Coaching Staff
Head Coach Marion Knoll - PreSenior Lead Coach
Head Coach Marion Knoll served 10 years as the Tigershark Board President and 1 year as the Senior Lead Coach before taking over the Head Coaching Position for the 2022 season. A varsity soccer player at the University of the South, Coach Knoll enjoys sharing her love of sports and the important life lessons that can be learned through sports with young people of all ages. Coach Knoll has over 23 years of coaching experience, having served as a varsity boys and girls soccer coach, middle school soccer coach, and AYSO soccer coach, and she just finished her third season as the Head MS and Varsity Swim Coach at St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School (SAS). Coach Knoll holds an American Swim Coaches Association Level 1 Certification, and she is in the process of earning her Level 2 Certification. In addition to coaching the MS and Varsity Swim Teams at SAS, Coach Knoll teaches 7th and 8th Grade Science, Archaeology of the Southeastern US, and Introduction to Field Geology at SAS. Coach Knoll is excited to work with all the new and returning Sewanee Tigershark Swimmers!
Assistant Coach Zolon Knoll - Junior + Senior Lead Coach
Junior Lead Coach/Senior Assistant Coach Zolon Knoll started his swim career as a 5 year old with the Sewanee Tigersharks. During the intervening years, he continued to compete each summer as a Tigershark, while also swimming with Mountain Aquatic Club, Tullahoma Swim Club, and Huntsville Swim Association. As a high school swimmer at St. Andrew’s-Sewanee, Coach Zolon anchored the record-setting Boy’s 200 yd Freestyle Relay Team in a dramatic 6th place finish at the 2020 TISCA State Championship. Coach Zolon is also a member of the Boys 400 Freestyle Relay Team and the 200 Medley Relay Team, and he holds the 100 Individual Medley Relay Record. Now a collegiate swimmer at Centre College in Danville, KY, Coach Zolon started coaching at age 11 with Coach Nan and the Rookie group. He continued to coach over the next several years, and he’s excited to continue taking on the challenge of working with the Tigershark Junior swimmers for the 2023 season while also assisting with the PreSeniors and Seniors.
Assistant Coach Nan Long - Rookie I
Coach Nan Long returns in her 9th year as the Rookie I coach, bringing many years of coaching experience to the benefit of TigerSharks. Coach Long spent six years coaching with Tullahoma Swim Club as the 10 & Under coach, and spent two years teaching private swim lessons. Additionally, she served as a Mountain Aquatic Club developmental coach from 2015 to 2017. Coach Long also served as the assistant coach for the SAS Swim Team from 2005-2022, head coach from 2013-2015, and was named Coach of the Year in 2013 by the Middle Tennessee High School Swim Association. Coach Long cannot wait to work with her Rookie swimmers again this summer! Email Coach Nan at [email protected].
Assistant Coach Mark Fino - Rookies II
Coach Mark Fino brings a wealth of experience and a trophy case full of conference championships, swimmer and diver of the year awards and coach of the year honors from previous coaching stints. He spent the previous year working at the Chattahoochee Gold Swim Team in Cumming, Ga., with team members winning high school state championships, made US Open cuts and reached the finals at Winter Juniors and USA Swimming Futures meets. He also coached and organized a local recreation swim team, Dunmoor Swim Team, in Alpharetta, Ga.
Fino worked seven years (2013-14 to 2019-20 academic years) as head coach for men’s and women’s swimming and diving at John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio, collecting eight Coach of the Year honors. Student-athletes garnered six Diver of the Year awards and five Swimmer of the Year accolades while the Blue Streaks won eight conference championships during his tenure.
He previously coached at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, first serving as an assistant coach for the men’s and women’s programs for two years (2002-03 to 2003-04) become becoming the women’s head coach for two seasons. (2004-05 to 2005-06). He then served as head coach for both teams from 2006-07 to 2012-13, overseeing NCAA All-Americans and Honorable Mention All-Americans in 2012 and working with athletes who posted NCAA provisional qualifying performances during four campaigns.
