Wall of Distinction 2026: Three-time coach of year Swallow led Griffins swim teams to eight team banners

Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

This is the first of four features on the 2026 class being inducted into the MacEwan Griffins' Wall of Distinction, which will be celebrated during the department's annual Awards Gala this Saturday.

Today: Linda Swallow (Marshall), Swimming

Wednesday: TBA

Thursday: TBA

Friday: TBA

EDMONTON – Remnants of a once-thriving competitive swimming program at MacEwan still exist when standing on the pool deck in the Sport and Wellness Centre.

Notably, it's hard to miss the ravenous Griffin with its giant wings in full breast-stroke pose as it watches over the pool deck from high above like a sentinel, poised to attack.

That aptly sums up the Griffins' swim program, which was always on the hunt, garnering 12 team championships and netting 19 individual all-star honours over a 14-year span from 1993 to 2007 before the sport was discontinued by the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference.

Linda Swallow (nee Marshall) was head coach of the program for all but four years, presiding over eight team championships from 1997 to 2007 (and all of the aforementioned all-star honours). She also coached six ACAC silver medal teams and three bronze-winning squads.

Only two other tournament sport coaching staffs have won more banners in MacEwan's history. 

On April 11 at the Griffins' Awards Banquet, Swallow will be honoured for her contributions to MacEwan Athletics over a dominant decade as she takes her place in the Wall of Distinction as part of the Class of 2026.

"It's super exciting," she said. "When I got the call from Joel (Mrak, MacEwan Athletics Director), I was speechless for a little bit because I couldn't believe it. Swimming was such a passion for most of my life and as I look back it was probably one of the best times of my life being involved with MacEwan Athletics. It's pretty honouring, for sure."

Swallow is one of only five coaches in the entire history of MacEwan Athletics to win at least three Coach of the Year awards for their sport, having been named ACAC Swim Coach of the Year in 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2006-07.

Swallow, left, was named ACAC swim coach of the year in 2004-05 as the Griffins swept men's, women's and combined team championships.

"I think it was probably one of the best times of my life," said Swallow, who ended her coaching career in 2007 to start a family and now works as a firefighter in the Edmonton area. "Just the team camaraderie was unique, for sure, and if you could talk to any of the members of those teams today, it was probably one of the best times of their life, as well. 

"I still keep in touch with some swimmers from different years that I have coached and have run into multiple people throughout the years. You just chat about that time, and it was only good memories."

Among those was the MacEwan pool itself, and the atmosphere surrounding it when ACAC competitions were held there.

"We hosted at MacEwan," she said. "It's an interesting pool. It's probably one of the narrowest pools that I've ever swum in, so it was always challenging. We crammed in there. It's like the minimum width allowable for a lane. It was always interesting. 

"It was all hands on deck when we held a competition. I don't know if they still have the digital scoreboard there. We did have touchpads that we put in the pool. But it was a lot of manual stuff. We had digital, but we had everything on a manual backup. My whole family got involved. You've got people doing the scoring. It was a lot of fun. 

"Everybody would take turns, whether it would be at NAIT, Mount Royal, (Grande Prairie), Keyano College – just depending on who was hosting."

The MacEwan pool, as seen in this 2006 file photo, was the site of many ACAC competitions over the Griffins' swim team history from 1993 to 2007.

The latter years of her tenure were the most successful as the Griffins swept the ACAC combined, men's and women's team titles at the 2004-05 championships and repeated the feat in 2005-06. In 2006-07, the MacEwan women and combined team took the titles, led by Kristopher Yap-Chung, the only Griffin to win ACAC Swimmer of the Year.

Kristopher Yap-Chung was the only Griffin to be named ACAC swimmer of the year, an award he won in 2006-07.

"Team titles were lots of fun, especially when they do get to compete in a relay-type situation where they're actually working together," said Swallow. "Of course, (there were) lots of relationships with all the other teams that were involved, so there was some healthy rivalry going on."

Swallow noted NAIT and Mount Royal were MacEwan's biggest rivals but were also teams they enjoyed some shared experiences with.

"We also did a lot of travelling together," she said. "We went to Victoria for a training camp for Reading Week. I can't remember which year, but Mount Royal, NAIT and MacEwan went there for a fun training camp. 

"Usually every winter, we'd go to Jasper and do a training camp in the mountains. One of my good friends used to coach for Mount Royal and one of the coaches who got me into it – Jeff Riddle – used to coach at NAIT, so that's where my college coaching career started was with the Ooks."

Linda Swallow (nee Marshall) first started coaching the Griffins swim team in 1997-98.

Swallow was a competitive swimmer in her youth, representing Olympian and Keyano Swim Clubs in Edmonton from ages 10-17, becoming a national level swimmer at her peak. She was also a successful runner and triathlete, winning the Kelowna Marathon in 1996 and completing the Penticton Ironman four times.

Swallow coached at Keyano Swim Club, with the MacEwan Masters Swim Team and at NAIT before the opportunity came along in 1997 to head up the Griffins' team.

"The swimming program definitely was smaller, for sure," she said of how it compared to other sports at MacEwan at the time. "It was existing students and it kind of became a recruiting process. One year I had to hold tryouts, which I didn't always have to do. I had one of the basketball coaches at the time – Jim Bonin – who had a swimming background (assist) because I had 40 or so people come out and I was like, 'I need some help.' I didn't always have an assistant coach, so he helped me vet some people. 

"The swimming program definitely got stronger over the years."

The Griffins were the ACAC bronze medallists as a team in 1998-99.

Swallow built a culture of relying on one another and it led to success.

"They worked really hard," she said. "I think I had a good rapport and relationship with every single one of my athletes. It was the culture that we had. Everybody worked hard. You work hard, you do well, you play hard."

Among the more rewarding things that came after Swallow's coaching career was done was a Facebook message from a former athlete, who joined the swim team along with his brother after previously playing two seasons for the Griffins men's hockey team.

"They probably wrote me one of the nicest letters from an athlete," said Swallow. "To this day, I still stay in touch with those boys. 

"It was interesting. Every sport offers a different environment. I think (swimming) was a bit of a breath of fresh air. You treat people with respect, it's easy to get people to work hard. Without a yelling environment, it was a really positive experience."

The letter closes with a line that truly sums up the impact that Swallow had at MacEwan.

"The influence of a great coach is never forgotten."