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!

Annick Foukal

Annick was born and raised on the North Shore, where her love for water began early—she might even say she dreamed of becoming a mermaid. Inspired by Marianne Limpert’s 1996 Olympic silver medal, she dove into competitive swimming with the West Van Otters just before her 10th birthday. Within two years, she was training among the club’s top swimmers, later competing internationally with the SFU Varsity team across Canada, the U.S., and Mexico.

After chronic shoulder injuries ended her competitive career in 2008, Annick shifted her focus to coaching. She led programs in North Vancouver and Whistler, emphasizing injury prevention and fostering a love of swimming at every age. Her coaching philosophy centers on strong technical foundations, creativity, and keeping swimmers connected to their inner child.

Annick works full-time as the Retail Manager at the North Vancouver shop for Team Aquatic Supplies. As much fun as that is though, she would rather coach the awesome members of EBSC. When she’s not on deck, she’s often in the ocean or traveling—most recently island-hopping and open-water swimming in Croatia. She’s already planning her next adventure in Indonesia, proving that once a water baby, always a water baby.

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...

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.

Gilles Beaudin ​ ​​(Substitute)

Born in Montreal into a French-Canadian military family, Gilles spent his childhood moving across the country before settling in CFB Greenwood, Nova Scotia where he discovered his love of swimming. After a hesitant start in Red Cross lessons, an invitation to watch a swim meet at age eleven sparked a lifelong passion. Gilles quickly advanced through the Red Cross levels and joined the Greenwood Dolphins Swim Club, beginning his competitive swimming journey.

He went on to swim varsity at Acadia University and later at Université Laval, where he also helped coach the masters swim club—his introduction to masters swimming. In 1982, Gilles moved to Vancouver and trained for a decade with the UBC Masters Swim Club alongside several Olympians including Jack Kelso, Ralph Hutton and Graham Welbourne. Very inspiring to say the least. Gilles joined EBSC in 1998, achieving FINA Top Ten rankings in the 55–59 age group before a torn rotator cuff ended his competitive career. He has since served on the club’s Executive and continue to give back through coaching.
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Outside the club, Gilles works as a beach lifeguard in the summer and yearlong as a lifeguard and swim instructor at the downtown YWCA, where teaching adults to swim is one of his greatest joys.