AN enthusiastic young coach is helping take swimmers at a very small club to the next level.
Justin Ross admits that not many people even know that Kawerau Swimming Club exists. However, the club has been around for 45 years, and Justin’s mum, Carol Keightley, has been along for most of that journey.
“I trained here as a kid,” says Carol, who was a competitive swimmer until the age of about 15. She has coached for 20 years. Nowadays she and Justin are poolside most days as coaches. The club’s two learn-to-swim classes a year draw about 60 swimmers for each programme.
The club has about 10 coaches, all volunteers, including Annette Reece, who has been there for more than 30 years. “She coached me,” says Justin. But it is the club’s competitive squad that is putting in the most hours. “There are about 13 kids aged eight to 13 in the squad.”
The squad swimmers put in six hours of afternoon training during the week, and have three coaches, Carol, Justin and Annette, at the Kawerau pools.
But they can also put in extra training in the morning from 5.30 to 6.45. Training is held between October and April, when the pool closes for winter, and then it is up to swimmers to do their own training. “The afternoons are compulsory, but the mornings are an add-on.
It is extra self-directed training.
“It is my passion,” he says about his young swimmers. “Especially the competitive squad.”
The club recently took its largest group of swimmers to a competition – the Bay of Plenty Rising Stars – held in Taupo. Justin says his 12 swimmers did very well, with several swimmers earning top-three places in their events.
One of their swimmers went to the 2018 New Zealand Junior Festival – Aquaknights Zone in February, a first for the club at the toughest meet on competitive swimmers’ calendars for the year.
“Azriah did really well, she got PBs (personal bests) in everything.” Apart from a relays competition in Rotorua last year, Justin says the club has not done much competitive swimming.
A small group has been away to about five meets during the 2017-18 season.
Justin, who is also a teacher at Kawerau South School, was roped into coaching as a teen.
“I was waiting for mum to finish, and they were low on a coach. I was 13, they said ‘you can swim, you can take the next class’. I love it,” the 25-year-old says now of being a coach.
But now he is keen to see the swimmers take the next step. “But it is not cheap, and we are trying to make it affordable.”
Subs for Swimming New Zealand are $90 a year, he says, while club fees are only $100 for the season. Because the coaches all volunteer their time, swimmers are not paying for coaching. The club pays the council for lane hire.
“They have been giving it to us at a hugely discounted rate and we can keep the fees to $100 for the season.”
Swim gear also doesn’t come cheap, with racing togs and goggles costing hundreds of dollars. And then there are entry fees for swimming competitions.
The Kawerau Swimming Club is also forging stronger ties with Whakatane Swimming Club, a much bigger club with a professional coach and more than 100 swimmers, many of whom are competitive.
Whakatane Swimming Club has invited the Kawerau swimmers to join in on club nights, held weekly through summer. On these club nights, Justin can be seen poolside cheering his swimmers on.
Justin says there is a push from Swimming New Zealand for smaller clubs, such as theirs, to join larger clubs. He says the club will have to consider “what is best for our little club” and joining a bigger club may be the way to go.
“We are very whanau-oriented, we spend every afternoon together. One of the kids is in my class at school. I told her ‘I spend more time with you than your parents. You go home only to shower and go to bed’,” he laughs.
Justin says they are hoping to send a small group to the next competition in Taupo in June, but with the Kawerau pools already at 34 degrees, when it is too hot to train, they will have to find somewhere else to train over winter.
