Para swimmer Alyssa Hébert and her coach Shane Esau have been nominated to Team Alberta for the 2025 Canada Summer Games — a national-stage breakthrough for a six-swimmer Airdrie club making national gains with limited resources.
The nominations, confirmed April 23 by Swim Alberta, list Hébert, 19, as the top scoring performer of individual events in the Paralympic Program. Hébert was ranked first on Swim Alberta's Paralympic Program nomination list.
Esau was nominated as Para Coach for Team Alberta. Selections were based on aggregate scoring across eligible individual events, according to Swim Alberta’s nomination criteria. All team members must confirm participation by May 1 and attend mandatory meetings scheduled for late May.
"Just wanted to let you know that Alyssa Hebert and myself have been named to the 2025 Canada Games in St. John's NFLD by Swim Alberta – this was just released yesterday morning!!!" Esau wrote in an April 24 email to DiscoverAirdrie.
Their selection followed a breakout performance at the Swim Alberta Championships in Edmonton, held March 20–23, where Airdrie Phoenix Swim Club (APSC) placed 14th overall out of 30 teams and finished second in the Small Team Championship category.
"While not the largest team at the competition, these athletes represented APSC remarkably," Esau said in a March 28 press release. "Their results speak volumes about what's possible when determination meets potential."
Hébert earned silver in the 200m freestyle and bronze in both the 100m and 50m freestyle events.
"She doesn't have a lot of coordination control," Esau said in an April 9 interview. "But we've been working on just trying to get those strokes to be technically better, rather than just trying to motor her way through the water splash."
"She'll probably make the Canada Games team in the para category," he added. "That will be phenomenal for our team and for the city of Airdrie."
"It's seeing them realize their potential and have a smile on their face," Esau said. "But also know they can still be better. That's what makes it worthwhile to be a coach."
Hébert wasn't the only swimmer making noise in Edmonton. Sarah Schmick, also competing in the para category, brought home six medals — gold in the 100m butterfly, 200m freestyle and 200m IM, plus silver in the 50m freestyle, 100m backstroke and 100m freestyle.
"She actually surprised me," Esau said. "She's in her mid to late 20s, went through COVID, took a year off... and now she's back training full-time again. We're seeing some really good gains with her."
At just 14, Ava Phillips stood out among older competitors, winning gold in the 50m breaststroke and silver in the 200m breaststroke.
"It's cool for the adrenaline to get pumping," Phillips said. "You go home and talk about it with your friends and teammates, congratulate each other — it's all part of it."
"The best part was hanging out with my teammates and laughing and smiling," she said. "And seeing some of my old friends I've competed against."
"Some of the challenges are mental," she added. "You're not always at your best. But with such supportive teammates and an amazing coach who helped me overcome [challenges] and get me ready for finals — that was really helpful."
For Phillips, the wins mattered — but the poolside laughs and team bus energy stayed with her, too.
Coen Stevens, who finished fourth in the 200m breaststroke, said keeping a strong mindset is key. "If you have a bad race, don't let one race ruin your whole meet," he said. "There's a lot of chances to get better."
"I always just try to get better," he said. "I've been practicing for it and working to be better all year."
"Before a long race, you know how it feels and you know it's going to hurt," he said. "But you know you have to keep pushing if you want to do better than you've done before."
"It doesn't matter if it was a good race or not — your teammates will always tell you it was," he said. "That helps."
Two weeks earlier, at the Alberta Winter Trials, the club had already shown its depth. Stephen Bezjack won gold in the 200m IM, silver in the 50m and 200m freestyle, and bronze in the 100m freestyle.
Marianne Cardenas took gold in the 50m backstroke. Madison Fast earned silver in both butterfly events. Hudson Steingart claimed silver in the 100m IM.
According to APSC president Stephen Fast, more than 30 per cent of the club's competitive swimmers qualified for provincials this winter — a benchmark matched by only one other team in the province.
"We are still Alberta's newest club and continue to face training limitations due to a lack of infrastructure," Fast said. "Yet our athletes continue to prove that excellence isn't defined by the size of your team or the age of your club — it's defined by your effort, attitude, and resilience."
The team trains four days a week at Genesis Place and once weekly in Didsbury — a pool it loses access to for two months each spring.
"Our athletes do not train more than 10 hours a week," Esau said. "Some of the big clubs with athletes who are 14, 15, 16 are training upwards of 20."
"Lots of our athletes represent their schools in other sports, which a lot of other larger clubs frown upon. We encourage it."
With a background in exercise physiology, Esau builds every workout on a six-week rotation and never repeats a session. "I swam 25 hours a week growing up," he said.
"That was the thought process then. Now a lot of teams in Europe have dropped down, where the elite athletes are only training 12 to 15 hours a week — but very specific methods."
"In North America, it still tends to be a lot of volume," he added. "We go for specificity."
He believes a new recreation facility in Airdrie could unlock two to three more hours per week for high-performance swimmers. "They want to get better," he said. "That's what keeps this going."
APSC was founded in 2019 following the closure of Airdrie's former swim club. In 2024, the team captured the Small Team Championship banner at provincials — a title it nearly defended this year, finishing second.
And now, from six swimmers and 10 hours of pool time, two names are headed to the Canada Games.
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