BURNABY, B.C. – Kristen Quigley has been hired as the full-time assistant coach of the Simon Fraser Red Leafs swimming program.
 
"We're thrilled to welcome Kristen Quigley to our staff," said SFU head coach Demone Tissira. "She brings a wealth of experience from NCAA coaching and competitive swimming, a deep passion for student-athlete development, and a strong understanding of team culture; all of which will be invaluable as we continue to grow our program."
 
A lifelong leader, Quigley joins Canada's NCAA team from the University of Nevada in Reno, where she served as an assistant coach with the Division I program for the past two seasons. She began at Nevada in 2022 as a graduate researcher at the school's Neuromechanics Lab. Quigley completed her Master of Science degree in Kinesiology in 2025 and is expected to finish her PhD in Neuroscience next spring.
 
"I'm thrilled to join Simon Fraser as an assistant coach," Quigley said. "I want to thank Demone and the entire athletic department for this incredible opportunity. As Canada's only NCAA program, SFU is truly special, and I'm excited to return to Canada and help build on the team's proud legacy. I can't wait to help our student-athletes succeed both in and out of the pool."
 
In 2023, Quigley was the head swimming coach of Ontario at the 2023 North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) in Halifax. She guided the team to 36 gold medals in swimming, which sparked Ontario to first place in the standings with 55 golds overall.

Quigley is originally from Oromocto, N.B., and also lived in Montreal before moving south to become a student-athlete at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.

She competed for the Coyotes of the Summit League from 2018 to 2022. In that time, Quigley served as team captain and earned a spot in the program's all-time top 10 in five different events. She merited all-conference recognition twice and was voted the hardest-working female athlete in her second year at USD,
 
Academically, Quigley worked as an undergraduate research assistant and graduated from South Dakota with a Bachelor of Science in Cognitive Neuroscience in 2022.
 

A member of the Metis Nation of the Rising Sun, she captured nine medals at the 2017 North American Indigenous Games.
 
Quigley currently serves as an academic coach in the Rising Native Graduate program, and as an Athlete Advisory Committee member of the 2027 NAIG in Calgary.
 
The Red Leafs will commence their 2025-26 NCAA swimming season with a pair of dual meets at Biola (Calif.) in late September.