About Us – Alderwood Teddy Bares masters swim team

December 4, 2025December 4, 2025About Us, Annual Meet, Meets, News, Sports

Fourth annual Ted Roach Memorial swim meet – January 25, 2026

Three adults swimming freestyle in two lanes of a pool. — Photo by Gregg Thurlbeck

We will be hosting the fourth annual Ted Roach Memorial swim meet at Alderwood Pool on Sunday, January 25, 2026.

The meet at our six-lane, 25-yard pool offers a fun and inclusive atmosphere where swimmers will have a chance to set a provincial or national record that could stand for a generation. With so few yards meets, records are rarely challenged.

As well as the usual 50s, 100s, and 200s, we always offer one distance event each year. This year we’re running the 1650-yard freestyle race. Spaces in this event fill up quickly, so register now.

Come for the food and stay for the enthusiastic and supportive vibe.

Registration for the meet is now open. Visit the Swim Meets page of the MSO website for more information.

December 3, 2025December 4, 2025About Us, News

December Swim Schedule

Alderwood Pool will be closing on Monday, December 8, 2025, for maintenance.

We will take one week off, and then we’ll be doing a tour of the pools of south Etobicoke for the remainder of the month.

Click on this December 25 Swim Schedule calendar for a printable version.

Here’s the schedule:

December 8, 10 & 14 – no swimming

December 15, 17 & 21 – Norseman

December 22 – Memorial

December 28 & 29 – Norseman

We’ll be back at Alderwood in early January.

September 13, 2025September 13, 2025About Us, News, Sports

A Welcome to Our New Coach

A portrait of Coach Jerome on deck during practice. — Welcome to the pool deck, Coach Jerome!

The ATB executive is excited to introduce our new coach: Jerome Barber!

Jerome is a former competitive swimmer from south Etobicoke. He has a degree in Kinesiology and is currently enrolled in teacher’s college.

Jerome will be on deck Monday nights this fall. Later in the season he may switch up his coaching day so our Wednesday and Sunday swimmers will get a chance to benefit from his instruction.

Welcome, Jerome!

February 11, 2025February 12, 2025About Us, Annual Meet, Meets, News, Sports

3rd Annual Ted Roach Memorial swim meet

Author: Gregg Thurlbeck

On Sunday, January 26, 2025, more than 100 masters swimmers, ranging in age from 18 to 93, took to the starting blocks for the 3rd annual Ted Roach Memorial swim meet. This was the highest attendance since the Covid shut down, and the meet was both fun and fast.

A total of 44 Ontario Records were either broken or established over the course of the meet with new records being posted at both ends of the age spectrum. Relay teams from the Royal Military College filled in some gaps in the Ontario short-course yards [SCY] record book in the youngest of the masters relay age groups (72 – 99). Meanwhile the Trillium Y team established a 4 x 100 yard freestyle relay record in the 320+ age group.

As in past years, once the main meet had wrapped up, the Alderwood swim team took to the water for their chance to race. Linda Berry added one more Ontario Record to the day’s total with her 200byard Backstroke. And an additional 17 club records were broken, many of them by the new, younger members of the team, Andrew Knaggs, Jerome Barber, Frances Low and Carmen Quiroz Vasquez. Nice to have more 20- and 30-somethings swimming with the team and helping with the swim meet.

2025 was my final year as Meet Manager. After more than a decade and a half, it’s time to hand things off. Liz Canrinus will be taking on the role of Meet Manager, starting with the 2026 event, and I’m sure that the meet will continue to be a highlight of the Masters Swimming calendar.

January 6, 2025January 6, 2025About Us, Annual Meet, Meets, News, Sports

Seeking a New Head Swim Coach

We are seeking an enthusiastic and experienced Head Coach to begin September 2025. If you are interested, or know someone who may be, please read the job description and contact us.

November 19, 2024January 6, 2025About Us, News, Sports, Uncategorised

Jody’s recommendations

I just got back from a conference in Florida and I’d like to make a plug for places2swim.com, the update of the much loved swimmersguide.com site tended to by some saint of a guy called Bill Haverland. This is an incredible database of pools for actual swimming, all over the world. You still need to look at the web site for the city or club or whatever for details like lane swim times, prices, parking, etc. but it’s still an amazing resource that I’ve used many times. My conference in Florida was at a very fancy resort that had a lap pool for guests (marked red on the places2swim website as there is no public access), and I added a review about how hard it was to swim in because it had no markings whatsoever. Check out places2swim.com so that you can swim while away, and be sure to help out others by adding info!

March 26, 2024July 25, 2024About Us, Meets, News, Provincials, Provincials2, Sports

2024 MSO Provincial Championships

The weekend of the 2024 MSO Provincial Championships (results) started out with a final blast of winter but it didn’t put a chill on a terrific weekend of swimming at the Markham Pan-Am Pool. A total of 252 athletes swam 1225 races over the course of the 3-day event. A total of 94 of those swims were record breaking.

The Alderwood Teddy Bears had nearly 30 members or family of members helping out with the running of the meet. So, the club can be very proud of the efforts that went into this event.

February 15, 2024July 25, 2024About Us, Annual Meet, Meets, News, Sports

Ted Roach Memorial 2024 Meet: Testimonial

The 2nd Ted Roach Memorial SCY swim meet was held on January 28, 2024 and nearly 100 swimmers from across the province took part. Thank you to everyone who came out to the Alderwood Pool to swim, and to all our hard-working officials.

We look forward to welcoming you back in January 2025.

Testimonial:

” There are not enough thank yous for an awesome meet! I felt unprepared and frustrated upon arrival not having my envelope (was given to a teammate I’d never met) or heat sheets….

But that quickly went away with the printed sheets everywhere and with everyone’s willingness to help, from volunteers to fellow swimmers, to other team’s coaches!!!

We even got to deck enter at the VERY LAST SECOND….a relay race thanks to Gregg’s super fast efficiency!!!!! And we win it!!!

The food was incredible!! Super impressed with the list of ingredients in all the foods!! Your club truly did an amazing job to make everyone feel welcomed, safe and athletic!! THANK YOU 🙏🏻 THANK YOU 😊 THANK YOU “

December 14, 2023July 25, 2024About Us, Annual Meet, Meets, News, Sports

Ted Roach Memorial Swim Meet

January 2023 saw the return of what had been the longest-running annual swim meet in Ontario.

Before Covid came along to disrupt just about every aspect of the swimming world, the Alderwood Teddy Bares swim meet had celebrated its 45th anniversary. And while it would have been amazing to reach the 50 year mark, the Covid shut down gave us the opportunity to rebrand our meet in honour of our club’s founder, Ted Roach.

On January 28, 2024 we will host the second annual Ted Roach Memorial swim meet. The meet package is now available on the Masters Swimming Ontario website.

Since the 2024 MSO Provincial Championships are being held in the GTA, at the Markham Pan Am Pool, we hope that lots of masters swimmers from the GTA and the surrounding area will take the opportunity to get a few races under their belts prior to the big event in March.

And, if swimmers are feeling a bit out of practice, or are relatively new to the whole concept of competition, there’s no better place to get over those jitters than at a short course yards meet. After all, Alderwood pool is about 10 percent smaller than a metres pool. And that translates, magically, into every race being 100 percent more fun.