Swim club duo take out top honours

Albany Swim Club pair Marshall McAleese and Kaye Bolger have been recognised for their outstanding efforts in the past year after both received top honours at the 2018 Westpac Swimmer of the Year Awards in Perth last month.

The annual Swimming WA gala awards attracted the best swimmers, coaches and participants from around the State.

ASC head coach McAleese was awarded ASCTA WA Development Coach of the Year, while long-time ASC member Bolger was named the Technical Official of the Year.

Bolger, who is also WA’s chief referee, has previously won the national Technical Officer of the Year award but this was the first time she had received the State honour.

“I’ve been involved as a technical officer for about 25 years,” she said.

“My role is 12 months of the year as I’m heavily involved with Swimming Australia going around to deliver courses and help run meets.

“I enjoy being part of such a great sport and I’ve made a very big circle of friends travelling around Australia.

“This award is based on the commitment to all fields.”

McAleese, in his fourth year as head coach of the ASC, was humbled to receive his award for the first time. “These sort of things are not possible to win without a strong committee supporting me and my program,” he said.

“To develop good swimmers I need good swimmers to develop and my swimmers are terrific.

“This is a team effort.

“It has taken a while to develop the program, but there is an enormous amount of work behind the scenes from a lot of people.

“Firmly, my aim is to produce State finalists and national representatives and we’ve consistently been achieving that in the last couple of years.”

Young Albany swim star Tom Gawned was also a nominee for The Frank Osman Memorial Shield at the awards night.