Swimcloud
Damon (Abderrahmane) Tissira

Damon (Abderrahmane) Tissira

Head Coach

Demone Tissira was named head coach at SFU on June 12, 2021, overseeing Canada's only NCAA men's and women's swim teams. Team Kenya Coaching staff at the 2023 FINA World Championships (Fukuoka) Team Canada Coaching staff at the 2022 FINA World Championships (Budapest) Team Canada Coach Select since 2015 Team Canada Coaching staff 2018 Pan Pacs (Tokyo) Team Canada Coaching staff 2016 Junior Pan Pac (Maui, HI) 1 NCAA D2 record at 400 IM (2022) 1 Canadian record (2012) Before joining SFU, Tissira was head coach at the University of Regina for seven years, where he led the program to unprecedented success, coaching a small team of elite swimmers to national recognition. The Cougars set 34 of the 38 short-course school records during Tissira's time with the program. The U of Regina women's team set program records for points scored and overall placing at both the Canada West and U Sports meets in 2015-16, and in 2016-17 as the Cougars finished sixth in Canada. The men's team also had a record-breaking 2016-17 campaign, placing fifth at the Canada West meet for the second time in program history and ninth in Canada with the second-highest points total in team history. Within two years of Tissira taking over the program, the men's team won its first individual U Sports medal in 13 years and the women's team had its first-ever medalist. Tissira was also the head coach and general manager of the Regina Optimist Dolphins Swim Club, which had 150 competitive swimmers. He developed a 10-year strategic plan that included a high-performance program that regularly produces elite swimmers at the Canadian Junior and Senior championships. Tissira was selected as a mentor for the 2017-18 Canadian Swimming Coaches & Teachers Association Mentorship Program. Tissira was head coach of the Canadian national distance team virtual camp in January 2021, has been an assistant coach on numerous Canadian teams and part of Swim Canada's Select Coaches Group. Prior to joining the Cougars program, Tissira was the director of ÉLITE de Longueuil in Quebec. He has also been president of the Swimming Association South Shore, a member of the board of directors for the Quebec Swimming Federation, and head coach for Quebec's provincial age group teams. A native of Algeria, Tissira received his Bachelor of Physical Education from the National Institute of Education in Sport and Science, Algeria, in 2000. He has been accredited and certified as a high performance and technical coach through UBC, Canadian Sport Institute (Quebec), and the Paris Sports Institute, France.
MK

Makenzy Kennedy

Assistant Coach