Swimming: Greendale club puts kids first with aplomb on foundation of family values in Napier

Grace Hogan (back, from left), coach Gary Knight, Ella Hogan, Darcy Brown. Front: Reece Drager (left), Cole Searle, Alex Margerison and Ally Richardson. Photo/supplied

Greendale Swim Club, by its own admission, is a small fish in the national pond but that doesn't mean it's lacking in any way developing youngsters.

That's because the Napier club believes its habitat is teeming with talent as swimmers incrementally make their way through the ranks for national honours.

"It's a family orientated club so we have lots and lots of parental support, not only for kids but from other swimming kids and everyone's involved," says senior coach Gary Knight after Greendale members returned with 10 medals from the four-day division II nationals at the Rotorua Aquatic Centre a fortnight ago.

"We're never going to be a top club in New Zealand because we're too small so we work together to achieve the best goals for the kids.

"It's not about me, it's not about the club — it's about the kids," says Knight, a retired police officer/dog handler who has been a senior coach for three years.

The annual age-group competition, which Swimming New Zealand staged from March 18 to 21, is a golden opportunity for the next generation of swimmers to have their first taste of a national meet as well as gauge their worth.

Greendale pair Alex Margerison and Cole Searle, between them, scooped six bronze medals, two silvers and just as many golds.

Margerison and Searle now have credentials to enter the frantic lanes of division one nationals.

A team of seven competed and everyone registered personal best times — 61 out of 66 races.

Searle claimed the 13-year-old boys' bronze medals in the 200m backstroke, 100m individual medley (IM), and 50m freestyle events. He added silvers in the 50m backstroke and 100m backstroke races.

Margerison was outstanding, despite a knee condition, with bronze medals in the 100m IM, 100m backstroke and 50m freestyle races in the 14-year-old boys' category. He also won gold in the 400m IM and 200m backstroke in that age group.

Coaches recognised his potential while conducting a fitness programme. He accepted an offer to swim.

"He's got Simi Larsen's syndrome, a growth problem with the knees which causes extreme pain with the patella [knee caps] and tendons to the point where he aggravated it at one of his starts.

"He went on to swim the 400m individual medley [four lengths of each stroke], which is one of the most gruelling events one can do," says Knight of the teenager who they had to help out of the pool after that swim, all the way to the medal dais for his gold.

"It was one gutsy swim," says the 58-year-old, a former masters swimmer who also mentored the age-group men at the Heretaunga Sundevils Swim Club.

He says the chances of Margerison and Searle competing at the top tier is slim because of the expense of six nights of accommodation and entry fees in Auckland. They also can't compete in division two any more.

"We can still take our swimmers all the way to the top but we'll maintain our identity as a family club."

Five swimmers missed out on division two medals in Rotorua but got into the finals.

Ella Hogan was fourth in the 200m backstroke and 100m backstroke events among 14-year-old girls. She finished eighth in 50m backstroke.

"She was just a fraction off so I'm hoping she'll make the top tier next year with this year's qualifying time," Knight says.

Darcy Brown was fourth in the 1500 freestyle race among 15-year-old boys.

Ally Richardson finished fifth in the 200m butterfly event in the 14-year girls' division.

Grace Hogan and Reece Drager registered PBs, the latter by 12.15s in 400m IM.

The conquests come on the heals of medals Caleb Carlisle (silver) and Nancy Johnston (bronze) won at the regional Aquaknights Junior Festival last month.

Brown also won silver at the "Sand to Surf" Tauranga meet this year.

Kate Allen boosts Greendale club's honours board as the first female in both youth and open sections of the 4.2km Lake Taupo Across the Lake 2018 swim. At that event, Rhys Searle was first in the youth section of the open water epic category for the continuous 17.5km swim in 5h 9m 43s.

Allen, 16, who is competing in open waters in Nelson this weekend, will compete at the division one nationals next month.

Knight will watch her compete online and coach her via phone from here.

Greendale club operates from the Clive pools, with limited space and time, after its pool at Taradale Primary School was closed in December 2016, deemed to have unsafe roofing structure.

Since then the Taradale Community Pool Trust, a registered charity, has been striving to reopen the pool, with designs drawn up, support gathered and funds found.

Its case is awaiting a decision from the Ministry of Education, which owns the land.

Knight says in return the club used to coach up to 3500 pupils through the school's curriculum with Learn to Swim instructors also offering their services at Raureka School pool in Hastings.

"The loss of the pool itself was a huge blow to the Taradale community."

Trust chairman Brendon Rope says the submission was lodged on December 22 and the ministry had given a three to five-month window to approve.

Rope says a meeting was held on March 11 to update everyone.

"We have formed a trust, registered as a charity to make contacts with funding agencies so we're just waiting for the ministry to come back to say, 'Yep, you can rebuild the roof of our building and on our land'."

Rope says the project will involve dismantling the existing roof and steel structure, and replacing it "in a like-for-like construction method but just using better materials".

Greendale club has 45 members from eight to 16 with females outnumbering boys.

It had lost a cluster of senior swimmers within 12 months of Knight assuming the mantle about five years ago through "natural attrition".

"They get to a certain age where they have achieved what they want to so there's more things in life to just swimming up and down the pool.

"Swimming is not an easy sport. It's very time-consuming and very hard on their social lives."

Myriad distractions these days add to that dwindling numbers, especially from the age of 14 to 16.

"Part of my job as coach, as I see it, is to encourage and nurture these kids to achieve what they never thought possible through confirmation of swimming, skills, drills and giving them the confidence to have a go at things they never thought they could do."

Knight says parents are right behind him and the committee.

Former police dog handler Gary Knight entertains children before going on to become a fulltime swimming coach. Photo/file

He began coaching fulltime several years after knee surgery curtailed his career as a police dog handler.

After a Learn to Swim job at Greendale club, he assumed the mantle of senior coach when stalwart Noel Hardgrave-Booth retired in 2016.

Knight is immensely proud of the way his proteges have progressed over the years, always trying to turn trainings into fun activities.

"Swimming can be boring. I'm not afraid to try something different and if it doesn't work then you learn from your mistakes, so coaches learn from mistakes just as swimmers do."

Looking down at the pool all day can be testing so he has come up with Fun Friday where the entire squad play games and have relays which youngsters look forward to.