Meet our EBSC Coaches

We at EBSC are fortunate to always have amazing coaches season after season. They do more than just coach the club and we want it known that they are real people just like you and me. To help with that, here is a little something they each have written to helps us get to know them better!

Markus Thormeyer

Markus joined the EBSC coaching team in 2025. He has gained extensive knowledge through his competitive swimming career, and now he wants to share this knowledge to help others improve. He believes solid swimming foundations all stem from proper technique, and designs workouts with that in mind. He believes masters swimming should be a fun environment where swimmers can push themselves to reach their potential alongside their peers. 

Markus started swimming competitively around the age of 9. He swam throughout elementary and high school with the Winskill Dolphins Swim Club in Tsawwassen. As a backstroke and freestyle specialist, he qualified for his first junior national team at 15 and his first senior national team at 17. After graduating from high school, he began his undergraduate degree at UBC, where he continued representing Canada internationally, earning medals at world championships and the Commonwealth Games, and competing at 2 Olympic Games. 

Markus retired after the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and quickly started the PhD program at UBC Zoology. After taking a brief hiatus from swimming, Markus returned to compete as a masters swimmer with EBSC in 2024 and fell in love with the community. Every day, Markus is grateful for the opportunity to coach such a fantastic group.soon...

Kirsten Douglas

Kirsten has been swimming competitively since they were 4 years old, with their specialty being the butterfly events. Throughout high school, their passion for swimming grew, culminating in competing at the 2016 Olympic Trials, where they were recruited to the UBC Thunderbirds women's swim team - the most decorated varsity team in Canadian sports history. They swam for UBC from 2016-2021, where they were part of the legendary squad that went undefeated at both the Canada West Conference Championships and Canadian National University Championships for four years straight.
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After finishing their undergraduate degree in Accounting and retiring from competitive swimming, they took a short break from the pool before coming to the realization that they missed racing and being a part of a team, and joining English Bay. They love the inclusive, supportive environment at EBSC.

When Kirsten's not in the pool, you can find them surfing, skiing, reading, or taking care of their many houseplants!​

Erika ​Seltenreich-Hodgson

Erika has loved the water since before she could walk and began swimming competitively at the age of 10. She made her first junior national team at 15 and her first senior national team at 17, representing Canada internationally from 2013-2019, including at the Rio Olympics in 2016. She also passionately swam for the UBC Thunderbirds from 2013-2018, alongside Markus and Kirsten.

When she retired rather tumultuously from swimming in 2019, she thought she would never return to the sport again, but it turns out her love for the water transcends the, at times, traumatic training of an elite athlete. After spending some time solely chasing pretty oceans to float in, she felt a pull to return to the pool – which she did by joining the Brighton Master’s Swim Club while living in England the last 4 years. At first, this new swimming chapter was motivated solely by being able to take part in her favourite part of practice: post-training team breakfast. However, over the years she discovered that swim practice itself can be quite a fun form of exercise.

Now that she’s moved back to Canada, Erika is excited to join the EBSC swimming community as a coach (and mayyybe as a swimmer), hoping to bring enthusiasm, enjoyment and a touch of hard work to pool decks near you.​

Michael DiPietro

Michael began swimming at 5 years old in “Mommy & Me” classes at the local YMCA and was instantly hooked. He joined his summer league team at 7 and the YMCA club team at 11, eventually competing nationally through university. Specializing in breaststroke, with butterfly and IM close behind, Michael excelled in mid-distance events despite wishing he were a sprinter. 

As a freshman at SCAD University, he earned his first nationals qualification before dual shoulder injuries ended his collegiate career early. After relocating to Vancouver, he returned to the sport as a masters swimmer with EBSC, drawn to the club’s queer-inclusive environment—a first in his swimming experience. The team reignited his love for the sport, leading him to set new personal bests, team and provincial records, and qualify for the 2017 World Masters Championships. 
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Today, Michael’s passion lies in coaching. He emphasizes quality over quantity, with a focus on technique, strong foundations, and challenging, high-intensity sets designed to help swimmers reach their full potential. 

Bryan Iliscupidez ​​(Substitute)

Bryan Iliscupidez is enjoying his fourth season as a coach for English Bay. At the age of 10, he began noncompetitive swimming at the Red Deer Catalina Swim club in Alberta. Following that first year, Bryan earned a spot from Regionals to Provincials by the end of the full season. The only issue was with breaststroke being his predominant stroke, having been faster than his freestyle times.

Bryan completed his final year as a club swimmer at age 17, making a provincial team to swim at the North American Challenge Cup in LA, and wrapped up his competitive history at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Trials. 

He competed a single year with the University of Alberta Golden Bears, which ended up becoming very mentally gruesome, having lost the affinity for his reasons to swim. While taking time off from swimming, he transferred to, and graduated from, Red Deer College with a Business Marketing degree in 2012, but still coaching for the Catalina swim club.  This reinvigorated his love for the sport,  experiencing the joy from his athletes from a day to day basis.

Bryan is looking forward to meeting and learning about every swimmer in EBSC, so please bare with him as he continues to relearn names he's been given several times.

Brett Goldhawk ​ ​​(Substitute)

Brett has swum and coached with English Bay since moving to Vancouver in early 2020. Growing up in Winnipeg, he swam competitively throughout his youth with the St. James Seals Swim Club and the Manta Swim Club. He later swam with the University of Manitoba Bisons, where he honed his skills in his signature events: the 200 butterfly, 400 individual medley and distance freestyle.
 
With several national-level meets under his belt — and tuition bills to pay — Brett decided to hang up his goggles and start coaching. He first worked with youth transitioning into competitive swimming, and loved seeing young swimmers grow and gain confidence and pride in their abilities. He later began coaching Masters, quickly realizing that helping adults achieve their goals was equally fulfilling — plus, they throw better socials.
 
After a decade coaching from the sidelines, Brett was delighted to start swimming again himself when he moved to Vancouver and discovered EBSC. Being new to the city, he’s grateful for the friendship and community the team offers. As a substitute coach, he aims to foster a positive and motivating environment, believing that laughter, teamwork and a love of the water are just as important as pace times. Outside the pool, he’s an avid cyclist, runner, hiker and open-water swimmer.