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Tina Hoeben is the long-time Head Coach of KISU Swim Club in Penticton BC. An accomplished coach who has pursued education through the National Coaching Certification Program, National Women in Coaching programs and serves as a role model and mentor to other coaches across the province.

Brian Metcalfe is the Head Coach of the Langley Olympians Swim Club and the first recipient of this new Swim BC award. A highly respected coach in the BC and Canadian swimming community, Brian has many years of coaching experience and education.

Piero Porreca is a highly accomplished level 5 official who provides selfless leadership to the Swim BC officiating fraternity and swimming community. 

Carmen Massey is currently in her second term as the President of the Columbia Shuswap Selkirks Swim Club’s. Her contribution to the fabric of BC swimming through her selfless efforts with the Selkirks has been significant.

Since the beginning of the season we’ve been anticipating what a return to competition might look like, and what would be required to keep our swimmers, coaches and officials safe.  To address this, Swim BC has determined that step one is introducing “in-club” Time Trials with significant amendments to required officiating complements, working to maintain total participants under 50 individuals.

Swim BC has reviewing and working with a web-based platform that enables clubs to run competitions designed to permit an easy / fast set-up, provide minimal touch points, and can run virtual competitions (limiting numbers of individuals on the pool deck and reducing travel requirements).  

The 2019-2020 competitive season was anything but ordinary. For many, the season was cut short and leaving many swimmers unable to achieve the goals they had dreamed of achieving that season. However Hyack swimmers, Peter Huang and Paul Orogo still managed to achieve their goals and break National Swimming Records. We asked them, What did it take? 

Since the beginning of the season we’ve been anticipating what a return to competition might look like, and what would be required to keep our swimmers, coaches and officials safe.  To address this, Swim BC has determined that step one is introducing “in-club” Time Trials with significant amendments to required officiating complements, working to maintain total participants under 50 individuals.

Swim BC has reviewing and working with a web-based platform that enables clubs to run competitions designed to permit an easy / fast set-up, provide minimal touch points, and can run virtual competitions (limiting numbers of individuals on the pool deck and reducing travel requirements).  

Swim BC would typically have announced the awards for the 2019/20 season at the 2020 BC Swimming Congress Awards Banquet.  As we know, the Congress was cancelled this year due to COVID.  When the decision to cancel was made, Swim BC took the opportunity to make much needed revisions to the organizations awards system, realigning to add more swimmer categories and generate quantifiable criteria.

The Swim BC office is moving at the end of October. If you are mailing anything to the office, please use our new address moving forward.

Sport BC has developed initiative to help advocate for sport during the provincial election. They have created a tool that will send a letter on your behalf to the election candidates in your community.

Unlike the young athlete who dreams of becoming a champion, few of us grow up dreaming about joining a board of directors. Many people join a board out of a sense of duty to an organization with which they have been involved, or because they thought it time for new leadership, or were recruited for a specific professional skillset

Last week Swim BC announced that no sanctions would be available for clubs prior to October 31st.  Updating this message, we will permit Class I –Time Trials (record attempts only) prior to October 31st. 

Swim BC is currently working on the Return to Swimming: Competition Plan for our clubs.  This is a lengthy process that requires a great amount of thought and collaboration to deliver a plan that is safe and meaningful for our membership. 

Swim BC has developed a survey to determine the ‘state’ of our sport as we begin to move back into club activities. The intent is to give Swim BC accurate information to assist in our dialogue with institutions that impact our facility access such as the BCRPA and viaSport.

Congrats to BC Swimming Hall of Fame member Annamay Pierse Oldershaw for being inducted into the UBC Sports Hall of Fame this year. You can check out her UBC Sport Hall of Fame profile here.

Congratulations Jacob Brayshaw and Renate Terpstra, from KISU, on being selected to Petro-Canada's Fuelling Athlete and Coaching Excellence (FACE™) Program! The FACE Program supports up-and-coming athletes when they need it most: when they are striving to represent Canada at the Olympic or Paralympic Games, but don’t yet qualify for government funding.

For National Coaches Week, the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) is saying #ThanksCoach by providing several NCCP eLearning courses for FREE throughout the week.  

The North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) Council announced that the Halifax 2020 North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) will be further postponed due to the ongoing situation with the global COVID-19 pandemic

viaSport and the Province of BC has announced the Local Sport Relief Fund. It is a program that was developed to provide one-time financial relief for non-profit clubs and associations who have lost revenue putting their ability to offer programming at risk. Eligible organizations are invited to apply for up to $7,500 to help offset fixed and operating costs. Funding must support administration and operational needs for an eventual return to sport.