After a brief soccer career, Rob Volpe started competitive swimming at age 10. Living in Indiana, he attended swim clinics at Indiana University under the instruction of famed coach James "Doc" Counsilman. Those clinics created the foundation of Rob's swimming and even taught him some techniques he uses today as a coach. Rob swam his way through high school focusing on the middle distance freestyle events. Tired, he then took an extended hiatus from swimming.

It was during the 1996 Gay Pride parade in NYC that Rob was introduced to the concept of gay/lesbian masters athletics. Parading through the streets of Manhattan was Team New York Aquatics. "What? A swim team of gays and lesbians? How awesome!" he thought. Soon he was back in the water swimming sets and wondering how he'd ever get his times back down to what they once was. "It completely changes the way you look at team athletics, it reprograms your memories of childhood," Rob says of swimming with TNYA. "The conversations between sets are actually interesting!" he adds. In 1998, Rob was asked to become a coach of the team. He started as an assistant and was soon given his own workout to run. That led to him becoming Head Coach of the team in early 2001.

With Sydney's Gay Games just over a year away, Rob focused the team on a comprehensive training program as well as developing training for the coaches. It was a busy, hectic time in New York, but the team responded to the challenge. Rob led 65 swimmers Down Under where they won 21 medals and had 75 personal best swims. "Sydney was an incredible experience, both for me and the team. Everyone really committed to the journey and we had fun, too. That experience is probably one of the proudest of my life," Rob says.

"I believe in working with swimmers to understand the goals that they want to achieve, what their swimming background is, and how they approach masters swimming. This isn't age group swimming. We're adults and do this on our own free will. I want people to get out of swimming what they want. And at the same time, I want them to get better. Whether it's stroke technique, speed or stamina in the water," Rob says.

Rob reluctantly left TNYA in 2004 when he and his partner, Charles, moved to San Francisco. Rob has continued swimming and can most regularly be found in the water on Sunday mornings enjoying the "sunshine swimming" in Burlingame with some fellow SF Tsunami swimmers.

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