Dartmouth swim coach finds national success doing what she loves

Swim coach Mikayla Tyrell was one of five women chosen to participate in Swimming Canada’s Women in Coaching workshop in Budapest.

Dartmouth Crusaders swim coach Mikayla Tyrell was one of only five women chosen by Swim Canada to take part in their Women’s in Coaching Program.

“It just kind of indicated that I’m doing something right with the club that I’m at right now,” said Tyrell of her experience in Budapest this past December. “To be recognized in Canada and to get this opportunity again, it’s just the recognition is great.”

Tyrell went to Dalhousie University in Halifax for Kinesiology and started coaching at that time. She left the Maritimes to take a job in her field but fell back into coaching and took it on full time.

“I love working with the athletes and especially, I call it like the light bulb moment, when something we’ve been working on, it could be weeks, suddenly clicks,” she tod CTV News. “And the kind of joy when they start to actually understand that and see that progress is really exciting for me.”

Being part of the project meant that Tyrell would go with the national team to the meet in Hungary and, when she got back, share her experience, knowledge, and expertise with other female coaches in the province.

“They gave me the opportunity to learn and grow and then in return, I’m trying to help the other coaches in the area get the same opportunities or learn the knowledge from myself and the other, female coaches,” she explained.

“We held a Women in Coaching lunch, where we got coaches together during one of our swim meets. Coaches of all levels and stages of their careers and brought everyone into a room just to interact and chat with each other and gain a little bit of knowledge, which is an opportunity that a lot of younger coaches don’t get as frequently.”

Tyrell’s athletes say she makes the process, training and hard hours worth it.

“I think it’s that she motivates us to practice,” said Lauren Trenholm, a swimmer with the club. “And she just makes it fun. Even though it’s really hard, she pushes us to do our best. She gets us out of our comfort zone.”

“Her energy is really high and it’s infectious,” added Aofie Carr. “She has a coaching voice and you can hear it from across the whole pool and it’s really motivating to just keep going.”

“She reminds me of my goals and it just really helps me to just do my best,” said Pippa Fulmer.

All three have been swimming for over four years and don’t mind the early morning practice so long as they continue to see the results.

“I love the reward of challenging myself and thinking that I can’t do it and then doing even better than I expected,” said Carr. “It’s just really satisfying seeing my work pay off.”

“Building up the success, just like getting better and just watching my progress,” said Trenholm of her performance with the club.

As for Tyrell’s motivation, it comes down to her athletes.

“Kids in general feed off of the energy that you present to them. So, if I’m having an off day, they’ll notice,” she said. “So, when they’re coming in early in the morning, they’re showing up for me, I want to show up for them.”

“They actually want to be here. They might go on to compete at the international or national level but the long-term goal is to stay active for life.”

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