A swimming community in the Thames Valley has had its fair share of setbacks recently, but it has not stopped them from continuing their work.
The Thames Amatuer Swimming Club faces new challenges after the disestablishment of the Thames-Coromandel District Council-funded coaching roles in September.
Volunteer committee member Rebecca told The Profile the club was trying to overcome that – “then the break-in happened”.
A break-in at Centennial Pool, where club members train and attend race nights, resulted in a GoPro camera, iPad, computer, touchpad cables and $150 of petty cash going missing from the premises, she said.
The touch pads, which were used for recording race times, could not be used without the cables, which meant the club needed to have two people per lane keeping time of the races, she said.
Even though the cables for the touchpads were later found – they unfortunately would still not work because they didn’t have the computer, she said.
But another setback was the disestablishment of the council-funded coaching roles.
A Thames-Coromandel District Council spokesperson said the council had previously employed two coaches for the Thames Amateur Swimming Club, but did not fund the club directly.
“To recover the costs of the coaches, council charged the club a fee per swimmer,” they said.
Council said the club had roughly 400 active members when they began funding coaches more than 10 years ago, but over time club numbers declined considerably with around 50 swimmers now.
The assistant coach position was vacant and the head coach resigned in June this year, and with the reduced number of swimmers, council could not adequately recover the ongoing salary costs of the positions through the fees paid by swimmers, council said.
“We advised the club in July, 2024, that we wouldn’t be employing new coaches once the current staff had worked out their notice period and that the club would need to provide their own coaching from Term four, 2024, onwards.”
Council also did not provide coaching staff for any other sporting club in the district.
“Other clubs provide coaching through volunteers and parents or self-funding. It wasn’t considered fair for Thames ratepayers to fund coaching for just one club.
“The monthly fees from the club’s swimmers for coaching are now going directly to the club instead of to council.”
The club, which has now employed its own coach, was seeking support from the community, such as booking signage spots at the pool for advertising.
Funds raised would go towards coach fees and training equipment, she said.
There are already a few people who have reached out to offer support to the club.
Someone offered their time for training swimmers, such as strengthening with weights and doing exercises safely, she said.
While another person also offered their help if the swim coach was away sick.
Volunteers were motivated by making sure the kids could still swim, she said.
They were very fortunate to have a coach that was passionate, had great rapport with the kids, and wanted to see them succeed, Rebecca said.
And the club’s success was evident. Twelve-year-old Thames Swimmers Boe Leach and Kian Rangihika were recently chosen to represent Waikato at an annual relay challenge between Waikato and Auckland called The Caro Cup. Rebecca said the best swimmers were selected from clubs in each region.
“[The swimmers] do work really hard, and it would be a real shame for them not to keep doing it.”
DETAILS: Follow Thames Amateur Swimming Club on Facebook to stay up to date, and to find out more about booking a signage spot, contact thamesswimnz@gmail.com.
