Marek Poplawski has had a major impact in his seven years as head coach of the Whitehorse Glacier Bears Swim Club.

The results speak for themselves.

During his tenure, Glacier Bears have broken 856 club records, 69 BC Provincial records, 12 Canadian Age Group records and two Canadian Senior National Records.

"Some of the swimmers have really placed Whitehorse on the map of swimming and represent Canada at the junior and senior national team events – I'm pleased with what happened here,” Poplawski said.

He's also won Coach of the Year from Swim BC twice and coached Swim Yukon at two Canada Summer Games and at the Western Canada Games.

Now the club will welcome Paralympian Stephanie Dixon as its newest head coach.

The 27-year-old has an impressive résumé all her own, which includes 19 medals – seven gold, 10 silver and two bronze – over three appearances at the Paralympic Games, starting in Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008.

In June, Dixon will share coaching duties with Poplawski in the lead up to the Western Canada Summer Games, to be held in Kamloops, B.C., in August, after which she will take over full duties.

Dixon said Poplawski leaves some big shoes to fill.

"What I'm bringing to the team is definitely not going to replace Marek; it's just bringing something different,” she said, adding that she's fortunate to have time with Poplawski as her mentor.

"He's done such a great job with the club, so I'm definitely going to take what he did and try and build upon that.”

Poplawski's great job included last weekend's Yukon Invitational Championships, hosted by the club at the Canada Games Centre from April 29-30.

Isabel Parkkari broke the club record in the girls 13-14 100-metre individual medley, Craig Berube broke the boys 13-14 record in the 100m IM and Joshua Kelly broke the boys 15-17 100 IM record.

In addition, six meet records were broken, by Cassis Lindsay, Haley Braga, Parkkari, Berube and Kelly – twice.

Poplawski said the best part of his job was seeing the swimmers improve continually.

"It's nice to see swimmers in the club are improving and going to the really high level. The satisfaction was great; I was enjoying doing that and seeing it growing, it keeps you going and it's a good motivation for a coach to keep working and trying to do even better, if you see growth and improvement,” he said.

Poplawski first moved to Canada after coaching in his native Poland for 10 years before moving to Canada to coach in Kelowna, B.C., for 16 years. Before taking the helm with the Glacier Bears, he also coached around Vancouver Island and Iceland.

"From experience, I know there are good kids in every program, and if you set up a good program, they will improve, will have some degree of success and the coach would be happy too, so I could see the potential there,” Poplawski said, noting that the facilities, volunteers and board of directors are also responsible for the success with the club.

Glacier Bears president Mike McArthur said that, under Poplawski, the club is now recognized nationally.

And the transition between coaches should be smooth, he added.

Dixon held camps with the club in April and in 2005, and her mother moved to Whitehorse in October.

Not to mention the time she'll spend with Poplawski, McArthur said.

"We were very fortunate that Stephanie actually came to Whitehorse to put on the spring camp, and from there it just kind of evolved that she was interested in becoming our head coach. We were quite thrilled that she expressed an interest and it went from there,” McArthur said.

Dixon knows the psychology of being a high-level swimmer, among bringing other qualities, he added.

"The depth of her experience, her different coaching styles and people that she's swam with over the years, her network within the swimming community across Canada, it's her stature as a role model, as a motivator – I think she's going to bring and offer a lot to the sporting community in general in the Yukon,” he said.

This will be Dixon's first coaching job.

She's hoping to relay her experiences both as a competitive swimmer and as a motivational swimmer.

"My life plan was not to be the head coach of a swim team, so it was going to take a pretty extraordinary situation for me to take that on, and this is that extraordinary situation,” she said.

"I look at this job as not only coaching swimmers but mentoring young people, and I hope that what I'm able to offer through my own experiences in swimming are something that they can carry in the rest of their life. I have a role inside of the pool and outside of the pool as well.”

Added McArthur:

"Marek's impact has been huge on the club. The consistent improvement of the performance of our swimmers has been evident since he arrived, and so he's built a real rock-solid foundation for the club to grow on and improve on and he leaves behind a legacy that speaks for itself.

"I don't know what else you could say about that, it's pretty self-evident. Marek's a well-respected coach in Canada, and we were fortunate that we were able to retain him for the number of years that we did.”