FAU’s Ara Preacco Names Coaching Staff

BOCA RATON, FL – Lara Preacco, Florida Atlantic University Head Swim and Dive Coach, has named her coaching staff. Bryan Gillooly will focus his attention with the divers while Kyle Berg and Manny Noguchi will work with Preacco on deck with the swimmers.

Bryan Gillooly graduated from the University of Miami in 1999, where he was a two-time NCAA National Champion and 10-time All-American. As a member of the U.S. National Team from 1990-2000, he was a three-time U.S. National Champion and three-time Olympic Trials finalist. In his youth, Gillooly was a 15-time Junior National Champion and 1991 Junior World Champion. To recognize his outstanding contributions to the Intercollegiate Athletics of his Alma Mater, he was inducted into the University of Miami Hall of Fame in 2013.

Gillooly was named the diving coach at FIU from 2006-2009, where his passion, hard work and integrity led him to be a two-time Sun Belt Coach of the Year (2005, 2006). During his time at FIU, Gillooly coached five conference champions. He has also coached divers internationally and he was the coach for South Africa in the 2008 World Cup in Beijing.

Gillooly’s desire to help his student-athletes excel not only in sports, but also in life, is the cornerstone of his coaching philosophy.

“I believe in the importance of goal setting and establishing a high standard of expectation for one’s self. Sport is a great barometer of a person’s own sense of accountability. I believe the future for the FAU Swimming and Diving Team shows unlimited potential”.

After coaching at FIU, Bryan returned to age group coaching, at YCF Diving in Orlando, where he was able to reestablish strong connections with top coaches and athletes nationally and internationally.

Kyle Berg came to FAU from Kenyon College, where he was the Assistant Swimming coach to two of swimming’s finest coaches: Jim Steen (creator of the Power Rack) and Jessen Book. Prior to coaching at Kenyon, Berg was a Head Coach for STAR Aquatics in Greensboro, North Carolina. During his professional career, he has coached at the United States Military Academy, Harvard University, Total Performance, and Michigan Wolverine swim camps.

During his time at Kenyon, the women’s team placed fourth in 2012, second in 2013 and 2014 at the NCAA Championship meet; while the men’s team placed second and first – winning the 2013 and 2014 NCAA National Championships. In total, he has coached 10 NCAA individual National Champions, eight NCAA Relay National Champion teams, six NCAA record setting performances, and 56 North Coast Athletic Conference Champions. He has also helped six student-athletes achieve NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships, in addition to numerous national and regional academic honors. Kyle also served as the recruiting coordinator for the Kenyon Lords team.

“I want our athletes to be active in learning to become better athletes and feel comfortable asking questions, offering input and feeling invested in the training process”.

Berg’s past coaching experience and interest in strength & conditioning has helped him become proficient with power rack training, strength & power development in the water, use of stroke tempo/stroke count and color zone training.

He is a 2010 graduate of Boston University, where he was a four-year athletic scholarship recipient. Kyle specialized in the 200 Freestyle, 200 IM, 100 & 200 Backstrokes, while serving as the Vice President of the Student Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) and becoming the BU Athletics liaison to the Special Olympics of Massachusetts. He spent his final semester as a Strength and Conditioning Intern at Harvard University.

Berg holds a B.S. in Health Sciences from the Boston University, Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. Kyle also completed his M.S. in Sports Management from SUNY Cortland in 2013. He is a native of Hyde Park, New York, where he graduated from high school in 2006.

Manny Noguchi, who will coordinate FAU’s recruiting efforts,  came to FAU from the University of Wyoming, where he was responsible for recruiting and coaching both men’s and women’s teams. In his four seasons at UW, he helped coach multiple female athletes to All-Mountain West honors and numerous men to All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation & WAC honors, both academically and athletically.

Noguchi has helped the UW swim program set more than 30 school records in both individual and relay events, as well as lead swimmers to NCAA championships, Conference Champions, USA summer nationals, WAC conference titles and national titles at the New Zealand Nationals; as well as the Phillips 66 National Championships, World Championship Trials and US Olympic Trials.

Prior to coaching at UW, Noguchi was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Michigan State University. At MSU, he also taught kinesiology courses where he became highly involved with stroke analysis using `Dartfish’ technology to help analyze strokes above and below water.

At the start of his professional career, Noguchi was a graduate assistant for the University of Georgia, where he earned a master’s degree in education with an emphasis in exercise science & physiology. He was a leading coach for Damian Alleyne, who represented Barbados in both the 100 & the 200 freestyle at the 2004 Olympic Games in Greece.

Since 2002, Noguchi has earned valuable experience in various summer swim camp coach (including being a camp director at MSU), teaching stroke technique & analysis, giving private lessons, serving as a residential advisor in the dorms, and organizing workouts. His vast coaching experience also includes serving as the head swim coach for Kyushu University, in Fukuoka, Japan from 2001 to 2002.

Noguchi swam at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, California, where he was a member of the California Junior College Championship swim team from 1994 to 1996 as well as earning Academic All American honors. He is a native of Fukuoka, Japan, where he graduated from high school in 1992.