Swimming and Gymnastics Welcome New Head Coaches

Fox Chapel Area High School has two added new coaches for the winter season, Dan Taylor for boys’ and girls’ swimming and Nadine Buchanon for gymnastics.

Coach Taylor has 25 years’ experience as a swim coach, most recently with the Fox Chapel Killer Whales, a local youth development swim club. He will continue in that role along with his new responsibilities for the boys’ and girls’ teams at the high school. Some of Coach Taylor’s accomplishments include founding and then leading the Greater Pittsburgh Aquatic Club for eight years and selection by his peers as Allegheny Mountain Age Group Coach of the Year.

“Coaching the FCAHS team will provide continuity between the club team and the high school team and will ultimately make the high school team better,” says the Penn Hills native and elementary school teacher. “This year the boys’ team is almost double the size as compared to last year, and we have a lot of first-year swimmers. The girls are returning as co-section champs and have a challenging task ahead of them to repeat that accomplishment. “

Nadine Buchanon is the new gymnastics coach. Her transition should be a smooth one because she already knows many of the girls through her coaching position with Trinity Gymnastics in Gibsonia, Pa. Coach Buchanan has a lengthy list of credentials from her own experience competing at the state, regional, and national levels in high school and college.

While a student at Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic High School in Altoona, she won a PIAA championship for the floor exercise and also won several district titles for other various events, including all-around competitions. She was a member of the Pennsylvania State University Women’s Gynamstics Team for four years, lettered three of them, and participated in the NCAA championships twice.

In addition to her competition awards, Coach Buchanan is a member of the Blair County Sports Hall of Fame and remains the only female from that county to receive a full athletic scholarship for gymnastics at a Division I university.