coaches and staff
Kevin Coulman returns for his 15th season with the Calgary Patriots Swim Club, once again providing his leadership as the organization's Head Coach as well as his role as the Gold Squad coach.
Kevin has been coaching in Canada for 23 years. Starting in 1999 he joined the Saskatoon Goldfins Swim Club where he worked with athletes ranging from developmental to national level swimmers. Following his successful 10 years with the Goldfins, Kevin became the Head Coach of the Campbell River Killer Whales which he led until eventually joining the Patriots in 2010. With the Patriots, Kevin has helped numerous swimmers swim with the top universities in the country.
Kevin is a former competitive swimmer and track athlete himself - having, in his youth, pursued both sports at a high level. Kevin has a degree in Kinesiology from the U of S and is a Level Three Certified Coach. He continues to look forward to bringing his knowledge and enthusiasm to the pool everyday.
A long-time pillar of the Calgary Patriots, Chad has had the pleasure of watching the team grow over the last decade and is excited to join us once again for his 12th season.
Chad also works with the Calgary P-Too program where he is a Lead Coach and a Master Evaluator with the I Can Swim Program. Chad was involved in Alberta Summer Swimming where he spent eight seasons working with The Calgary Tritons as a group lead and eventually as their head coach. Chad has spent 8 years with Calgary Masters Swim Club where he has taken on a leadership position in the teams coaching organization.
Chad is a certified level two coach and is working towards completing his NCCP Swimming 301 certification. Chad has over 20 years of experience in swimming as either a coach or a competitive swimmer and hopes to instill his love of the sport in the swimmers.
Marit Anderson returns for her 2nd year with the Calgary Patriots as the Silver Squad coach.
Marit swam with the Patriots for 7 years and attended many national level meets. She also swam internationally in open-water competitions as part of a Swimming Canada team which included a second-place finish in the 2018 prestigious Midmar Mile. Following her success with the Patriots, she then went on to swim with the University of Calgary and represented Canada at FISU World University Games in 2019. Marit is a multiple 1st and 2nd Team All-Canadian as well as a multiple National, U-Sports, and Trials medalist, specializing in mid-distance and distance freestyle. She was a team captain for U of C from 2020 to 2024 and under her leadership, the women’s team won their first CanWest Championship since 2008.
Marit graduated from the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology as a 3 time Academic All-Canadian. Marit is currently working towards completing her NCCP Swimming 201 certification. She hopes to pass on her knowledge of growing up within the Calgary Patriots and being a high-performance athlete while emphasizing mental health, proper training and performance habits, and overall longevity in the sport.
The 2024-2025 swim season will be Jamie's 43rd year coaching competitive swimming. For some of those years he paired coaching and university and he has an undergrad degree in physical education from St. Francis Xavier University and a master's degree in the art and science of coaching from University of Calgary.
Through Jamie's coaching career he has coached with clubs in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and Calgary. He has also represented Canada at 10 international swimming competitions and in 2007 he was awarded the Omega Coach of the Year by Swimming Canada.
His coaching philosophy has always been one that looks to help athletes maximize their potential. Jamie likes to create a challenging environment at the pool each day where the training focus is always on swimming fast. Jamie likes to set very high expectations for the swimmers and he also likes to have the swimmers very involved with the process of becoming a better athletes.
A Calgary native, Brent has coached or been involved in swimming for his entire life. Brent swam for more than 10 years with the Calgary Swordfish Summer Swim team before rejoining the team years later as one of its Sr. group Lead Coaches where he has remained for the last eight seasons. In summer swimming, Brent has coached numerous record holders and provincial medalists.
Previously Brent was the Head Coach of the University of Alberta Masters Swim Club which he started up himself in 2016 and ran for two seasons. Under his leadership the team won small team at master’s provincials in 2017.
Brent is still a Masters swimmer to this day and enjoys a love for the sport as an athlete as well as a coach. Outside of the pool Brent is happily married to his wife Megan of seven years and works as a civil engineer.
Brent is continues to bring his enthusiasm and technical knowledge of swimming to the Calgary Patriots.
Lauren has been with the Calgary Patriots for 5 years as the Black Squad coach.
Lauren has been coaching in Calgary for over a decade. During the summers she is the Head Coach of the Calgary Swordfish Summer Swim Club, which she has been involved with for ten consecutive seasons. Lauren brings with her an expertise and understanding of the fundamentals of competitive swimming and has centered her career around developing fundamentals programs in the teams she has worked with.
Prior to her work with the Swordfish and the Calgary Patriots she coached developmental swimming with the University of Calgary Swim Club from 2010-2018 where she worked with many swimmers and coaches to lead one arm of the team’s developmental program.
Outside of the pool, Lauren holds a BA in Communications and Media Studies and has experience in administration and organization. Lauren is excited to be part of the Calgary Patriots and Black Squad and work with our up and coming young athletes.
Alex has returned for her 3rd year coaching with Patriots, and her 2nd year coaching White Squad.
Alex has a history of swimming within the Calgary Patriots, along with the Calgary P- Too program in which she also has been coaching for over 5 years. Alex is currently attending University of Calgary to become an elementary teacher due to her passion of learning and working with children.
Alex’s philosophy is built around creating a fun introduction to competitive swimming and a safe space for children to grow, to not only enjoy the sport, but also enjoy the aspect of teamwork, leadership, friendship, and dedication. With a strong foundation swimmers can build their skills both within the water, and on deck.
Elsie is returning for her 2nd year as a coach, and her first year coaching the White Squad.
She is a former Patriots swimmer who began coaching two years ago with the Calgary Swordfish Summer Swim Club and has since continued coaching with the Patriots and the Calgary P-Too program. Elsie enjoys working with children and teaching the next generation, and is considering pursuing a future career in education.
As a coach, Elsie focuses on pushing swimmers to reach their full potential while keeping practices fun. She values teamwork and strives to create a safe, enjoyable environment where swimmers can form friendships and look forward to coming to practice.
Richie stokes
Strength and Conditioning Coach
Richie is a new member of the Calgary Patriots coaching staff, responsible for leading the team's strength and conditioning program. He grew up in Toronto, winning junior national titles and setting Ontario junior provincial and national age group records during his time spent with Etobicoke Swim Club. Following his age group career, he moved out to Calgary to swim with UofC, becoming the men's team captain for 3 years, helping his men's team win back-to-back conference titles after going over a decade without. Through his time swimming with UofC his athletic career began to take off, winning multiple relay and individual medals at the USports swimming championships as well as winning the 2022 Canadian Trials in the men's 200 back, qualifying him to compete for Canada at the 2022 World Swimming Championships.
During the later years of Richie's athletic career, he became fascinated with strength work, which led to him designing dryland programs for himself, to be built specifically for swimming performance, and with the hope to minimize swimming injuries as well.
As Richie moves on from his swimming career he looks forward to helping the swimmers at Calgary Patriots learn what it takes to reach the highest level of swimming, while still having fun.
