Aquatics
Masters Swim Coach's Corner
Head Coach: Roma Hunter
Roma has served as head coach of BU Masters Swimming since February 2006. Her coaching career began in high school and over the years, she has coached YMCA, US Swimming and Masters Swimming teams. She has worked with a broad range of swimmers—varying in age from children to octogenarians, and with abilities ranging from beginners to former Olympic gold medalists, world record holders and Ironman Triathlon World Championship qualifiers. Their profiles range from the competitive swimmer to triathlete to recreational and fitness swimmers. The breadth of swimming backgrounds and the challenges it presents in terms of coaching is one of the things that attracts Roma to Masters swimming. She fully embraces the US Masters “swim for life” ethos and her coaching philosophy is simple: set concrete goals, work on technique, and balance endurance and high intensity workouts. Above all, enjoy what you do.
Roma swam competitively from childhood through college (Division I at Columbia University). Her events included the 100/200 backstroke and 200 IM. Between 1988-2000 she took a “sabbatical” from competitive sports and went on to earn two degrees (BS in Chemical Engineering from Columbia and a MBA from Harvard Business School), landing a job in private equity, and living in Kyiv and London. Burnt out from the intense hours, extensive international travel, and general lack of fitness in her life, she returned to the US in 2000 - a self-proclaimed “reformed workaholic” and embraced a life of balance and fitness. She took up triathlons (sprint through Ironman distance) and began swimming competitively again. Roma currently holds the New England Masters records in the 50, 100, and 200 backstroke for women 40-44 and is included in the 2008 National US Masters Top Ten finishes for the 50, 100, 200 backstroke and 50 freestyle. She competes in triathlons (all distances sprint to Ironman), runs road races, cycles in time trials, and completes open water swims. She is also a certified personal trainer (American College of Sports Medicine).
Roma is married and lives in Arlington, MA, with her husband Robin, their two Australian Shepherds Boulder and Pebbles, and cat MeowMeow. The dogs are also accomplished athletes and compete with Roma in agility trials.
Assistant Coach: Jen Strasburger
Coach Jen Strasburger comes to BUMS with over 9 years of coaching experience at a variety of levels. After concluding her swimming career as a honorable mention all-American, captain and conference champion, Jen went on to become the Graduate Assistant coach at the University of California Berkeley. While there, the Women's team placed 8th and 6th at NCAA's, won the 800 free relay and put athletes onto the Olympic, World and University games teams. Currently, Jen is the Assistant coach for BU's Men's and Women's teams as well as working with the University's masters program. She specializes in technique and tough practices.
Assistant Coach: Dave Evangelista
Dave is entering his third year coaching with the BU Masters Swim Team. He was a distance swimmer at Northeastern while in college, and has over 20 years of coaching experience. He has served as the head coach of the Medford Masters Swim Team, and served for 7 years on the staff at Arlington Catholic High School, which included back to back top 10 finshes at MIAA Championships. Dave also served on the staff of the Northeastern University, where he helped guide his alma mater to an America East Conference Championship. Since the fall of 2005, he has served as the head coach of the Northeastern University Swim Club, which includes a 3rd place finish at ASA University Nationals. Dave is a three time finisher of the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim, and a 2007 finisher of the Boston Light Swim. He also continues to work with local athletes in their training for Ironman and long distance swim events.
Assistant Coach: Jaeyoung Lee
Jae is a former collegiate swimmer from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. During his time at Wesleyan he also coached the Masters program which led to a record breaking time in the women's (35-39) 1500 free style long course meters and a top 10 finish in the 2007 FINA World Masters in the 800 short course meters free style. Although Jae has a preference for sprint butterfly, his workouts are excellent for both sprinters and distance swimmers alike. He also has extensive experience in conditioning triathletes.
Your Administrator: Joan Rajfer
Joan is a huge supporter of Masters Swimming since she's a swimmer herself! She started swimming on a team at age 6 and hasn't stopped since! She swam for BUMS as a undergraduate at BU and returned in 2005 as Manager of Aquatics at BU.
Some of her recent, post-shoulder surgery swimming accomplishments include completing an open water 5K swim in 2008 and her first 1650 at the New England Short Course Championships in 2009. Although she was a sprinter and breaststroker in high school and while in college, the distance events have brought new challenges!
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