Featured Employee

Each month we feature a notable Sutton Employee and their achievements.

February 2011

Joey

Here at Sutton Swim School, we have found that our most skilled and talented instructors are the ones that have been hand picked and recruited by a key staff member. Teacher Joey is one of those instructors.

Teacher Joey's career in swimming began when he swam for his high school swim team. He later joined DACA where he taught for 3 years from 2002 to 2005. In June of 2005, Teacher Stephen set out to convince Joey to join the Sutton family of instructors. Joey taught for both schools for awhile, then eventually came to Sutton full time. Joey impressed us so much in those first few months that in October of 2005 he was promptly promoted to Deck Supervisor.

Joey has many strengths as an instructor but what we feel is his most valuable one is his diversity. Joey can teach any level of swimming from beginners to Adult, with equal skill, as well as handling multi-level classes. Even the most skilled teacher has difficulty with multi-level classes. Joey's one exception is the Baby classes, we can't seem to get Joey to sing, he just won't do it. Although not an active competitive swimmer currently, Joey worked with Paula Sutton to achieve a Gold level swimmer status.

Joey loves to travel. He has traveled all through Hong Kong, Vietnam, China, with extended stays in the Philippines. He has also traveled all over the United States. For future trips, Joey hopes to travel to Europe and Australia. His other hobbies include: audio cassette and vintage stamp collecting, sandblasting, post modern art, and West African films. Joey also has a passion for music. He frequently can be heard playing guitar when taking a break in the staff break room.

January 2011

Holly

Holly was recruited by Sutton Swim School in May of 2005. It was instantly clear that Holly would be an asset to Sutton, so we set out to recruit her. Holly is not only an amazingly gifted swim teacher, but is now a Supervisor on the Training team, working to make sure that Sutton continues to turn out the highest quality swim instructors possible.

In addition to Holly's work on the Training Team, Holly was one of the top key figures on the project team that built Sutton's first Pre-Competitive program from scratch. This was a huge success and later expanded to the Kona Kai Swim and Racket Club, where she was the Team Supervisor.

Holly is an extremely talented Gold level competitive swimmer and polo player in her own right. Holly began swimming competitively at age 9 for the Campbell Wave Makers, where she competed for 3 years. She then went on to compete year round at age 12 with the Silicon Valley Splash team, where she competed for 6 more years. Holly also swam on the varsity swim team at Branham High School for 4 years, being Captain of the team for 2 of those years. Amazingly, while doing all this, Holly also began playing water polo at age 10 with the Silicon Valley Splash. She played with them for 9 years and in 2002 she went to the Junior Olympics!

Holly is currently heading into her last semester at West Valley Collage as an Anthropology/Archeology major. Her hobbies include snowboarding, disc golf, surfing, camping, hiking and swimming. She also loves going to concerts and traveling whenever possible.

December 2010

Sam

Sam began his Swim Instructor career in June of 1999 at the Central YMCA in San Jose, where he coached their competitive team and taught for 3 years. Sam then joined the DACA team in February of 2002, where he became very involved in their Pre-Competive swim program, as well as teaching swim lessons. Sam taught for DACA for over 5 years. In May of 2005, Sam found his home with the Sutton Swim School family of teachers, while continuing to work with the DACA Pre-Competitive program.

Sam's passion for competitive swim brought a new component to Sutton Swim School. Sam, along with several other instructors with similar backgrounds, formed a project team that built Sutton's first Pre-Competitive program from scratch. It was a big success! In June 2009 Sutton Swim took their Pre-Competitive program to Kona Kai Swim and Racket Club for an outdoor program in Kona Kai's Olympic sized pool! It was another HUGE success and we were invited back for 2010, largely due to Sam's passion and dedication to the sport.

Sam is currently attending San Francisco State University as a Statistics major. He has a keen interest in politics and has spent many hours volunteering for several community organizations and local campaigns. We may see Sam at the White House someday.

October 2010

Sean

Sean has been immersed in the Sutton Swim School life since he was a very young child. In fact, Paula Sutton, the founder of Sutton Swim School may not have discovered her passion for swimming nor her gift of instruction had it not been for Sean, her only child. Sean has always had a love of the water, and a talent for swimming as well as various other water sports.

