Reach For The Wall, a non-profit formed by the following group of swim parents, seeks to be your go-to source for comprehensive coverage for local swimming in the DC metro area, including Potomac Valley Swimming, summer leagues, high school, masters swimming and open water.
- Jim Hallmark (Legal) has two swimmers, one who swims for RMSC and one for NCAP. When not at swim practice, meets or “rep-ing” at the Bethesda Barracudas MCSL summer team, he’s rooting for his Texas Longhorns and Bethesda – Chevy Chase High School, and working at an investment fund financing infrastructure projects in developing countries.
- Ed Holzinger (Tech Lead) co-created Reach for the Wall at The Washington Post in 2009 and has kept it running ever since. He may be an IT guy now, but he was a newspaper guy first, a reporter and editor in the 80s just as computers started to find their way into newsrooms. By the mid-90s, he had left the journalist priesthood for the dark side. Local news matters to Ed – a lot – and he also likes working with data, so this site is a convenient intersection of those interests.
- Rich House (Editor/Operations) a native of Maryland, grew up swimming in the MCSL (Daleview), PVS (Curl-Burke) and in college at the University of Massachusetts, where he was a member of 4 consecutive New England Championship teams. After college, he returned to the area to begin a coaching career, 5 short years later, he headed back to UMass to earn a MBA and serve as Assistant Coach for the Men’s team. Currently he’s a father of two swimmers and holding down a full time job in the IT industry.
- David Meisel (Marketing) grew up swimming in Iowa (yes, they swim in Iowa). He has three swimmers who all love breaststroke (what?)! His kids swim for ASA, NCC Sharx-MCSL, and BCC-High School. By day he is a Management Consultant in the IT arena and at night he is busy living the Seinfeld-esque life. Also a pet owner he has a dog named Tovah…means good in Hebrew…but she is quite the bad dog. She had to live with a trainer for 4 to 6 weeks, came home still an untrained dog. Good thing he had better luck with his kids!
- Heather Nixon (Data guru) has four swimmers in the water. All four swim during the summer at MCSL’s Manchester Farm, two swim Winter at RMSC and TIBU, and two are coaching at Joe Flaherty Dolphins (JFD). Heather’s love for swimming began at an early age in the highly competitive South Dakota Swim League and later in the Central Arkansas Swim League. Heather has worked her way up through the volunteer ranks – from timer to ribbon writer to the highly esteemed (shaded) position of computer operator. A GIS Analyst by day, she is also a full time swim and soccer mom.