Nutrition and has been involved with competitive swimming for the past 17 years. While attending Graduate School at Springfield College, he coached both the college team and local club team. His last six years has been spent in San Diego as an age group coach with a team of over 700+ swimmers. In addition to the continued tradition of excellence in the water, he’s presented research projects and established network connections with the top performing programs in the US.

MARIAH HARPER

MASTERS COACH/
AGE GROUP SWIM COACH

Mariah Harper is a proud longhorn and two time graduate from The University of Texas at Austin (BA ‘15 and M.Ed ‘19)! Mariah grew up swimming in the Austin area before college but unfortunately a shoulder injury ended her collegiate career early. She now swims masters and trains for half marathons! Mariah is coming to ASC from her position as fitness trainer for Orangetheory Fitness and, prior to Orangetheory, she was an age group coach for Longhorn Aquatics.

MATT BYRD

MASTERS COACH / HEAD AGE GROUP SWIM COACH

Matt graduated with his Masters Degree in Sports Management from Georgetown earlier this summer while working in DC. Prior to Georgetown he swam at the University of North Carolina Wilmington where he was a captain his senior year. He played a vital role in leading a campaign to save the team from being cut from the athletic department prior to his Senior year. After UNCW he came back to the DC area and coached a year at Machine Aquatics with Coach Chris and then two years at Nations Capital Swim Club. He has primarily worked with 11-14 year olds, but has experience assisting at all levels of the sport. Matt’s an avid triathlete, loves open water swimming and is huge Baltimore sports fan.

FELIX GONZALEZ

MASTERS COACH / GOLD 1 & JUNIOR 2 LEAD COACH

Felix was born in the beautiful San Juan, Puerto Rico. He is married to a beautiful wife, and they are happy parent of two boys, Felix Jr. and Lucas. Felix and his wife’s life changed six years ago when he decided to move to Austin by himself to work as a Swim Coach. Coach Felix was introduced to sports at a very young age. He has been teaching swimming for over 20 years, and coaching at every swimming level (including master swimming and triathletes), with focus on age group (11-14) swimming, since 2009. Felix had the opportunity to be the assistant coach of the University of Puerto Rico swimming team for two seasons (2012-2014). Felix was part of the Puerto Rico Jr. National Team (1997-2002) and played an important role at the University of Puerto Rico swimming team (2005-2008). Felix graduated from the Inter American University of Puerto Rico with a BA in Sports Science. He is also a certified personal trainer and sports nutritionist.

DAVID RODRIGUEZ

Group Strength and Dryland Coach

David Rodriguez arrived to AASA Spring 2021 as a strength and conditioning coach. He is responsible for the program design and implementation for all ASC athletes as well as the AASA group classes. David was born in C.D. Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico and was raised in El Paso, Texas.

Prior to the arrival to AASA, David interned at various strength and conditioning programs including, The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), Austin (UT), University of Tampa, Saint Leo University and with the New York Yankees were he worked with multiple sports.

After receiving his Bachelor’s in Kinesiology, with a concentration in Exercise Science and minor in Nutrition from UTEP in 2016, he continued and earned his Master’s in Exercise and Nutrition Science from the University of Tampa in 2019. David is Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) though the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). He’s also USA Weightlifting Level-1 (USAW-L1) certified.