COACHING STAFF
Maureen Sheehan, Head Coach/Executive Director (SENIOR & NATIONAL SQUADS) has served as the Head Coach/Executive Director of LFSC since 1984. Maureen first joined the LFSC staff as Head Age Group Coach in 1981. Prior to coming to Lake Forest, Coach Sheehan was an NCAA All-America swimmer at Kansas University.
Under Maureen’s direction (1981 to 1984) LFSC age group swimmers won numerous Illinois State Championships and National rankings. In 1984 Maureen became the fifth Head Coach of the Lake Forest Swim Club. In September 1988 she added the title and responsibilities of Executive Director, reflecting the growth of the business operation of the club under her direction.
Since 1985, LFSC swimmers have captured 61 Illinois Age Group, Senior Men’s, Senior Women’s, and Combined State Championship trophies. LFSC has swept the team titles at the State Senior Championships three times and is the only team to bring home a trophy each year between 1980 and 2001, when the meet served as the state’s premier Senior Swimming competition. In 1999 LFSC became the first team to sweep both Age Group and Senior Championship titles in back-to-back seasons. Maureen has coached swimmers at every performance level including 30 USA Swimming National Qualifiers, six World Ranked swimmers, and an American Record holder.
Since the USA Speedo Sectional Championship Meet was established in 2001 LFSC has continued to be a dominant team. Our swimmers have been the top Illinois team in every short and long course Sectional Meet between 2001 and 2005. The Lake Forest Swim Club won the six-state USA Sectional Meet in 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2005, captured the men’s team title in 2001 and 2002, and the Women’s team title in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004.
Coach Maureen is certified by the American Swimming Coaches Association at Level V. She was selected to the staff of the Three Nation Distance Training Camp (Hawaii, 1991), National Junior Team (Montreal, 1992), the National Team Training Camp (Colorado Springs, 1996) and the Short Course World Championships (Hong Kong, 1999).
In 2004 Illinois Swimming recognized Maureen’s service contributions with a USA Swimming Life Membership.
Michael Lawrence, Assistant Head Coach (BRONZE & SENIOR SQUADS) came to LFSC in 1985 after coaching at the Oak Park YMCA and B.R. Ryall YMCA. He is an ASCA Level V certified coach and is responsible for the overall direction of the Age Group program with primary coaching responsibilities with the Bronze squad. Coach Michael also works with the Gold and National training squad with responsibility for breaststroke and IM specialists.
Since coming to LFSC, he has coached over 200 individual Illinois State Age Group Champions, 197 Nationally Ranked Age Group Swimmers, one American Record holder and four world Ranked swimmers. He has staffed 16 USA Swimming National Training Camps, six Illinois Swimming Camps, five Illinois Mid-States Teams, two Illinois Zone Teams and been selected American Swimming Coaches Association “Age Group Coach of the Year (Illinois) five times.
Coach Lawrence has been a member of several USA Swimming National Team events and was an Assistant Manager for the 2004 Olympic Team in Athens, Greece. He previously led USA National Teams to the Victoria State Championships (Melbourne, Australia, 2008), FINA Youth Championships (Monterrey, Mexico, 2008), Pan Pacific Games (Yokohama, Japan, 2002), World University Games (Beijing, China, 2001 and Fukuoka, Japan, 1995). He has also been a Guest Lecturer at the American Swimming Coaches Association World Clinic (1998, 2009) and the FINA Development Clinic (Nassau, Bahamas, 1999).
Michael is one of the most recognized and active coaches in the governance circles of USA Swimming. He has served on the Illinois Swimming Board of Directors since 1983 and the USA Swimming Board of Directors since 1999. He has been the Coordinator of Olympic International Operations for USA Swimming since 2004 and also sits on the International Relations Committee.
Laurel Liberty, Assistant Coach (GREEN SQUAD) joined LFSC in 2004 after graduating from North Central College where she was a NCAA All-America swimmer. In addition to swimming at North Central, Laurel spent her summers training in Florida with legendary swimming coach Peter Banks (coach of Olympic Gold medalist Brooke Bennett) and refining her teaching skills with Swim America. In 2006 Coach Laurel was the Masters National Champion in the 200 freestyle.
Coach Laurel guided 21 swimmers to the ISI Regional Championships and 14 swimmers to the ISI JO Championships. In addition to her on-deck responsibilities Laurel manages the LFSC Swim School and many administrative aspects of the club.