With all of the success achieved this past season by swimmers in the Whitehorse Glacier Bears program, it was only fitting that the contributions made outside of the pool be recognized too.

At a recently held Swim B.C. awards ceremony in Whistler, the head coach of the Glacier Bears added to what turned out to be a long list of accomplishments for the club in 2007-08, being named as the 2008 youth coach of the year.

In addition to winning the youth coach award, for coaching swimmers under the age of 15, Marek Poplawski received a special plaque in recognition of Whitehorse's Alexandra Gabor breaking both the 100-m and 200-m age group national records. Gabor broke both records using the freestyle technique.

"I think it is a big satisfaction," Poplawski said when asked about how rewarding it was being recognized by Swim B.C., which the Yukon swim club is affiliated with.

"It means we as a club are a very strong organization on every level and there are a lot of volunteers putting in a lot of hours to make that happen, so without those people it wouldn't happen."

Poplawski began his career as a swimming coach in Poland in 1971. It was a natural fit for Poplawski, a former swimmer himself, who graduated from university with a degree in physical education, which specialized in coaching.

In search of a better life, Poplawski would eventually defect from Poland, coming to Canada as a refugee in 1982.

He said he chose Canada because of its reputation of good swimming programs.

"I thought that would be good for me to continue my profession," Poplawski said.

In Canada, he coached at swim clubs in Kelowna and Vancouver Island, before leaving for one year in Iceland in 2002.

After spending a year in Iceland, Poplawski returned to Canada where he coached the Duncan Stingrays.

However, his stay in Duncan didn't last long and in 2004, Poplawski heard about an opening for the head coaching position for the Whitehorse Glacier Bears Swim Club.

He said the Lions Aquatic Centre was one of things that attracted him to the job in the first place.

"I had seen the facility was beautiful and I heard some good things about Whitehorse as a community."

Poplawski said the Glacier Bears program has changed a lot since he arrived in 2004.

"We can see with so many kids achieving certain levels and I think it is growing," he said. "We have right now 150 members. That's a record."

He said its nice that the club is being recognized in Canada and overseas.

"My goal was to make sure the club was known in Canada because I think that would be nice for the community and the territory when we go to national level or international that people know that we are from Whitehorse and that is happening right now, so I am really happy about that," he said.

He said this past season was the most successful one in club history.

"Our swimmers got medals at the world junior championship and they broke B.C. and Canadian records," he said. "They were competing in Europe and they qualified for Australia and Guam. I think that the quality of swimming and the level that all the swimmers accomplished was outstanding."

Poplawski credits the success of the club to a number of different things.

"I think it is a whole package," he said. "Swimmers working hard, support from parents and from the club and from the Yukon government as well. It's a whole package and we couldn't do it without it. At that level you need any help you can get and we have a big support here, so we are happy about that."

Brice Harding, one of the senior swimmers in the Whitehorse Glacier Bears Club, said Poplawski is the best coach he has ever had in swimming.

"He knows what we need to do to improve our swimming and he is good at addressing all of the particular strengths of each swimmer because we are all really different, but he is good at realizing that and varying the workouts," Harding said. "He's just an amazing coach all around."

Gabor, 15, has been training with Poplawski since 2004. She said he is deserving of winning the youth coach of the year award.

"He has been here a long time and he has coached us really good and he stuck with it up here," Gabor said.

Gabor holds national 12 and under records such as the 200-m free short course, the 400-m free short course and the 1,500-m free short course and then for 14 and under it was the 100-m free short course, the 200-m free short course, the 200-m free long course, but she ended up breaking the 200-m free short course twice. She said wasn't surprised about Poplawski winning the award.

"It wasn't that much of a surprise because we've all trained really hard and he's been a good coach, so it just kind of paid off."

Kathryn Zrum, the coach of the black bears for the club, said Poplawski is deserving of the award.

"It just says a lot for the program that Marek has developed with our Yukon swimmers and I think it is just really exciting that swimming and his efforts and the clubs efforts are being recognized for how we are developing national and international level swimmers," she said. "I think our swimmers are being noted and being recognized and we are one of many clubs in B.C., but we are producing swimmers of national and international calibre."

She said Poplawski is a big part of the success in the program.

"The training side is where Marek excels," Zrum said. "He is an age group coach, he has been recognized over the years as being a very good developer at the age group swimming and he's obviously by successes we have seen that over the last few years."