Shea MacNab Named Head Coach of TDHS Swim Team

By Billy Brost

The Dalles High School athletic department recently announced the hiring of Shea MacNab as the new head swim coach. MacNab, a 1994 graduate of The Dalles High School, returns for his second stint as the head coach. As a swimmer at The Dalles High, he qualified for the OSAA state swim meet all four years and was part of the team that won the district swim meet during four straight seasons.  Shea remains on the school’s record board, holding multiple individual and relay records as well.

Since leaving The Dalles High School, Shea went on to earn his Bachelor’s degree from Linfield College in 1998, where he continued his swimming career. He then moved on to Temple University, earning his Master’s of Education in 2001. Shea relocated to Arizona, where he took over as the head swim coach at SunWest Swimming and taught middle school science at Deer Valley Middle School.  Growing the program in both numbers and success, he finished with 60 full-time swimmers and several state and senior sectional qualifiers.

In 2005 Shea moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota where he coached with FoxJets swim club for one season as an assistant age group coach, where he coached swimmers who went on to earn top 16 national time standards.  After one season with FoxJets, MacNab was recruited by Barracuda Aquatics and was hired as their Head Age Group Coach, a position he held for 3 seasons.

In 2008, Shea returned home to Oregon and coached The Dalles Dolphins Swim Team and the Columbia Gorge Masters Swim Team. In 2009, he was named head coach of the Hood River Valley High School swim team.  In his second season, his girls’ team finished 5th at the state swim meet and also won two district championships.

Coach MacNab was hired by The Dalles High School in 2014 as a full-time staff member in the Health and Physical Education Department. During his previous tenure as The Dalles Head Swim Coach from 2015-17, he helped guide multiple individual and relay swimmers to qualify for the OSAA state swim meet.

He will be assisted by longtime assistants, Pat Shortt, and Nate Timmons.

Welcome back to TDHS athletics Shea!