Laurentian swim coach wins Ontario coach of the year award

Phil Parker, coach of Laurentian University's women's swim team, was awarded swim coach of the year by Ontario University Athletics, the organization governing varsity sports in the province.

He wins the award as the women's team currrently ranked 6th in the province heads to Victoria, BC, to compete in the USports swimming championship.

"When your peers recognize you for having a good year it's always nice to see that recognition," Parker said.

Parker credits a good group of "passionate" athletes for making his job easier.

"The swimming parts are sort of the fun part for the coach, because you get to put your feet up and and watch them race, and that's the exciting part."

"The hard part is the day-in, day-out, getting them, going on deck and coaching them every day."

It's an award that's come after 20 years of ups and downs, Parker said.

"It's been a slow climb," Parker said. "It's hard to take on those much larger universities who have such a wide swim club base to choose from for recruiting."

"And geographically, where we are, it's a little tougher to try and get kids up here to visit campus and invest a weekend into the program to see what they think."

"But we're starting to draw a little more attention and it's getting really exciting."

One of the most exciting elements is watching his team grow and mature not only as athletes, but as successful students.

"They're university students," he said. "They have a wide range of emotions and there's days they're really struggling and you get to be a part of that healing process and help them get out of those tough ruts."

"Then four years is done and you get to see them walk across the stage and get that diploma. So it's really special."