Cara Clifford (Head Coach)
Cara began her coaching career in 1993 and has been the proud owner of damp deck shoes and drying-out white board markers ever since. She has been coaching with OMSC for so long, she can’t remember what year it all began… we think it’s in the neighborhood of 13 years now! Cara’s approach to swimming emphasizes creating a fun, positive, and supportive training environment. Her goals as a coach include helping new-to-swimming members build confidence, keeping fitness swimmers challenged and engaged, assisting triathletes with building their strength and speed, and encouraging all swimmers to challenge themselves. Coach Cara believes that even adults need to play, so she strives to include a wide variety of workouts and theme days throughout the season. Ask about the Thanksgiving workout, Easter Egg surprise, and Star Wars days!
Cara is also Head Coach / Director of Swimming of the Highwood Current Swim Club.
When not doing swimming things, Cara can be found creating chaos in the kitchen – particularly in December, ahead of Coach Cara’s OMSC Christmas treat day (aka: bribing swimmers to do a hard workout on the last day before the holidays) or FaceTiming / texting / cyber stalking her 2 children who have now retired from competitive swimming and are both studying at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC.
Sharon Barr (Coach)
Sharon is in her third season of coaching with OMSC, and brings over 55 years of swim coaching experience to our club. She is also currently a coach for the Glenmore Seals Swim Club in Calgary, the Okotoks Stingrays Summer Swim Club, and coaches distance training and conditioning through the City of Calgary. Sharon brings a delightful and educated attitude to the deck each day, and has a passion for making each swimmer push themselves and to progress. She coaches Monday and Friday morning swims, and this is her 6th season coaching with Masters.
Sharon was a part of the Pan American games as a swimmer by the age of 14, and has coached swimmers up to the national level. When not at the pools, Sharon can be found sitting and walking dogs, although she loves all animals.