Our Coaches
Whitby Swimming's programs are coached by professional and certified coaches, from our Sessional and OP groups through to our Senior group. For questions about training, please contact your swimmer's coach directly.
Sean Baker
Tom Lawrie
Gold Group Coach
Nick McKechnie
TAG Group Coach
Elyse Pinder
Ken Yu
Bronze Group Coach
Chela Breckon
Felipe Escobar
Silver Group Coach
Emily Vandenberg
OPa Group Coach
Coach Profiles
Sean Baker
Building Swimmers. Building Teams. Building Character.
Whitby Swimming is proud to welcome Coach Sean Baker, a highly respected coach with more than three decades of experience developing swimmers, building championship teams and mentoring athletes and coaches at every level of the sport.
Throughout his career, Sean has established a reputation as a team builder. His programs have produced provincial and national championship teams and athletes who have gone on to compete at the international level. His coaching journey has included successful programs in Ontario and across Canada, including championship-winning teams at both the Oakville Aquatic Club and Markham Aquatic Club.
Sean's coaching philosophy is grounded in what he describes as old-fashioned principles and ideals: hard work, discipline, accountability, commitment, respect, loyalty and pride in being part of a team. He believes that swimming is about much more than times and medals. It is an opportunity to develop character, learn how to overcome adversity, accept responsibility and understand the value of working together toward a common goal.
A cornerstone of Sean's approach is long-term athlete development. He believes international success begins with strong foundations. Technical excellence, sound racing skills, aerobic development and consistent training habits are developed progressively, with particular attention to individual medley (IM) foundations and middle-distance freestyle.
For Sean, the middle-distance swimmer represents much of what he values in the sport: technical efficiency, aerobic strength, intelligent pacing, versatility and the ability to execute a race plan under pressure. These qualities provide an important foundation for swimmers who aspire to progress from club competition to provincial, national and international success.
But perhaps Sean's greatest strength is his belief that successful swimming programs are built from the bottom up. Developing young swimmers, supporting coaches, creating team depth and establishing a culture of shared standards are all essential parts of championship programs.
At Whitby Swimming, Sean brings that experience, philosophy and passion to a new generation of swimmers.
The goal is simple: build strong foundations, develop great swimmers, build great teams—and help young people become great competitors and even better people.
Tom Lawrie
Tom has spent his whole life in and around the sport of swimming, from competing across North America at a national level, to teaching lessons in his backyard pool since the age of 14.
Following his mother and older sisters' footsteps, he first started with the original Whitby swim club (WISC) at 7 years old, before moving to Ajax where he would compete until graduating highschool. In that time, he was a multiple club-record holder, provincial medallist, Olympic trials attendee and chosen for the Canada Games selection process.
After his 18U career, Tom was offered and accepted a full scholarship to La Salle University in Philadelphia - an NCAA Division 1 school that is part of the A10 Conference. Here he would have a breakthrough first season with the team, where he won medals and was a multiple finalist at the A10 Conference Championships. This led to him being given the "Most Outstanding Rookie" award for the conference, as well as "Most Valuable Athlete" award from La Salle University.
Tom later began his coaching career with Whitby Swimming while finishing an environmental technology diploma at Durham College. He fell in love with the job that allowed him to share his passion for the sport with the younger generations, and has been here ever since. His personal coaching motto is that "while not everyone can swim 'fast', everyone can swim well", and carries that idea through with every swimmer he has worked with.
Tom is looking forward to this new chapter of Whitby Swimming under Sean Baker, and is excited to help build the club to new levels and aid the swimmers in achieving their goals.
Elyse Pinder
A retired high school teacher, Elyse brings a passion for sports and coaching to the pool. Over the years, she has coached both high school swimming and cross-country running, sharing her love of sport and helping athletes discover their own potential.
Elyse is a lifelong swimmer who has competed in Masters swimming, triathlons, open-water swimming, and synchronized swimming. She’s also an avid runner who spent many years competing in road races across Ontario.
When she’s not in or around the pool, Elyse enjoys knitting and crochet, or spending time with her awesome twin sister, Suzi, who also happens to be the Whitby Swimming Office Manager! Elyse is excited to share her knowledge, enthusiasm, and encouragement with swimmers of all ages and abilities.
Ken Yu
Ken started swimming at six in China, and the sport has been a big part of his life ever since. What began as a love for swimming eventually grew into a passion for coaching and helping others discover what they’re capable of. With more than a decade of coaching experience, Ken has worked with swimmers of all ages and levels, from beginners taking their first strokes to national-level athletes.
For Ken, coaching is about much more than improving times. He believes in building strong foundations, encouraging consistent effort, and creating a positive environment where swimmers feel supported, challenged, and excited to learn. He especially enjoys seeing swimmers gain confidence, discover their strengths, and achieve things they may not have thought were possible.
Outside the pool, Ken is a passionate triathlete and multiple-time Ironman and Ironman 70.3 finisher. When he’s not coaching or training, you’ll often find him in his backyard with a telescope, exploring the night sky.
Ken is excited to be part of the Whitby Swimming family and looks forward to getting to know each swimmer, supporting their journey, and helping them grow both in and out of the pool.
Emily Vandenberg
Emily is a nationally qualified Master’s swimmer and attended the University of Denver in Denver, CO and the University of Toronto. She won MVP in the Summit League Conference Championships in 2021 and achieved Scholar Athlete All-American Honourable Mention status several times. Emily started her career swimming for Ajax and later joined Whitby, notably attending Olympic Trials and setting several national age group relay records. She is a current Ontario Master’s record holder in the 50m and 100m BK in the Women’s 25-29 category.
