Coach Spotlight Series

Life is full of simple pleasures.

For Sean Baker, a veteran swim club coach for more than 30 years, he’s quite aware of the contentment. But there can also be defiance along the way.

One who abides by clear values, Baker has his memoirs and adventures of building character in young swimmers and helping them set goals in life.

He’s been on the train of growth, learning, making the adjustments and adapting along the way. In some cases, the experience has been invaluable. In others, finding out how to do a great job in challenging situations was an exception.

Baker is like others who know there is a depth of knowledge required to not just be a coach, but a good coach. What he has fulfilled, and in many cases perfected, be it coaching in Kenora, Winnipeg, Regina, Nanaimo, B.C., Hamilton, and Oakville, was to take all the best parts of his experience, tack on his own flavor, and adjust things he had learned from other people.

It’s done all the time, in many careers. But there is a difference between talking and listening as well as watching and doing.

Baker knows that the pursuit of excellence, especially in coaching, is a process that every individual can learn from.

“I try to provide a program for every swimmer to reach his, or her, maximum potential,” said Baker, now the head coach of the Markham Aquatic Club . “Winning goes beyond medals, it has to do with a process that leads to success in the pool and in life.”

Pride, discipline, devotion, and a promise of responsibility, all contribute to what Baker has, and continues, to accomplish with his swimmers. It’s not easy, especially with younger swimmers, but Baker is not one to back away.

“I’m very happy with what I do, I’m my own guy,” he said. “I don’t see myself as a National or Training Centre coach. What I do allows for creativity and autonomy.”

Baker was born in Ottawa, adopted and raised in Kenora. Learning to swim at young age, taught him about goal setting and self-discipline. His first experience as a coach came as a volunteer with the Kenora Aquatic Club and then, while attending the University of Manitoba, took a more serious outlook that led to a job with the Manitoba Marlins Swim Club in Winnipeg.

“I loved the sport, competed, won some medals, but really took a liking to coaching and helping others,” said Baker. “I knew I was good at it, it motivated me, I was passionate and there was success. Things just took off from there.”

Baker points to Blair Tucker, now coaching in Ottawa, for getting him hooked on the aquatic sport.

“It was 1983, I was a young teenager and (Tucker) was coaching in Kenora,” recalled Baker. “I was an average swimmer, but like most kids - with a dream to go to the Olympics. He was a tough coach, demanding great efforts and a positive attitude. He made a huge positive impact in my life. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be a coach today.”

With things going well and a 10-year stint in Oakville, Baker said he was recruited to Markham – a job he accepted in 2020.

“I had an opportunity to do something different and build a program with lots of empowerment and autonomy,” said Baker, whose coaching includes producing swimming champions at the Provincial, National and International levels. “I saw it as a new adventure, but there is also a value in being wanted.”

Having coached several Markham Aquatic Club swimmers to outstanding results at the Canadian Olympic Swim Trials, one of them went on to the Olympics in Tokyo with Tessa Cieplucha making her Olympic debut in the 400 metres individual medley. Cieplucha won Canada’s only gold medal in swimming at the 2019 Pan American Games in Peru and qualified for her first senior national team that same year, by winning a bronze in the 200 metre IM at the Canadian Trials.

A proponent of athletic development, Baker has a belief in developing world class citizens and outstanding swimmers as a by-product.

“Swimming, for me, goes beyond medals,” he said. “Success, for me, is having swimmers transform learning and experience into becoming good citizens. I’m not afraid to stand up for what I believe in.

“I am more of an artistic coach. Attitude and work ethic are important, and I want to build successful swim opportunities. There’s unlimited potential if swimmers have the ability and stick to a process. That’s where sound coaching is a key.”

David Grossman is a multi, award-winning communicator and storyteller with a distinguished career in Broadcasting, Journalism and Public Relations in Sport and Government Relations.