The Newmarket Stingrays Swim Club Board of Directors is pleased to announce the hiring of Dave Ling as the new Head Coach of the Newmarket Stingrays effective July 1, 2020.
Having spent the last four years as the Head Coach of the St. John’s Legends Swim Club, Coach Dave is very excited to return to Ontario, along with his wife and young daughter. Even at 6 foot 4, Dave has big shoes to fill in replacing retiring Head Coach Alan Swanston who has coached the Stingrays successfully for over 30 years.
“I have a great deal of respect for Alan Swanston and what he has built with the Stingrays,” says Ling, “I would consider it a great opportunity to continue the tradition of excellence in the pool while also developing high quality community members outside of the pool that Alan has cultivated.”
Coach Dave has over 12 years coaching experience and 17 years as a swimmer that he will be bringing to the Stingrays. His first 8 years coaching were with the Toronto Swim Club where he worked his way up and honed his craft working with Byron MacDonald and Bill O’Toole before taking the Head Coach role in St. John’s. Dave’s competitive swimming career was primarily with the Brock Aquatics Team and University of Toronto where he participated in Canadian Olympic Trials (2000 and 2004), was a three-time Team Captain at U of T and received many awards.
While in St. John’s Coach Dave restructured and rebuilt a club that continued Provincial success while also developing up to claiming Provincials Championships in neighboring Nova Scotia in 2018 and 2019. Under Coach Dave’s leadership the St. John’s team broke over 200 Provincial Records while continually qualifying swimmers up through the Easterns and Sr. National levels.
“We are very excited to find such a talented coach to take over the Newmarket Stingrays” says Stingray’s President Matthew Posno. “We welcome Dave’s passion, enthusiasm, and technical knowledge to continue the Stingray’s tradition of developing great kids that swim really, really fast. We are confident that Dave’s transparency and open communication style will create strong relationships with swimmers, parents, and the Greater Newmarket community.”