Our Coaches
Our Coaches
Photos, background, accomplishments…
Alan Swanston Nat.Sen, Sen.
Ulf Ornhjelm AG 1, AG 2
Caroline Teskey AG 3, AG 4
Amanda Burchert AG 5, Dev 1, Dev 2
ALAN SWANSTON
Alan Swanston has been head coach of the Newmarket Stingrays Swim Club since September 1986. A former swimmer, he started competitive swimming in 1975 in Guelph, Ontario at the relatively “old” age of 16
Alan’s chance for an Olympic Team was thwarted in 1980, because of the Canadian boycott.
At the 1982 Winter Nationals in Brantford, Ontario, he medalled in freestyle, breaststroke and IM events and was instrumental in his team, R.O.W., winning the national title.
Alan received a degree in economics from the University of Waterloo in 1984. As a university swimmer, he won several CIAU titles. He still holds six records at the University of Waterloo and in November 1996 was inducted into that university’s Sports Hall of Fame.
Alan started his coaching career in 1981 at R.O.W. under his coach, Clifford Barry. At R.O.W. he coached a swimmer to a Canadian record in the boys 11-12 100 back and also coached a boys 11-12 medley relay team to a Canadian record.
In 1984, he moved to Windsor, Ontario and had several swimmers qualify for tour teams.
In 1985, Alan coached the Ontario Tour Team at the Far Western Championships in San Jose California.
Alan has been married since 1984 to Avril, also a former national level swimmer. They have two sons, Matthew, age 16 and Jeffrey, age 13. Matthew and Jeffrey are both now swimming with the Stingrays.
ULF ORNHJELM
Ulf started his involvement in competitive swimming at the age of nine with a team in Sweden. AT the age of sixteen he became a member of the Junior National team in Sweden that same year 1981 he won a gold medal at the Scandinavian Junior Championships in Denmark.
In the early 1980’s Ulf was a Swedish National record holder in the 4×200 free relay. At the age of nineteen he came over to the University of Cincinnati on a full Scholarship. During the four years he was a four-year letter winner on the UC swim team, a two-time NCAA qualifier, a 23-time Metro Conference finalist, a two time team captain and MVP and the top scorer for the UC swim team during his four years. As a sophomore he was the Metro Conference champion in the 200 and 500-yard freestyle as well as the 800-yard freestyle relay. His senior year he was named the recipient of the Jimmy Nippert Award. This award is presented annually to the top senior male student athlete who made the greatest scholastic, leadership and athletic achievement at the University of Cincinnati.
After graduating from the University of Cincinnati with a Bachelor degree in Physical Education, he started coaching swimming in 1989 with the ACE Swim Team in Toronto. In 1992 he became the Head Coach of the team. During the next six seasons he coached one silver medallist at the Canadian Senior Nationals, four Canadian Age Group records, junior national champions, Youth National Champions and Senior and Junior Provincial Champions.
Ulf has been with the Newmarket Stingrays Swim Club since September 1998 in charge of the top 13-14 year olds in the club. He lives north of Newmarket with his wife Jacqueline and their son Mattias.
CAROLINE TESKEY-SCHERZINGER
Age Group Coach, Newmarket Stingrays Swim Club
B. Sc. Indiana University, 1991, Cum Laude
Caroline joined the Stingrays as a full time Age Group Coach at the start of the 1992/93 season. Previous to her joining the Stingrays full time Caroline had coached both part time and as a volunteer since 1984. Her previous coaching experience included working with University level and Senior National Qualifiers all the way down to learn to swim programs in a wide variety of settings in Canada, the United States, Bermuda and Japan. Additionally, she has spent numerous summers in Northern Ontario at camp Chikopi and Akomak as a camp counselor, coach and guest speaker. Caroline also assisted with the York University Swim Team in 1995 and 1996 as she worked toward her Masters Degree in Environmental Studies (completion date still pending).
Caroline’s personal competitive swimming career spanned over 15 years and started at age 7. Swimming Career highlights include:
1982 Canadian Junior National Championship Qualifier and medallist
1983-1992 Canadian National Championship Qualifier
1984, 1988 and 1992 Olympic Trials Qualifier
1985-1992 Canadian National Championship Finalist
1985 Ontario Canada Games Team member and multiple gold medal winner
1986 Member of Canadian National Record holding 4 x 50 Medley relay team
1987 Canadian Hapoel Games Team member and multiple gold medal winner
1987 Canadian Pan-Pacific Games Team member and finalist
1988 Olympic Trials multiple medallist
1987-1991 Indiana University athletic full scholarship holder
1987-1991 Indiana University Women’s swimming multiple record holder
1987-1991 Alpha Beta Scholastic Achievement Awards 8/8 semesters at Indiana U.
1988-1991 Big Ten Conference Finalist
1990 Big Ten All Conference Team
1990 NCAA Division I Championship participant
1990 and 1991 Aline Robinson mental attitude award winner, Indiana University.
(Awarded to the female athlete demonstrating perseverance and an unwavering positive attitude and throughout adversity and personal challenges in their athletic pursuits.)
Caroline Teskey-Scherzinger started her full-time coaching career with the Newmarket Stingrays in the fall of 1992. Since that time she has predominantly worked with the 11 and 12 age group of the club, although the range of swimmers within in her groups has stretched from 9 to 14 depending on the club’s yearly demographics.
The main focus of her group’s training program is a reflection of both Caroline’s personal coaching philosophy as well as that of the entire Stingray’s Coaching Staff. The primary training focus in her groups is put upon building a solid foundation of stroke and turning technique for all four of the competitive strokes. The main competitive focus is a logical continuation of the training philosophy; that of expanding each of the young swimmer’s competitive experiences and challenging all of the race distances available to each swimmer in their age group. It is the Stingray’s goal that through this race exposure, and all around technique emphasis, the swimmers will have the basic, and necessary tools to be prepared to make an informed and accurate decision regarding their “stroke” or “distance” specialization as they reach their physical maturity as senior level swimmers.
The swimmers in Caroline’s groups work hard at learning and improving all four of the competitive strokes and all of the competitive turns. As a byproduct of this work the swimmers in these groups make giant gains in their physical conditioning, training skills and in their ability to focus on the task at hand. Through these improvements the swimmers prepare themselves to make the transition from swimming at the local and regional levels on to the Provincial level. Additionally, by dedicating themselves toward these skills the swimmers gain the background necessary to reach well beyond these levels as they continue on in their swimming careers with the Stingrays.
The predominant “future building” focus has not come without her swimmer’s fair share of great “here and now” successes however. Her swimmers have time and time again risen to the challenge and collected for themselves a huge volume of Regional, Provincial and Nationally recognized performances. In her first ten years with the Stingrays more than 30 of her swimmers made their way into the top 25 in the country in the 11 and 12 age group in every stroke and, at every distance. Six of her swimmers have more than 30 swims in the top three in the country, in almost every single event (we have yet to get an 11 and 12 swimmer in the top three in the 200 Fly, and the 800 and 1500 Freestyle). In that time Caroline’s 11 and 12 swimmers have also had more than 15 swims ranked as the fastest in the country. The most impressive aspect of these numbers is the fact that the swims they represent are only the beginnings, and not the “last hurrah” of great swimming career performances. These Stingray swimmers have raised the bar not only for themselves as they continued their swimming careers but, for their team mates who have gone on to join them in these ranks as they themselves have moved their way up through to more senior levels of swimming, and for those who are following in their footsteps today.
