Volunteer coaches recognised at 2014 Swim Wellington Awards

Swimming Wellington recently held their annual awards recognising swimmers, coaches and volunteers in the region.

Among the award winners were Peter Gibb (Porirua City Aquatics) and Milton Bevan (Karori Pirates) who jointly won the Club Volunteer Coach of the Year.

Gibb has been a coach at PCA since 2005 and has undertaken a number of qualifications in the last year including the Swimming New Zealand Swim Teacher Award and the Teacher of Competitive Strokes course.

Gibb’s coaching efforts go beyond the swimmers we would see at swim meets but he also offers innovative training sessions once a week to the community who swim for fitness and to support their other sports.

Bevan has been with Karori Pirates since 2005 and has worked with current coach Steve Francis on swim camps and has seen the club regularly ranking in the top 20 clubs nationally.

Bevan has taken up other various roles over time his time with the club, his most recent as the senior volunteer coach for their non-competitive programme, working with six other coaches keeping kids in swimming who don’t want to train competitively but enjoy staying active and safe in the water.

Also nominated for the award was Simon Reeve from Raumati Swimming Club. Although he didn’t take out the top prize his contribution to swimming was recognised at the awards with the presentation of a certificate.

Reeve, like Gibb, has taken advantage of SNZ courses like the Teacher of Competitive Strokes to improve his skills as a coach giving him the opportunity to step up within the club by helping out with some of the junior squads and to stand in for squad coaches when they are on leave, sick or otherwise unavailable.

Reeve believes the courses have been great in providing him with the tools to teach others to be competent swimmers. His son has now also completed his Swim Teacher Award.

2014 Swim Wellington Award Recipients

Club Contributors of the Year – Jillian Kennemore Capital (Club Officials) Cees Lensink, SwimZone (Technical Support)
Club Volunteer Coach – Peter Gibb (PCA) and Milton Bevan (KRI)
Junior National Coach of the Year – Jason McPhee
National Age Group Coach of the Year – Craig Albery
Opens Coach of Year  – Craig Albery Capital Swim Team and Gary Hurring Capital HPC
Coach of Year – Craig Albery Capital Swim Team and Gary Hurring Capital HPC
Selectors Trophy  (highest number of individual records broken 40 Wellington Records (Open and Age) & 9 NZ Records) – Ben Walsh
Swimmer with a Disability – Mary Fisher
Best Individual Performance – (871 FINA Points – 800 Free 08.04.14 Opens) Emma Robinson
Age Group Swimmer of the Year – Ben Walsh
Swimmer of the Year - Mary Fisher