Saskatoon teacher coaches at Canada Games

Though she did not have much coaching experience before, Tiffany Smith was able to take part in a rather prestigious competition.

The 25-year-old Saskatoon resident was part of the Saskatchewan coaching staff for the synchronized swimming competition at the Canada Winter Games.
The Games, which were held in Halifax, ran from Feb. 12-27.

Smith is Ojibway and a member of Manitoba’s Peguis First Nation. She was able to help coach the Saskatchewan club as she was one of nine individuals taking part in a pilot project called the Aboriginal Apprentice Coach Program.

The project was made possible through a partnership with the Aboriginal Sport Circle, the Canada Games Council and the Coaching Association of Canada.

The program goal was to provide Aboriginal participants with the experience of working alongside other qualified coaches in a multi-sport competition.

“I think it was a really good experience,” said Smith, a former synchronized swimming competitor who retired from the sport seven years ago, following her 14-year synchro career.

Smith was the only Saskatchewan resident who took part in the Aboriginal coach program. It was a friend who suggested the program to her and she was rather interested upon hearing about it.

“It brought me back into the sport,” said Smith, who is also an elementary teacher at Saskatoon’s Montgomery School.

Smith has also been helping out with her local synchronized swimming club, the Saskatoon Aqualenes.
“I’ve been coaching in the club usually one day per week,” she said. “I might do some more now that the Games’ experience is over.”

Saskatchewan’s contingent at the Canada Winter Games included one team (eight swimmers and two alternates), a pair of duets and a pair of solo competitors.

Smith said Saskatchewan had a rather respectable showing in the team competition.

“We placed fifth out of 10 teams,” she said.

The Quebec squad captured the gold medal and the teams from Alberta and Ontario won the silver and bronze medals, respectively.

Saskatchewan also finished behind fourth-place British Columbia.

Saskatchewan’s duet teams and solo competitors also failed to grab any hardware. Yet Smith was pleased to be a part of it all.

“It was a high-energy competition and Halifax was an exciting place to be,” she said.

Though her involvement with the Aboriginal Apprentice Coach Program is now over, Smith said she will continue to coach.

“I’d like to stick with it,” she said.

In the year leading up to the Halifax games, Smith was heavily involved in numerous camps and clinics that were organized by the province’s governing body for the sport, Synchro Saskatchewan.

These events were not only held in her hometown of Saskatoon but in Regina. As well, several swimmers from the province’s Canada Winter Games team reside in that city.

“We hired guest clinicians (for the camps and clinics),” Smith added. “I learned some really good things from them.”

The Canada Winter Games are held every four years. Synchronized swimming was just one of the 20 sports that were contested at the Games in Halifax.

Photo Caption: Tiffany Smith helped coach the Saskatchewan club as one of nine individuals taking part in a pilot project called the Aboriginal Apprentice Coach Program.