Bio

Coach McKown began his competitive swimming career at age 5 and went on to become a dual -sport (swimming and water polo) athlete at the high school and collegiate level. He was able to continue his sports career past college competing in both the Australian and New Zealand Men’s National Water Polo Leagues. As a competitor Coach McKown was fortunate enough to experience success at all of these levels winning two NCS titles in high school, two NCAA Division 3 national titles in college, and winning the New Zealand national championship.

Early on his career as a competitor Coach McKown discovered his passion for coaching. His summers in college were spent coaching for the clubs he grew up competing for and helping to run the Nike Swim and Water Polo camps at UCSC. His first head coaching role was taking over the boy’s aquatics programs for Harbor High School in 2010. Coach McKown took these programs from the brink of extinction to competing for league titles. 

From there Coach McKown knew he wanted to pursue coaching at a higher level so he attended San Jose State to obtain his Master’s degree in Kinesiology and hone his skills as a coach. After completing his degree Coach McKown took over as the head women’s aquatics coach at West Valley College. By his second year of coaching the women’s water polo team had won its first conference title and he had coached the first two individual state gold medalists with the Women’s swim team. He was named Coast Conference Coach of the year for both Water Polo and Swim that year.

When Hartnell announced the return of aquatics Coach McKown jumped at the opportunity to bring his coaching closer to home and help expand the conference he had already been a part of.  

Coach McKown is still a regular in the water both competitively and recreationally. He lives in Santa Cruz with his wife Jenna.