Dave Macdonald
Head Coach
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Dave is excited to be
starting his first season as Head Coach of the Olympian Swim
Club and his ninth season with the club this fall. Dave
is a certified Level 2 coach and plans to finish his Senior Coach
designation in the near future. Dave’s coaching
philosophy is that for swimmers to be successful they need to
strive for constant improvement every day. Through dedicating
themselves to their training and challenging themselves in the pool
every workout, he knows that they can achieve to great heights in
the sport.
Swimmers that Dave has
coached over the years have won medals at Western Canadian
Championship, Age Group Nationals and Provincial level
competitions, while breaking many records at the Club, Provincial
and National level. He has also been named as a coach to a number
of National and Provincial Teams including most recently the 2011
and 2012 North American Challenge Cups and the 2011 Western Canada
Games. For the 2009-2010 season Dave received the Alberta Age Group
Coach of the Year and Alberta Para-Coach of the Year awards and in
2011-2012 Dave was the Alberta Provincial Backstroke Coach.
Dave began his own swimming career at age 9 in Mississauga,
Ontario. He swam there for 9 years before attending the University
of Victoria in BC. He competed for the UVic Vikes for five years
while completing his Bachelor of Commerce degree. While swimming in
Victoria, Dave represented British Columbia at the 2001 Canada
Games and won a bronze medal in the 200 backstroke at the 2002
Canadian Interuniversity Sports championship.
Dave is excited to
continue as part of the OSC program that has become one of the
top teams in the country over the last few years and to have the
opportunity to lead the team into the future!
Lesley Serediak
Performance Coach
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This is Lesley’s
third year coaching with the Olympian Swim Club but not her first
time spent with the club. As a competitive swimmer, Lesley swam
eight years with the Olympians and qualified for senior nationals
in the freestyle and 200 butterfly events.
Lesley’s coaching
career began with the Bonnie Doon Blue Fins and although she worked
with all the age groups, she found a good fit with the younger
swimmers and decided to focus her efforts there. After an absence
from the pool to start on her own family, Lesley returned to
coaching at the Keyano Swim Club. Her extensive work with that club
had her working with all age groups right up to seniors national
swimmers, but it was in the development of the 14 & under
swimmers, of whom she has spent the majority of career coaching,
that she decided to focus her attention on. She is now firmly
established in our club and in her work with this age
group.
By moving over to the
Olympian swim club, Lesley not only found herself returning to her
roots but she had the added incentive of working again with her
good friend of over 20 years, Olympian head coach Carl
Simonson.
Lesley is a certified level
two coach and continues to pursue further education in her chosen
field. Currently she is working on attaining her competitions coach
certification. She has been selected to represent Team Alberta as a
coach 10 times and has a proven track record of coaching her
swimmers to both provincial and national
records.
It is her belief that age
group swimmers should excel in all four strokes and have great
technique. She also believes that with hard work, all swimmers can
achieve their goals. Lesley’s aim for the upcoming season is
to help all her swimmers succeed and reach their personal
goals.
When not on deck, Lesley
enjoys her time spent with husband Troy, and two sons; Tyler and
Shane as well as her three dogs.
With over 21 years of
coaching experience, all in the Edmonton area, Lesley is back on
deck for another season with the Olympians. We are looking forward
to hearing her loud familiar whistle, in all its pitches, as she
goes about her coaching duties.
Jared Wilson
Assistant HP Coach & X-Group Coach
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Jared’s competitive swim career spanned
15 years. He began in Drayton Valley as a member of the
Neptune’s Summer Club. From there, Jared’s swimming
eventually brought him to the Edmonton Keyano Swim Club before
joining OSC as a member of the X Group in 2004.
Jared has been intermittently involved with
the X-group for more than eight years. He swam with the group from
its inception in 2004 through to 2008. He then took a
three-year break from the sport while going through the articling
process to become a CA. Towards the end of that period, Jared found himself longing to
return to swimming in some capacity. So, after a brief term as the
Head Coach of the JAG/OW/JOW group at Scona, Jared took on the role
of coach of the X-group in the spring of 2011. Jared is thrilled to have the
chance to coach the group he had been a part of from the beginning.
