Regional Award Winners

South West Coach of the Year

Barry Aldrick – Barry has been Head Coach at Poole SC for 4 years, and in the past 12 months he has coached Jacob Peters to Commonwealth Games selection and Silver Medal success at age 17, coached Jasmine McCrea to 2 appearances for Team GB at the European Junior Championships and numerous other swimmers to SW representation and more! He has been selected as coach to the GB Team at European Juniors and completed the Coach 2024 programme.

Barry is a technically highly proficient coach throwing himself into personal development courses and is able to impart that technical proficiency to young swimmers within the club, under his direction the swimmer have improved and continue to achieve great successes.

South West Services to Aquatics

Robin Brew – Robin has recently retired from coaching after 18 years at Mount Kelly (formerly Kelly College). He has been instrumental in developing MK to a position that challenges other clubs and swim schools resulting in beating Millfield at the ESSA Relay Championships.

Through Robin’s hard work MK have achieved gaining the Olympic Legacy Pool post 2012 games and the programme would not be where it is today without him. Robin has coached numerous Olympians in swimming, triathlon and para-Olympians over the years. He has also mentored numerous coaches into and through their coaching careers resulting in his successor to take over MK swimming.

South West Volunteer of the Year

Esther Rookes - Esther is a member of Tavistock SC and is a valuable volunteer member of the club. She contributes not only at club level but within Devon as well. Her main role is competition secretary however she engages far beyond this and is a qualified swim coach, competition judge, and starter and is currently training to become a referee.

Esther organises a very successful joint open meet with a neighbouring club and also schedules training sessions, organises volunteers and motivates and mentors others to develop their coaching and officiating skills including organising suitable training.

South West Young Volunteer of the Year

Lily Thorp – Lily is a member of Caradon SC and as well as being a competitive swimmer she also volunteers at events as an official and assistant on poolside for the past year. She works alongside the Team Managers at competitions by helping the lead warm up sessions. She has also assisted at meets to ensure the smooth running of the events by working with the meet coordinators and officials.

Lily contacted Cornwall ASA to find out ways in which she can gain further qualifications and how to help in a more formal capacity. As a result in this Lily qualified as a timekeeper in April 2018 and at the age of 13 she was the youngest official in Cornwall. She is hoping to continue with the journey after her 15th birthday when she can then undertake the formal process for accreditation.

South West Club of the Year

Plymouth Leander – The new Plymouth Leander committee have changed the outlook of the club in a significant and positive way and are aiming for a brighter future. The new board set a target to maintain the historical success of the club and also have set their sights on delivering beyond outstanding both in and out of the water. Notable positive outcome have included a re-writing of the club constitution and continuing to be an anchor club in the local aquatic network.

The club have delivered 5 successful meets and have taken on roles at National Events to be able to cascade best practice down into events at club level. Their greatest accolade to date is coming 1st in the National Arena League which they won for the first time in 5 years with a point’s score which has not been seen in more than a decade. Alongside this they have developed a strong partnership link with Plymouth College and Plymouth University and in addition to this they have developed two junior squads to bridge the gap between learn to swim and club swimming.