Lea Bredschneider brings more than 20 years of coaching experience and over 25 years of experience in administration within the swimming community to our club.  In 2006, Lea joined her son, Claus, as an inductee into the Ontario Aquatic Hall of Fame.  

She began with Claus when he was 7-years old. He developed into an international athlete over the next 16 years, becoming a national team member at age 15, and participating in two Commonwealth Games, two World Championships, and the 1980 Olympic Games which Canada boycotted. In 1999, he was inducted into the Ontario Aquatic Hall of Fame. During all those years, Lea volunteered her time to officiate at countless meets. She also worked at the Canadian Amateur Swimming Association in the early 1970’s. From there, she became the secretary and team manager of the Etobicoke Swim Club until 1980, at which time she was hired as the head age group coach at the Markham Aquatic Club. Many swimmers in her five groups there became provincial and junior national qualifiers during her 13 years at the club. They regularly placed in the top 10 – 15 in TAG rankings, and the club ranked 4^th or 5^th nationally during the 1980’s. While at Markham, Lea also coached a Masters contingent for 3 years, and worked part time at the Swim Ontario office as of 1989.

Finally leaving coaching “for good” at the end of the 1992-93 season, Lea became the Technical Director in 1994 and the Executive Director of Swim Ontario until 2004, fully intending to retire then. To this day, she still volunteers her time as the secretary/treasurer of the Hall of Fame committee. Three grandchildren are all grown up and don’t see her that often any more, but the two youngest sill need grandma to take them to swimming lessons and to spend time together on a weekly basis.

In the fall of 2004, the Pickering Swim Club was able to hire her on a part time basis to coach mostly teenagers of the Blue 2 group. She loves seeing them develop into more dedicated athletes who strive to become the best they can be, keeping her “young” along the way.

Tom has a wealth of coaching experience gathered in Durham Region during the past 30 years.

He began organizing outdoor competitions in Durham Region at the Ajax Outdoor Pool in the late 60’s and then volunteered with the Oshawa Aquatic Club. Founding and Head-coaching the Ajax Aquatic Club from 1972 to 1976 in their new indoor facility was an exciting transition.

Later as Aquatic Director in Whitby, Tom started and coached the Whitby Iroquois Swim Club from 1976 to 1985. As an elementary school teacher in Pickering, Tom returned to the Ajax Aquatic Club to work with Paul Meronen from 1985 to 1988.

The prospect of coaching and teaching in the same community was afforded in 1988 assisting Nick Baker and the Pickering Swim Club until 1993. The latitude to start and coach the Durham Aquatic Club presented itself from 1993 to 1999.

Tom returned to the Pickering Swim Club and currently coaches the Development 1A swimmers and is very enthusiastic about the club's developing athletes and their bright futures.

Email: CoachTom@PickSwimClub.com

Jess Ward has been a member of the Pickering Swim Club since 1996. She began her swimming career with the club, and is now returning as a member of our coaching staff. Jess was a National level and carded Canadian swimmer, she attended Olympic Trials in both 2004 and 2008 and was inducted into the Pickering Swim Clubs Wall of Fame in 2004. In 2007 she was ranked 25th in the world by SwimmingWorld magazine. She accepted a scholarship to North Carolina State University where she graduatedwith her Bachelor of Science in Education, and completed work towards a minor in Coaching Education.She also graduated as North Carolina State’s school record holder in the 200 breast and with top tenschool history marks in the 200 and 400 IM and 100 breast.

Jess has been coaching with the Walden Creek Wahoos for the past three years in Apex, North Carolina.As head coach for the team this past year, she brought knowledge of the sport and enthusiasm to everypractice. Jess also has an extremely extensive volunteer background working with such organizationsas the Boys and Girls Club, Big Brother Big Sister programs, the YMCA, Habitat for humanity, Feed the Hungry and many more.  Jess is currently the coach for both the White and Development groups.

Karin Quane has been teaching & coaching swimming for over 15 years.
She started her swimming career with her home club, Beaconsfield Bluefins where she became a provincial level swimmer.  During her swim career, she qualified to make her region's team for the Quebec Games both in 1993 and 1995.  After High School, she swam for John Abbott College's swim team.  While attending Bishop's University, she became a varsity rugby player.  She obtained her BBA with a concentration in Management.  She taught the Red Cross program at John Abbott College and the Olympic Way program at Pointe-Claire Aquatics.  In 2006, she became the Head-coach for DDO's satellite team "Les Citadins".  During that time she also was the Aquatic Manager for the "Trois-Lacs" school board. In 2008, she moved to the Durham region and joined the Pickering Swim Club's coaching staff as well as the Pickering Master Splashers.