Leland Mankin
Head Coach
Hi, I'm Coach Leland. I'm married and have two boys named Haden & Harlo who have taken a liking to swimming as much as I did when I was their age. Our family lives in a tiny house on 10 acres where we raise dairy goats, chickens, pigs, and maintain 6 beehives (yes with my full-time schedule my wife is the real hero of the household). I work in Austin as the Service Delivery Director for a Data Center.
My passion for swimming started about when I could walk - my parents put me in swim lessons and over the course of many practices they realized how comfortable I was in the water. A few years later during my last lessons my instructors recommended that my parents put me in the local swim club. I tried out the following year and started my journey with competitive summer swimming. I joined the Tracy Tritons in California who was led by a local legend - Coach Pinkie Phillips - https://www.teamunify.com/recmvttscca/__doc__/163814_4_pinkie%20article%20tracy%20press%2012%2026%2011.pdf). As soon as I went into High School I joined the High School Swim Team which was also led by the same Coach Pinkie. I spent many years perfecting technique and swimming successfully in pretty much every stroke (don't look at my Breast Stroke times though). By the end of it I realized that I had accumulated just over 150 ribbons / metals pulling from a wide range of events, dual meets, invitationals, and even a few championships as well.
I'm also an Eagle Scout, from Troop 505 in the same city. While scouting and swimming regularly competed with my time, swimming seemed to always manage to win the majority of it. Through scouting I obtained my Red Cross Lifeguard Certification and was their primary Lifeguard on duty for all of their camping trips. This served as a double benefit, since I was also able to begin teaching swim lessons and assisting with coaching the younger kids.
Although its been quite a few years since I've swam competitively, I've tried to stay involved in youth activities - serving as a substitute teacher for a semi-local school district and assisting with a little coaching for some of the kids' other sports.
I'm extremely excited for every new Swim Season as I get to learn every individual's strengths and weaknesses and see them all grow by the end of it. To this day, I still attribute a large majority of my own personal success and character development to my years on a swim team.
Kids these days don't have many activities that cause such a huge positive effect on them that most will carry and be proud of for the rest of their lives, but being part of a swim team is absolutely one of them.
My goal is to fuel your child's passion, grow the team's unity, and ensure that at the end of the day, your children are having fun and coming together as a family.
If you ever have any questions or concerns, my door is always open!
Phone:
(512) 994-9771