In January of 2005 Sean took the natural step of joining the Sutton Swim School staff of teachers. Through his patience and calming nature Sean has earned a reputation of his own as a skilled and knowledgeable instructor. Even at a young age, Sean was able to reassure the most wary of adult beginners, to help them overcome their fears and learn to swim. Adults, especially beginners, are much more difficult to teach then children on account of the fact that Adult students are inclined to say a definitive “no” when asked to do something that frightens them. Sean's skill and talent at overcoming this rather large obstacle is one shared by Earl Sutton, Sean's father, who wrote and developed our unique Adult swim program.

Sean is currently a Gold level swimmer in his own right. He is skilled at teaching All levels of swimming from Babies through Adults, although he does not offer an Adult class at this time.

Sean has attended numerous USSSA Swim Conferences across the country where he has continued to gain valuable, cutting-edge, swim technique knowledge and skill.

Sean's hobbies include playing guitar and skim-boarding. Sean is currently attending De Anza College as a business major.

September 2010

Stephanie

Stephanie joined the Sutton Swim Staff in June of 2004, after being recruited by Paula Sutton. She is an extremely loyal and dedicated instructor who is loved by all her students and in particular her baby parents! Babies are Stephanie's special talent, something Paula noted in Stephanie's first 30 minutes of her training. No one can calm a frightened baby like Stephanie! Even from a young age, Stephanie was always interested in pursuing a career that, in some way, benefited children. Stephanie is currently a Nutrition major at San Jose State University.

Stephanie's dedication and commitment earned her a promotion in October of 2008 to Customer Service Supervisor. Stephanie has a loyal following of customers who regularly insist on waiting a little longer in line so they can be assisted only by Stephanie. She was sorely missed by her customers when she was touring through Italy and the Greek Islands this past summer on an amazing 41 day adventure of a lifetime. Her return was very warmly welcomed.

Here are a few fun facts about Stephanie:
Stephanie is a full time hockey enthusiast and a HUGE fan of the Sharks. She is passionate about baking and loves to share her goodies with family and friends -- many of whom will never forgive her! In her spare time Stephanie loves to read.

August 2010

Tarah

Sutton Swim School's staff and students want to issue a warm welcome back to Tarah! Tarah just returned from an amazing 41 day adventure traveling through Italy and the Greek Islands. Tarah has a passion for travel and is already planning her next trip to Honduras in December.

Tarah has been with Sutton Swim School since May of 2004 and is employee #4. Tarah has been exclusively trained and mentored by Paula Sutton. Tarah started her career at Sutton as a swim instructor, like all Sutton staff members.

Tarah takes her role at Sutton to heart and has made it her personal mission to not only maintain the Sutton Swim School reputation for excellence, but to continue to exceed it! Tarah, at her own initiative, took it upon herself to develop a finely tuned system of training new instructors. Tarah also continues to assist Paula with the on going training of current instructors, which has been our trademark here at Sutton Swim.

Through her tremendous dedication, creative innovation, and precision skills, Tarah developed and now manages The Sutton Swim School Training Department. Tarah currently has a team of supervisors and Gold level instructors to assist her in striving to produce the highest quality of swim instructor.

July 2010

Melody

Teacher Melody has the unique distinction of being the mother of Teacher Jessica, the first teacher ever hired by the Sutton Swim School. Paula Sutton saw Melody's natural potential and recruited her to teach over 6 years ago. She has been our most requested teacher since. Her compassion and patience with her students has created a loyal following of families who have been with her for years.

June 2010

Stephen

Position(s): Newly promoted to Office Manager, Swim Instructor, Training Supervisor.
Credentials: Self-taught swimmer, Swim instructor for 7 years, Bachelor of Arts in Child and Adolescent Development (San Jose State), Attended 2 United States Swim School Association(USSSA) conferences, and one business consulting conference (Through 3rd Level Consulting).

Fun Facts: Played baseball, basketball, football, and ran track between middle school and college.
Hobbies: Snowboarding, wake boarding, bowling, playing video games, reading comics, and watching Giants, 49ers, and Warriors Games.