incoming coach David Ling<\/a>, who, as a youngster, was coached by Bradstreet with Brock Niagara Aquatics.<\/p>\n\u201cI love to travel and two years of none has left a pent-up demand. I don\u2019t want to leave Brock entirely, so I\u2019ll still be on the pool deck a few times per week,\u201d Bradstreet said. \u201cI coached David for many years and have always stayed in touch, so there is a natural synergy. He\u2019s one of the most positive individuals you will ever meet. The program is in good hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since starting at Brock in 1983, Bradstreet has missed only two practices, both during the birth of his children.<\/p>\n
Working six days a week, he would commute from his home in Burlington to open the Eleanor Misener Aquatic Centre at 5 a.m. for varsity and club swimmers to commence early-morning training.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeter has had a tremendous influence on competitive swimming in the Niagara region over the past 40 years,\u201d said Karen McAllister-Kenny, Director, Brock Recreation. \u201cDuring this time, it was evident Peter\u2019s dedication to his swimmers and student-athletes is second to none.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bradstreet has held various roles at Brock University, most notably head coach of the Badgers varsity men\u2019s and women\u2019s swimming teams since 2004, taking the reins from Brock\u2019s founding swim coach, Herb deBray.<\/p>\n
While also serving as supervisor of aquatics, Bradstreet has sat on the Board of Directors for both the Ontario Swimming Coaches committee and the Western Ontario Swimming Association.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s coached swimmers to Olympic and Paralympic heights, including groundbreaking para swimmer Elisabeth Walker-Young (BPhEd \u201902).<\/p>\n
Walker-Young, who spent 13 years winning medals and setting records for the Canadian Paralympic Team, said Bradstreet was integral to her time at Brock, her swim career and personal development.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a Paralympian, Peter never once made me feel out of place or lesser than my teammates without disabilities. That equity is something that I will never forget,\u201d she said. \u201cPeter\u2019s dedication to his athletes is insurmountable. He has a depth of knowledge of the sport of swimming which is some of the best in the country. I am very fortunate to have selected Brock University for my studies and am ever thankful that decision introduced me to Peter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bradstreet also served as the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) technical liaison and secretary for the Canadian University Swim Coaches.<\/p>\n
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Bradstreet and his coaches built a club swimming program to include 175 swimmers per year in competitive programs.<\/p>\n
When Gokhan Bozyigit (Bed \u201921) departed his native Turkey to embark on a new life in Canada, Bradstreet was there to help him with the transition both at Brock and beyond.<\/p>\n
The multiple OUA medal winner credited Bradstreet for playing a key role in his development into a successful student-athlete.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeter gives his athletes all of the opportunities and information to succeed in and out of the pool,\u201d said Bozyigit, who is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Applied Health Sciences at Brock. \u201cHe is one of the greatest distance swimming coaches I\u2019ve worked with who goes above and beyond for his student-athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After 38 years, swimming coach Peter Bradstreet is officially retiring from Brock University at the end of July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":79294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,1,4,58],"tags":[256,11758,7284,11760,582,11730,11759,4620],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79293"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79295,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79293\/revisions\/79295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}