Emily is an NCCP Level 1 certified coach, in the process of obtaining Level 2 certification. She is passionate about guiding swimmers towards building good habits and being kind, well-rounded athletes.
When she is not coaching, she can be found teaching French, spending time with her friends, family and cats, playing hockey, or reading a book. She will be coaching our Olympic Prospect swimmers to continued success.
Felipe Escobar
Developing Swimmers. Developing Young Minds.
Whitby Swimming is proud to welcome back Coach Felipe Escobar, a former Whitby Dolphin who started his own journey in the sport right here in the Whitby swimming community.
Felipe went on to attend Laurentian University, where he had the opportunity to graduate as both a university swimmer and a teacher. He brings together these two experiences in his approach to coaching: understanding how athletes learn, how they develop, and how to help each swimmer reach their individual potential.
With five years of teaching and coaching experience, including time with Pickering Swim Club and Canadian Dolphins Swim Club in Vancouver, Felipe has worked with swimmers across a variety of ages and abilities. He believes coaching is about more than simply improving times—it is about developing the habits, mindset and character that allow swimmers to become their best selves.
Felipe's philosophy is simple: whatever you choose to do in life, strive to be great at it. Whether you are a swimmer, a student, a teammate—or even a barista—if you're going to be a barista, you better strive to be the best barista in the world. A big part of Felipe's coaching philosophy is helping swimmers “feel comfortable feeling uncomfortable.” Growth rarely happens when we stay within what is familiar. Learning to embrace challenges, make mistakes, push through difficult moments and keep improving is what allows swimmers to grow—not only in the pool, but in life.
As a former Whitby Dolphin, Felipe is excited to return to where his own swimming journey began and help develop the next generation of Whitby swimmers and young people.
Nick McKechnie
Coach Nick is a NCCP 201 certified coach and is excited to return to the Whitby Swimming coaching staff for another year. After nearly drowning twice as a youngster Coach Nick grew up to become a reasonably successful age group swimmer and is grateful to have a career in coaching that allows him to share his love of the water with anyone of any age or ability.
Coach Nick began coaching in 2001 and after 5 years, left the profession to pursue other interests, namely theatre, music and gardening. He returned to coaching in 2021 and discovered that the skills required to act, play music and maintain a Garden, enhanced his ability to motivate, inspire and support the athletes he works with.
Performing believable characters on stage for an audience requires empathy, availability, vulnerability, being present, and he would argue that using the context of competitive swimming to help young people build and fortify their internal supports of which they can rely on for their self worth is a better application of those skills then helping a corporation sell their products.
Coach Nick believes that 20% of coaching swimming is understanding how to swim efficiently to the wall and back and the other 80% is asking the swimmers how they are doing and caring about what their answer is. Swimmers can expect to be pushed, challenged, and held accountable for the way they train, but they can also expect to be seen, heard and supported during the process.
Philosophy is Latin for “love of wisdom” and Coach Nicks coaching philosophy is simply that… Coaching philosophy.
Chela Breckon
Whitby Swimming welcomes Coach Ché Breckon to the Age Group Coaching roster for the 2026/2027 season! Chéla Breckon, or better known on the deck as Coach Ché, has participated in aquatics since before she was born! With an aquatics professional as a mother, Ché swam her first 25m at the age of four and swam a mile across the mighty Ottawa River at age 7 - she is a water lover through and through! Having experienced health issues as a youth swimmer, Ché made lemonade with her young-life setbacks and began volunteering to learn how to coach at age 11 with Breakers Swim Team in Huronia Region. While there, she coined their development program model and coached the up-and coming swimmers until moving onto post-secondary.
After business school and beginning her career in the field of strategic leadership, she yearned to return to the pool deck. Having relocated to the Ottawa Valley area to be closer to family, she was able to resume coaching with Deep River Candus Swim Club working alongside her mother. A few seasons later, Ché took on a new role with The Petawawa Predators Swim Club, one of Canada's last standing Military Youth Swim Teams. Ché has acted as the employer of the coaching staff there since 2014 and Head Coach since 2022, providing program excellence and coach development to the deck in a smaller club environment.
Since 2011, Coach Ché has served five terms on the Swim Ontario Coaches Committee, facilitated numerous training camps for Eastern Region, built strong and sustainable small clubs in the middle of nowhere, mentored up-and-coming coaches, participated in Swim Ontario Strategic Planning projects, helped to certify more than 40 Swimming 101 coaches before entering post-secondary as Student Coach Athletes, and achieved her Swimming 201 before moving onto Whitby Swimming. Ché is eager to bring her love for the sport to a new environment and club, while continuing her coach developer role in Petawawa.
Coach Ché values integrity and respect in sport above all. Life is about a collection of experiences and how you handle them. And sport is a simulation of life. When young people can be encouraged and led by adults who hold strong to their principles and integrity, in the utmost respect for all involved, they help contribute to broad cultural shifts for the better.
Ché is a seasoned leader in many industries and swim coaching is one of her favourite tools. She values teaching and learning with the athletes, sharing lifelong experiences that inform a balanced adulthood, and fueling young people with the perspective of themselves that inspires them to feel confident and capable of handling it all. Coach Ché says that "anyone can teach about speed, swimming and focus on the results - but great coaches understand that excellence requires reverence for the process and the person. Release preciousness about the outcome and of potential as you see it, to experience life beyond your wildest dreams."
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