Overview:
Water Polo Canada (WPC) is seeking a strong and inspiring leader to become its new Senior Women’s National Team Head Coach. The Head Coach will lead planning and preparation of the Women’s Senior National Team (WNT), and will co-develop and implement the Senior Women’s National Team training and competition programs, including ensuring the delivery of training support of the daily training and competition environment (DTCE) for the Senior Women’s National Team.
The successful candidate will be highly motivated, display effective and positive leadership, and have superior supervision skills in directing and maintaining a successful and competitive Senior Women’s National Team program at WPC.
The role involves providing leadership in the development of WPC’s Senior Women’s National Team program, ensuring that its objectives align with the broader goals of the organization This includes establishing strong and positive relationships with various stakeholders, such as High Performance (HP) department staff, partners at the Institut national du Sport du Québec (National Training Centre), etc.
Type of position and reporting:
This is a part- time position reporting to the High Performance Director (HPD). The Head Coach of the Senior Women’s National Team (HCW) reports directly to the HPD and collaborates with various technical and sport science staff.
Part-Time:
With Water Polo Canada’s Senior Women’s National Team program currently operating in a decentralized environment, the workload for this position is expected to average approximately 18 hours weekly, with certain events and periods requiring a far greater weekly workload, at given times of the year (to be balanced / evened out across the season, in coordination with the HPD). 5-6 week centralization periods in Montreal are expected in the summers of 2025 and 2026.
Key Roles and Responsibilities of this position include:
Working within the scope of the WPC’s high performance plan, the Head Coach will lead planning and preparation of the Women’s Senior National Team (WNT), and will co-develop and implement the Senior Women’s National Team training and competition programs, including ensuring the delivery of training support of the daily training and competition environment (DTCE) for the Senior Women’s National Team.
OBJECTIVE OF THE POSITION
Progression towards attainment of a podium result at the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games is the primary goal guiding the interventions of the HCW and all WNT Coaching and support staff.
The HCW will be a key member of the leadership group providing support throughout the high performance stream relative to alignment, programming, coaching and athlete development as well as other aspects as identified within WPC’s high performance plan.
ABOUT WATER POLO CANADA
Water Polo Canada (WPC) is the National Sport Organization for Water Polo in Canada. Its purpose and vision are to constantly strive to provide positive water polo experiences and to achieve international and domestic excellence. Its mission is to build an exemplary water polo culture, founded on its set of core values (see WPC’s 2024-2029 Strategic Plan).
IDEAL CANDIDATE
The ideal candidate has world-class water polo technical expertise, proven senior international experience and credibility in the area of high-level water polo, as well as relevant Olympic Games experience. A university degree in coaching, sports science and/or physical education and/or a Level 4 (High Performance) National Coaching Certification or equivalent (combination of equivalent training and experience will be considered) is strongly preferred. The successful candidate will possess excellent leadership and team-building skills, combined with an exceptional work ethic. The ability to work and excel in multi-disciplinary, cross-functional environments is critical to this role. He/she understands the importance of athletes’ safety & wellbeing and has proven ability to promote and support it. He / she will behave in an open, transparent, respectful and fair manner with all players, team staff, colleagues and partners. The ideal candidate is also a “student of the sport” of water polo, continually looking at ways to improve and develop.
