New head coach is making waves at Scarborough Swim Club.
Darren Ward is the new head swim coach at the Scarborough Swim Club.
Photo/COURTESY
The Scarborough Swim Club is floating some lofty plans for the next five years and they've enlisted the coaching philosophy of a proven winner to ensure it happens.Darren Ward, an American-born freestyle swimmer who represented Canada at the Olympics in Seoul, Korea in 1988 and in Barcelona, Spain in 1992, replaced Sylvain Pineau as head coach of the club this month. Ward, who leaves behind an assistant head coach position at the Mississauga Swim Club, is charged with the task of seeing to it, among other things, that the club secures "primary occupancy" of the $132 million aquatic facility currently under construction at the U of T-Scarborough campus. The high performance facility will house two 50-metre tanks - the only such facility in Ontario - and a stand-alone dive pool, in addition to a high performance training centre and other amenities. Securing access to the new facility may be essential to the survival of the club, according to club president, Chris Prendergast. "If we don't get into this we're going to cease to exist as a competitive club, because no one that is serious about competitive swimming is going to swim in the pools we now use." "So we have to prove that we deserve to be the primary occupant," he added, pointing out there will be more emphasis on its grassroots development and "building relationships with Swim Ontario, Swim Canada and the local political scene." The plan is to raise membership to around 200 members by the time the Pan Am Games roll into town in 2015."And that's one reason why we hired Darren because he has a good background in making clubs bigger and better and making things happen," he said.Being visible in the community and having a good reputation will also be important moving forward, said Ward. Among the first orders of business will be to reinstitute a swimming school and camps, he said. In three years Ward projects the club will double in membership. "Even if the (U of T) pool wasn't an issue I think we could grow it regardless," said the national team member for 10 years. "It just so happens that there's going to be this pool and people are going to be clamouring to get in it." "We just have to go out there and shake the trees and find swimmers," he said. "...turning people onto the sport and getting them involved and it's not an impossible task."The club lost much of its older, elite talent through graduation last year, according to Prendergast, but there's lots of hope in the younger talent beginning to emerge."We still have all this talent at the high performance level. Our oldest swimmers are about 14 to 15 years old," he said. "Which is great for Darren, he has a couple of years to get these kids ready for Olympic Trials in 2012, Pan Am Games and Commonwealth Games."