Meet Our Coaches
COACH DREW BOLLEA
Coach Drew brings a wealth of swimming experience to the McCullough Manta Rays as head coach since 2023. His swimming journey began in Northern Virginia, where he competed for 13 years in the Northern Virginia Swim League and trained with the Curl Burke program (now Nations Capital Swimming) for 8 years.
His competitive career continued through Lake Braddock High School and Miami Ohio University, where he competed on both the swim team and water polo team. Coach Drew has maintained his connection to swimming by coaching alongside his professional career. He's guided summer league teams in Northern Virginia and the McCallie middle school team in Chattanooga.
With experience as both a competitive swimmer and seasoned coach, Drew creates an environment where swimmers develop strong technique, build confidence, and cultivate life skills that extend far beyond the pool.
COACH JORDAN HENNESSY
Jordan Hennessy grew up in the Atlanta GA area where she started swimming at the age of 8 on her neighborhood summer swim team. During her own swimming career, she began teaching swim lessons, lifeguarding, and coaching summer league, high school, and year round swimmers. After graduating college, Jordan’s passion for coaching brought her to the Virginia Beach area where she met her husband and oversaw a very competitive USA Swimming age group program. From toddlers to Olympic Qualifiers, Jordan brings 21 years of coaching experience to the McCullough Manta Rays, specializing in stroke work and conditioning age group level swimmers. After moving to McCullough in 2020, Jordan and her husband Kevin (Wingate University Men and Women Head Swim Coach) welcomed two children and a dog. When not on a pool deck - Jordan is busy as a mom and wife and works full time as Director of Operations for a local Sports Medicine clinic here in the Charlotte area. To say the love of swimming runs deep in Jordan’s blood is an understatement and Jordan is so excited to help foster the same passion in young swimmers.
COACH VICTORIA CROSS
Victoria Cross is currently a Sophomore at Clemson University studying Biological Sciences. She is also a member of the Epsilon Theta chapter of Gamma Phi Beta where she serves as the current Academics Chair. She grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina where she began swimming at the age of 7. She was a competitive swimmer from then until age 18 when she graduated high school. Swimming has been a huge part of her life and she knew she wanted to continue working near the pool. She began teaching swim lessons at age 15 at SafeSplash Swim Labs in Fort Mill and then moved on to provide more one-on-one help with families around the area. Now that she is in college she still teaches during the summer and has still kept her heart close to the pool. After college, Victoria plans to attend Physician Assistant school and work in pediatric surgery. She is so excited for another great season with the Manta Rays and can't wait to see all of the swimmers!
COACH DENIS TCHIJIK
Denis Tchijik is currently a Senior at South Mecklenburg High School, where he is looking forward to attending Chapel Hill University and majoring in Chemistry in the Fall. Denis grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, being introduced to swimming from just the age of 2 by his grandmother and going on to be a competitive USA, High School Varsity, and NC club swimmer as a part of TEAM for almost a decade. In that time, he has been a South Mecklenburg team captain where he was a 4-time Conference and Regional qualifier; as well as a 4-time State and 2-time Regional qualifier and finalist in events such as the 200 butterfly and 500 freestyle for TEAM.
Alongside just being a swimmer, Denis had expanded his involvement in the sport when he began hosting one-on-one practices with children in his community during the Summer of 2023, specializing specifically on proper stroke technique and building upon good habits. He has consistently been a coach's assistant on TEAM throughout the past few years for his group mates and younger swimmers just getting into the sport; all of which have led him to have a deeper connection to swimming that eventually allowed him to find out about the McCullough Manta Rays.
Instantly being absorbed by the culture and atmosphere that the team has, Denis is ecstatic to return for another season with the team where he looks forward to coaching (and possibly even racing) all of the returning and arriving Manta Rays!