LEADERSHIP SKILLS
- Clear vision for the development needs of Women’s High Performance Water Polo
- Personal values aligned with those of WPC
- Proven, successful leadership style (inclusive, collaborative, unifying, while able to make the tough decisions and communicate them well and respectfully) and demonstrated teamwork abilities
- Excellent communication in one, preferably both official languages (English and French)
- Prepared to share, help mentor and educate other Coaches and water polo provincial and club coaches for succession planning to occur within the Canadian system, as required and as directed by the HPD
- Work effectively with and under the direction of the HPD and the organization in general to ensure alignment of approaches, adherence to policies and unified WNT leadership
- Strong belief in integrated team planning approach and is prepared to collaborate with the Integrated Support Team and Assistant / other Coaches as required
TECHNICAL SKILLS
- Ideally, experience as a Senior National Team Coach (Assistant or Head Coach) for one or more quadrennials, with proven success
- Knowledge of Pro league environment is an asset
- Strong capacity to generate, assess, understand the need and usage of advanced performance analytics
- In-depth knowledge of the phases and strategies of the game and ability to clearly articulate a vision of the game
- In-depth knowledge of all positional profiles and the key characteristics for optimal development and ultimately the performance of Canadian water polo athletes
- Ability to clearly articulate an understanding and the philosophy of the Winning Style of Play and required Gold Medal Profile attributes
- Experience in designing and implementing detailed planning processes and periodization plans
- Strong belief in and capacity for monitoring performance, adaptions, athlete’s responses to training
- Extensive knowledge of leading Water Polo nations’ respective styles of play
KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Key Roles and Responsibilities of this position include:
- Providing water polo technical leadership and direction for the Women’s high performance programs and more specifically for the Senior Women’s National Team program (but also potentially including Age Group National Teams support and coaching duties). This includes supervision of and collaboration with SWNT Assistant Coach(es), and collaboration with Integrated Support Team (IST) members (sports science and medicine experts and support staff).
- Day-to-day direction and delivery of the DTCE for the Senior Women’s National Team program.
- Acting as technical leader for the Senior Women’s National Team program in designated competitions and training camps in Canada or in other countries : AQUA World Cup events, PAQ Pan American Championships, Pan Am Games, AQUA World Championships, Olympic Games, international training camps, etc, to be determined on a year-to-year basis in accordance with budgets and the international calendar & Olympic Qualification System. Partial training centralization is planned for the summer 2025 months (approx. May 26 to July 9 -tbc), as well as for summer 2026.
- Working closely with the HPD, to develop, implement and monitor yearly & quadrennial / multi-year high performance plans.
- Working within the scope of the overall WPC Strategic Plan and specifically WPC’s High Performance Plan, its identified performance targets and approved budgetary, administrative & operational framework.
- Evaluating team and athlete results/performances, conducting comprehensive gap analyses and prescribing adjustments. This includes rigorous video analysis of Team and opponents.
- In collaboration with the HPD, help recruit, as well as supervising and evaluating, the work of Assistant and subordinate Senior Women’s National Team Coach(es).
- Designing, implementing and overseeing the Senior Women’s National Team yearly training plan (YTP) as well as strategies to adequately support and / or monitor the athletes’ daily training environment (DTE).
- Working closely with the HPD and IST Lead, designing the IST program on the basis of the performance gap assessment, and assist with oversight of its implementation.
- Recording and analyzing results of various testing, and compilation of statistical profile of team (and individual team member) performance.
- Closely collaborate with WPC’s Pathway Technical Lead for co-design and roll-out of the technical and tactical aspects for Age Group National Team programs.
- Working effectively with and under the direction of the HPD and with colleagues in other parts of the program and the organization in general to ensure alignment of approaches, policies and unified leadership.
- Assisting with the preparation of qualitative and quantitative performance evaluations for the Women’s HP programs, including the preparation of the annual Own The Podium Review.
- Assuring the preparation of all required program reports relating to the Women’s Senior National Team and submitting these reports to the HPD.
- Assisting with duties pertaining to the preparation and delivery of WPC High Performance clinics if / as required, as well as preparing material for presentation (and assisting the HPD with presentations to partners as needed) as directed by the HPD.
- Collaborate with other WPC staff – including National Office staff and HP Manager- on relevant projects, and take on and complete other assigned tasks aligned with the nature of this position as determined by the HPD.
Applications should be sent in confidence and via email by March 31st 2025, to:
Olivier Pineau, at: opineau@waterpolo.ca
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We thank all those who apply. Only those selected for further consideration will be contacted. Water Polo Canada promotes Employment Equity. This position is financially supported by Own the Podium and Sport Canada.