The Scarborough Swim Club will add another quality coach to its already outstanding coaching staff. Mischa Sommerville will join SCAR to start the 2015-16 season. Somerville will take on the role of coaching the club’s best up and coming 11-13 year old swimmers.
Sommerville comes to Scarborough with an impressive resume that includes stints with the North York Aquatic Club, Cobra Swim Club and most recently as the Assistant Head Coach of the Ajax Aquatic Club where he was instrumental in the club’s most recent successes. Scarborough Head Coach, Darren Ward, is thrilled to have added Somerville to his impressive staff of young up and coming coaches.
“We are building our club from the bottom up and adding a coach like Mischa will help us to continue towards our goal of being the top swim club in the province,” said Ward. Somerville has been working with the club for the past month and has already turned heads. Ward added, “Mischa has an incredible understanding of stroke mechanics and I am really pleased at how our swimmers have responded to having him on deck”
The addition of Somerville comes on the heels of some incredible club growth. SCAR President, Carolyn Howard said, “SCAR has been growing at a phenomenal rate and hiring Mischa really makes sense for us right now” SCAR has grown from 68 competitive swimmers in 2010 to over 150 in 2015. In addition, SCAR has developed a learn to swim program that has seen similar growth. SCAR now boasts a membership of 300 members.
SCAR Head Coach, Darren Ward, who recently signed a 5 year contract extension, will enter his 6th season at the helm. Ward, a former Canadian Olympian and Medley specialist has seen the club’s numbers more than double during his tenure as Head Coach.
“It has been a long road to this point, but we are now ready to tackle the task at hand and start moving up the ladder” said Ward, adding, “I am thrilled to be a part of the Scarborough Swim Club and equally thrilled to have a Board of Directors that is supportive of my vision moving forward.”
With the rapid growth of the club, SCAR now has a very solid base of swimmers. Seventy-five percent of the club is 12 and under. Chris Ellul, will become SCAR’s Head Development Coach.
“This is an incredibly important role in our club moving forward” said Ward. “Chris is an outstanding young coach with a bright future ahead of him. He is without a doubt the best person to take on this role. Ellul will be in charge of implementing a teaching curriculum that is consistent across all of the developmental groups in the club that is in line with Swimming Canada’s Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model. Ellul will also manage a staff of 3 coaches and oversee the continued implementation of the club’s learn to swim” program called “I can Swim”
The Scarborough Swim Club will start its second season out of the new Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre pool (TPASC) in Scarborough in the fall. SCAR is the only club whose main competitive groups all train exclusively out of the facility. The club’s offices are also located at TPASC.
Swimming news courtesy of Scarborough Swim Club.
He moved on to be Head Coach with Uxbridge swim club. He was there for less then 2 years and is no longer the Head Coach