National Coaches Week

National Coaches Week is September 14-20 and we will be highlighting five coaches from the Swim Ontario community. It is a time to celebrate positive impact that coaches have on our athletes, sport and community. #ThanksCoach

By David Grossman

Personality can go a long way – especially as a coach.

Let’s look at Dave Tontini. He’s an enthusiastic individual. Some might say he’s very passionate and insatiable when it relates to the sport of swimming.

Take that one step further, in his role as head coach for one of the largest swim clubs in Canada, and Tontini is just the right person parents look for to tutor their children about the dynamics of aquatics.

Tontini cares about the intensity and complexities that go along with winning, the medals, the trophies, the personal best performances and the status of his Oakville Aquatic Club.

It’s a massive organization of some 600 members in a variety of age groups – and a history of success that includes a thrilling second-place club finish at last year’s Ontario Swim Championships.

To know Tontini is to acknowledge that his primary objective is to bring out the best in young people. For him, that amounts to finding the right framework for them to combine joy and elation with hard work and motivation.

Not an easy task, but Tontini – who has done it in past – knows about structure and has the right approach. He also knows that not every swimmer will make it to the Olympic Games or World championships. For many, there are other goals.

“It starts with leadership,” he said. “Good mentors helped me - and my work ethic involves leading by example. Coaches can’t do everything. What is important is balancing relationships. Our swimmers are also great students. They want to keep learning, get better and their commitment and work ethic is never an issue.”

Tontini is a strong believer that swimming teaches more than getting from one end of the pool to the other. He talks about resilience, commitment along with time management and even dealing with failure.

“In life, you don’t always win - and our swimmers understand that things always don’t go their way and it’s okay to fail because you end up learning more than from success,” said Tontini, whose physical dimensions of almost six feet tall and 230 pounds might be more attuned to a contact sport than swimming.

Tontini grew up in the Montreal suburb of Pointe Claire, Que. and was a multi-sport athlete in high school. When he graduated from McGill University with degrees in History and Education, he was also a dominant rugby player and a Quebec all-star in his post-secondary years.

Despite his success on the rugby pitch, his enthusiasm and dedication the water sport won out. Tontini packed in his athletic success and headed to the pool.

“I have had a passion for coaching since I volunteered at age 12,” he recalled. “I had wanted to be a teacher because I enjoyed guiding people – and had some great teachers. I became a product of my environment. There was always a plan, a schedule and I stuck to it.”

Tontini has recollections of the time he filled in as a supply teacher, and it turned out to be a Grade 8 girls dance class specializing in jazz.

“I was fortunate that one girl showed the (dance) routine - and things just followed in line,” he remembered. “It’s something I would have never expected but turned out to be a fun time.”

As for swimming, Tontini learned the activity at a variety of outdoor suburban pools near his home. At age six, he was involved with the Pointe Claire Swim Club. There were times that his love for water was so great that he showed up early in the summer months to help maintenance staff clean the pool, paving the way for quick access.

“I really wasn’t much of a (competitive) swimmer, but there was a part of me that thrived when it related to coaching,” said Tontini, who has been described by colleagues, athletes and parents as a guy with an infectious enthusiasm to excel.

“That first coaching job, I think I was 19, with the Pointe Claire Swim Club working with various age groups, I thoroughly enjoyed it – and it has been that way ever since.”

After nine years in Quebec, coaching every level and age group including his role of Director of the swim club’s sport academy program, Tontini made a move. He headed across the country to become head coach of the Island Swim Club in Victoria, B.C.

Five years later, with an attractive offer from Oakville and a move that would enhance his coaching career, he packed his suitcase again and headed for Ontario.

“Through swimming you become a better person – the mental aspects, skills, ability to focus on performance- it all connects and there’s a can-do attitude,” said Tontini, whose club functions out of the Iroquois Ridge Community Centre, the White Oaks Secondary School pool and the Oakville Trafalgar Community Centre.

Tontini believes a successful swimmer needs more than just speed.

“Good nutrition, working on the mental aspect of what has to get done, the strokes - and then focussing on improvement,” he said. “As coaches, we do everything we can to help our swimmers achieve their goals.”

National Coaches Week in Canada is being recognized from September 14 to 20 and Swim Ontario continues to highlight the superb effort by coaches across the province. Tontini was one of several coaches randomly picked in a special series of stories.

David Grossman is a veteran multi award-winning Journalist and Broadcaster with some of Canada’s major media, including the Toronto Star and SPORTSNET 590 THE FAN, and a Public Relations professional for 50+ years in Canadian sports and Government relations. In 2026, he was inducted to the Toronto Sports Hall of Honour with a Lifetime Achievement Award.