This is not his first stint as a coach though.
Coaching became a part of his life in the summer 2006 as the Head
Coach of the Drayton Valley Neptune’s. It was during that
same summer that Jared
was given the role as coach for the Zone 5 Alberta Summer
Games Swim Team.
Jared is very excited to be involved with the
X Group and OSC for the 2011/2012 season and we are glad to have
him.
Ewen Lavoie
Age Group Performance Coach
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Ewen joined the OSC coaching staff as
the Head Coach of Scona Pool in 2009 and took over head coaching
duties at Fountain Park Pool in 2010.He is returning to coach his
4th season with the Olympian Swim Club, his first as the
Age Group Performance Coach, and his 8th season of
coaching.
Ewen began swimming competitively in 1996
with the Olympian Swim Club and in 2005 joined the University of
Alberta Golden Bears Varsity Swim Team. It was at this point that
Ewen began his coaching career. During his three seasons with the
Edmonton HUMA swim club, the club won two consecutive Provincial
Championships. His track record in coaching summer clubs includes
guiding swimmers to multiple HUMA club records, consistent top
three finishes at provincials, and several provincial titles. As
well as being involved in the U of A competitive swim camps for
five years, Ewen had the honour of being selected as an assistant
coach for the ASSA All Star Team three summer seasons in a row.
Ewen has also been selected to coach at the Alberta North vs. South
camp for the top 11-12 year old swimmers in the
province.
With OSC, Ewen has become an integral part
of the developmental program. Many of his swimmers have won
provincial titles, achieved Alberta Youth Recognition Standards,
attended Alberta Provincial Stroke Camps, and broken OSC club
records. In addition, many of his former swimmers have gone on to
achieve Senior National Time Standards, and win medals at the
Canadian Age Group Championships and Western Canadian
Championships.
With the belief that great technique is the
foundation to great swimmers and teaching that every athlete can
achieve success in sport by working hard and believing in
themselves, Ewen has experienced success in age group coaching in a
relatively short time.
Outside of the pool, Ewen has a Bachelors
degrees from the University of Alberta in both Biological Sciences
and Secondary Education. In his spare time he enjoys reading,
biking the Edmonton river valley, listening to music, and traveling
to different parts of the world.
Nathan Kindrachuk
Youth Development Coach
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Nathan has been involved in the Edmonton swim community for many
years. Swimming for OSC from 2000-2009, He began with the Mini
O’s and moved his way up to High Performance. During is time
with the club, Nathan competed at Senior National competitions and
represented Team Alberta multiple times including the 2007 Western
Canada Summer Games and the 2009 Canada Summer Games.
After graduating from high school in 2009, Nathan swam for the
University of Alberta Golden Bears until 2012. He qualified for CIS
National Championships in each of the three seasons he was a Golden
Bear. Looking to give back to the swim community, Nathan’s
coaching experience began with Special Olympics Edmonton in 2010.
Since then, Nathan has coached multiple swim camps as well as the
St. Albert OW group last spring at Fountain Park. The summer
of 2012, Nathan coached the Edmonton Huma Summer Swim Club.
Currently completing a Bachelor’s Degree in Physical
Education at the University of Alberta, Nathan is excited to return
to OSC for an 11th season with the club. He is aiming to
contribute to OSC’s environment for success in and out of the
pool.
Kaila Primrose
Fountain Park Head Coach & JAG Coach
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Kaila joined the OSC
team as a coach at the start of the 2009/2010 season. Prior to
that, she started coached the Exaclibur Swim Team in 2005 and the
Lethbridge Summer Swim Club in 2006, and later went on to be head
coach of the Excalibur Swim Team for the 2007-2008 and the
2008-2009 swim seasons.
She swam competitively for 14 years and spent most of her
competitive swimming career with the Excalibur Swim Team. She swam
four years with the University of Lethbridge Swim Team and was
named team captain for the 2006/2007 season. Kaila was also a CIS
qualifier in all four years.
Kaila began her coaching training in the 2004-05 season. She
completed her NCCP Level 2 accreditation in 2006 and Level 3 theory
in 2009. Kaila graduated in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in
Kinesiology from the University of Lethbridge.
