Surrey Knights Swim Club

Coaches and Directors

Coaching Staff

Reg Shaw Head Coach/Director of Swimming

Reg Shaw is the Knights Head Coach / Director of Swimming. Being fully certified level III and coaching for 20+ years, Reg brings forth years of experience both swimming coaching, and team management.

Reg started his coaching career with Prince George Barracuda while attending college and move on to Head Age Group Coach with Kelowna Aqua-jets for 6 years. After time in Kelowna, Reg spent many years with Kitimat/Points North as Head Coach/General Manager and finally down to the lower mainland.

Since taking over the helms of the Knights, the club has seen growth and performance in all areas. Over the past 6 seasons, Reg’s experience includes event Coach for 2010,2013, 2015 IPC Worlds, 2012 Paralympic Coach, and 2013 Queens Diamond Jubilee Recipient

"With the support of the SKSC board and assistant coaches, I can assure you all that the upcoming season will be filled with, excitement, performances, and social opportunities for all swimmers and parents. Knight’s Swimming has a lot to offer each season, so I encourage you all to invite friends, and neighbors to the TEAM." - Reg Shaw

Amber Czerniej Assist. Head Coach

Email: coachamber@surreyknights.com

My name is Amber Czerniej and I am proud to be in my 10th season with the Surrey Knights Swim Club as Assistant Head Coach! I am currently NCCP Age Group and Senior Coach trained. I also have a BSc in Kinesiology with certificates in Active Health and Nutrition.

I have been in or around swimming pools my entire life. I was a competitive swimmer for 17 years, 8 of them at the senior national level for the Hyack Swim Club, SFU Varsity Team, and Simon Fraser Aquatics. On deck, I have been coaching or teaching swimmers for over 10 years. I have coached and taught a wide variety of ages and abilities ranging from preschool learn to swim lessons to provincial/age group level swimmers for both summer and winter clubs and up to adults masters swimming and pretty much everything in between.

My coaching philosophy comes a lot from my own personal experiences as swimmer combined with my coaching experiences. My goal is create a love of swimming in all the swimmers I coach and help them learn important life skills such as dedication, hard work, and accountability to use both in the pool and in life. I am a strong believer in long term athlete development and focus a lot of time on the skills and technique necessary to be successful in the long term. My goal is to instil the passion that I have for swimming into my athletes to create “swimmers for life” who continue to love the sport even once they have stopped and use the values learned in the pool and apply it to their lives.

I look forward to another successful season with the Surrey Knights and working with swimmers from all groups!

Dave Geary Performance Coach

Email: coachdave@surreyknights.com

David Geary will be coaching our Perfromance 6 and Performance 7 groups, as well as assisting with Black and Red. David has roughly 14 years of coaching experience. His most recent role was as Head Coach with the Haney Seahorses Swim Club. He spent 6 years in Haney where he coached a number of provincial medalists and national qualifiers. Prior to that he swam at Simon Fraser University and where he earned a Degree in Communications. He is currently working towards his Level 3 coaching certification. He is looking forward to an exciting first season with the Surrey Knights.

Philippe Voisard Regional Lead Coach

Email: coachphilippe@surreyknights.com

Philippe began his career in competitive swimming at the age of 5, and continued competing for the next 18 years. The highlights of his career as a competitive swimmer included:

Representing Canada on the Junior National Team at age 17;
Being a finalist at Nationals on several occasions;
Spending his last 2 years being coached by Jeno Thianyi, who coached Alex Baumann to his Olympic Golds in 1984.

After retiring from competing as a swimmer, Philippe was appointed Head Coach of the Laurentian University Swim Club, where he was mentored daily by Jeno Thianyi for the first 2 years. In his 6 years at the helm of LUSC, Philippe helped several swimmers reach Junior and Senior National levels. One of his swimmers also participated in the Canada Games and was a finalist at Nationals.

In 1998, Philippe coached Dave Chisholm, one of the best open water swimmers of the time, and was recognized as the Canadian Open Water Coach of the Year.

After a 12 years hiatus, where amongst other things he taught English in Korea, he returned to coaching with a burning passion to guide young swimmers in the discovery of their full potential in and out of the pool.

Josh Drew Regional Coach

Email: coachjosh@surreyknights.com

Hello.

I have been swimming, or a part of swimming for the better part of the last 13 years. I swam competitively for 10 years 5 with the Knights, and have been coaching for parts of 4 years, all of which have been with SKSC. I started coaching as a volunteer, but quickly moved to lead coach for the North Surrey dev. program. During this time I completed the swim canada coaching 101 course. Thet last 2 seasons I have coached Regional 2, as lead coach, and have split responsiblity for the Competitive fitness group. This year I have also started coaching Masters swim, and have taken over as lead Comp fit coach.

Juliette Neidig Development Stream Lead Coach

Email: coachjuliette@surreyknights.com

Hello!

My name is Juliette and I am proud to be in my fifth year of coaching with the Surrey Knights and tenth year as a part of the team. I am humbled to be apart of a sport that has made a huge impact on my life. It has helped me become a physically, strong female athlete; as well has shaped me into a patient and confident person. Every practice I would set a goal for myself to maximize my time in the water to achieve as many skills as I could. It’s incredible to see what you are capable of once you commit to the process and put your heart into it.

Currently I am an undergraduate student at Simon Fraser University pursuing a BSc in Kinesiology. I am delighted to be sharing what I've learned in my swimming experience and from my past coaches, and passing it down to others. Seeing young swimmers excited to come to practice and race makes my love for the sport even stronger and I'm thrilled for another amazing year with the Knights!

Nicole Bell Development Stream Lead Coach

Email: coachnicole@surreyknights.com

Hello Surrey Knights! My name is Nicole and I'm currently in my seventh season coaching with the Knights. I am in my last semester of my undergraduate degree at Simon Fraser University acquiring a Major in Psychology, Concentration in Applied Behaviour Analysis. From a very young age, I always had an immense love for water and found myself drawn to sports and activities that involved swimming. I swam competitively for a summer swim club for 7 years before stopping due to shoulder problems. I have learned a lot from the coaches I had growing up and have formed valuable experiences that have shaped me into who I am today. The Knights have become like a second family to me & I feel very lucky to be able to share my love for swimming with so many wonderful, talented swimmers. I am very excited to be coaching for another season & am looking forward to yet another successful year!

Dinny Chen Assistant Coach

Email: coachdinny@surreyknights.com

Hey everyone!

My name is Dinny Chen and I've been swimming with the surrey knights for 7 years and am entering my second year of coaching for the knights. This club has changed my life so much for the better. I started out as a volunteer and I quickly picked up a passion for coaching. I am working hard to become the best coach I can be and to teach swimmers to love the sport. Even though I quit swimming, I am still learning a lot about the techniques, ways of teaching, and more! Swimming is something that will always be a part of my life and I hope it will be for most of the young knights as well.