Coaches and Directors
Dave Kilmer leads our program. Dave began his competitive swimming career in San Diego, swam his high school years with the Mission Viejo Nadadores, and returned to San Diego to compete at SDSU. His coaching career began when SDSU cut their swim team in 1984. He has been a leading coach in San Diego ever since. He has led many swimmers to national rankings, olympic trials, and has a very high percentage of swimmers who continue on to collegiate swimming after CAST. Dave has always been involved in San Diego's Local Swimming Committee, serving on the board and committees in multiple roles throughout his career. He is currently the general chairman of SI swimming.
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Ben started swimming competitively at the age of 6 and swam form the Great Planes Aquatic Club, and competed through high school.
He began coaching swimming at the recreational level in Waverly, Nebraska in 2008.
In 2012 he began his career as a Special Education teacher at Norris Middle School in Omaha, Nebraska, and in that same year became the Boys’ varsity swim coach at Norris, where he coached for the next 6 years.
In 2019 he began his club coaching career with the Greater Omaha Aquatics Leopardsharks swim team. At GOAL he was the lead coach for the 11 – 13-year-old age group for two years and then moved to become the lead coach for GOAL’s senior group. He and his wife moved to San Diego in July of 2022 to teach in the San Diego Unified school district as well as begin coaching for CAST.
Coach Raven Vasquez is a graduate from California State University Northridge with a Criminal Justice degree and a minor in Child Development. She currently works for SANDAG in the ITS department.
Raven joined CAST as our novice coach in 2022. She has been a certified lifeguard since 2018 and has taught beginner to advanced swimming lessons for as many years.
A San Diego native, Raven participated in swim, dive and water polo at Helix Charter High School. She continued water polo into college and went on to coach water polo for two years. Many of her closest friends today were part of these teams and CAST.
When she is not on deck, Raven enjoys working out and hanging with her friends, going to the mountains and watching movies.