Since Kaila started coaching, she has enjoyed motivating
athletes and watching them succeed not only as an athlete but as a
complete individual. She believes that being involved in
competitive swimming teaches an individual a lot about motivation,
goal setting and perseverance. Kaila feels that with hard work
comes great results and if an athlete is focused and determined,
they can achieve anything they put their mind to.
Her coaching philosophy is to create a positive, challenging and
enjoyable environment in which swimmers can achieve their goals.
Kassandra Sharren
Fountain Park Pool OW Coach
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Kassandra has been
coaching the St. Albert Sailfish summer swim club for the past
three summers, working with swimmers of many different ages and
skill level. She started working for OSC teaching the I Can Swim
program at Fountain Park in fall 2009. While she enjoyed this
experience, she is really looking forward to engaging swimmers at a
more advanced level. Last season she also was an assistant coach
for St. Albert Gators Triathlon Club. She believes that emphasizing
technique is vital for the success of any athlete, and that fun is
key, particularly for new swimmers, in developing a positive
relationship with the sport.
Though she has never swam at a competitive level, she has been
competing in triathlon since the age of eight and is an avid
runner. Kassandra is entering her third year in the Arts program at
the University of Alberta with an Anthropology major and a History
minor.
Mychaela Risling
Fountain Park JOW Coach
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Lauren deLeeuw
Scona Pool Head Coach
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Throughout her life, Lauren has learned the value of sport and
how it can affect multiple areas of an individual’s life.
This is why she thoroughly enjoys being the head coach at Scona
pool and having the opportunity to watch as the JAG and OW swimmers
learn the same value. Competitive swimming teaches hard work,
perseverance and the importance of setting goals.
Lauren started swimming at the age of eight for the summer club
in Whitecourt. She moved to Edmonton and began swimming for OSC at
the age of fourteen. She swam throughout high school where she
accomplished many of her goals in the pool as well as outside the
pool in a wide array of sports. She started coaching at the age of
18 and has enjoyed every minute of it!
After taking a year off to travel, she is now in her second year
of the journalism program at Grant Macewan University. She hopes to
be able to continue coaching and helping young swimmers reach their
full potential as athletes.
Cari Harr
Scona JOW Coach
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Heather Van Brabant
Terwillegar Head Coach
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Heather is coming to us from Leduc where she coached 3 years of
lifeguard club as well as she coached for a year for Leduc Otters
Swim Club. She is excited for the opportunity to join our
club and help strengthen children’s development of
competitive swimming.
She swam competitive for 13 years with Leduc Otters Swim
Club/Edmonton Keyano Swim Club. She went to the 2004 Olympic
Trials, US Open, US Nationals and World Cup.
She started helping to coach Edmonton Keyano Swim Club
Pre-Competitive group, after falling in love with coaching she
decided to get her level 1 coaching certificate and started
coaching with Leduc Otters Swim Club. Her career took off
from there.
Lindsey Thomas
Mini O's Program Director
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Lindsey has been involved in the Edmonton swimming community for
over 10 years, first as a coach, then as a massage therapist and
currently in administration. For three years Lindsey was a
satellite pool Head Coach with the Edmonton Keyano Swim Club, spend
one year as the Head 10 and Under Coach with the Cascade Swim Club
and then joined the Olympian Swim Club in 2007 as the JOW coach for
two seasons.
Lindsey is a registered massage therapist and currently works
with the High Performance Group throughout the year. In 2010,
she took over the role of Team Administrator and maintains the
daily office operations of the club. When not in the office,
Lindsey can be found on deck in her role as a JOW coach for the
club. Lindsey is excited to be back on deck coaching the JOW
group this fall, and is looking forward to instilling the building
blocks of competitive swimming in the young JOW swimmers.
Lindsey’s commitment to excellence in the club can also be
found in the new Mini O’s program for the little swimmers.
She oversaw the restructuring of the program which now incorporates
many of our club values and goals and provides a much smoother
transition to our competitive program.
Outside of the office and deck Lindsey enjoys spending time with
her family at their cabin at Seba Beach.
