YMCA of the Triangle Area Moves On From Coach Jamie Bloom, Senior 1 Group “Disbanding” Amid Restructuring

YMCA of the Triangle Area (YOTA) Swim Team has moved on from coach Jamie Bloom and announced a restructuring of its Senior 1 Groups, consolidating the Chapel Hill and Raleigh groups to Raleigh.

YOTA is a multi-site club based in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Triangle region of North Carolina.

Last week, the club’s first day of practice was scheduled for Monday, August 31, after a week of team building events. On Tuesday, parents and swimmers received two separate messages—one signed by both Jeff Little, YOTA’s Associate VP of Aquatics, and Jerry Foley, the Association Director of the YMCA of Triangle competitive swim team, and a second signed only by Foley.

In the first message, they announced a “new strategic coaching direction” for the team that showed a vacant “Assistant Director of Competitive Swimming” role that would be posted on Sept. 8, along with Foley as Association Director of Competitive Swimming and Rachel Muller as the Head Age Group Coach.

The message hinted that Tom Hazelett, who has been coaching the Senior 1 Group in Durham/Chapel Hill since 2019, would no longer be in that position, stating that he and Muller would “continue supporting their current teams during the transition.”

However, there was no mention of Bloom, who has been with the team for a decade and coached the Senior 1 Group out of the Finley YMCA in Raleigh.

In the second message, Foley outlines how the new structure will work more specifically, with him taking over the role previously held by Bloom.

• Foley will coach the new combined Senior 1 group out of the Finley YMCA site in Raleigh
• Hazelett will support his Senior 1 athletes at the YMCA at Meadowmont (Chapel Hill) for two more weeks before transitioning into coaching Silver, AGS and Senior-level groups at Northwest Cary YMCA.
• “Current West Senior 1 athletes who are unable to participate in Senior 1 training at Finley are invited to train with Tom at Northwest Cary or George (Vlahos) at Hope Valley Farms.”

According to a source close to the program, the Senior 1 group has now “mostly disbanded” due to the decisions, timing, and how they were communicated to the athletes. Swimmers are reportedly looking at joining North Carolina Aquatic Club (NCAC), Marlins of Raleigh, and the New Wave Swim Team, and possibly a few going to the TAC Titans. Some are thinking of calling it quits on swimming in light of the changes.

The source said swimmers and parents communicating to YOTA leadership have heard that Bloom was fired but they couldn’t share the reason.

YOTA leadership was reportedly also disappointed with the team’s performance at the 2026 YMCA National Long Course Championships in late July, though both teams finished in the top 12 (girls’ 9th, boys’ 12th).

SwimSwam has reached out to Foley for comment. Bloom’s YOTA email is no longer active.