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The Killerwhales Swim Club was
founded late in 1976 with the prime objective of providing
quality coaching to elite competitive swimmers within the London
Borough of Havering and, more broadly, to East of London and
Essex. To ensure that a steady stream of young talent was
available to be nurtured by the coaching staff into the club’s
international stars of the future, a teaching and development
plan was proposed and implemented.
Since its creation, The Killerwhales Swim Club have been immensely
successful, producing, on average, one new international swimmer
per year. With its members representing Great Britain and the
Home Countries at Olympic, European, Paralympics, Commonwealth
Games and winning medals at Paralympics, Junior European and
Youth Olympic level as well as numerous other international
events.
The Club and its swimmers have won many honours since its
foundation including:
· Top Club at National Age Group Championships four times.
· Over 100 Individual National Championship Titles.
· A Paralympics Bronze Medallist
· Numerous Senior and Junior: British, English, Southern County,
Essex County Records
· Top Club at Southern Counties Championships ten times.
· Top Club at British Grand Prix, Speedo “televised” Fast-water
Meet, Wilkinson Sword, Currie Motors and Southend Open Meets.
· Total domination of the Essex County Championships since the
eighties.
· Havering Sports Team of the Year 2002.
The Killerwhales Swim Club has always been one of the smaller
and more successful independent clubs in Great Britain, and yet
has still managed to compete with, and on many occasions, beat
the much larger local authority and city backed clubs.
Although the club has undergone many changes, its objective has
remained the same; “In everything the pursuit of excellence”.
Killerwhales, its membership and committee have always been
strong in its belief that quality and not quantity is the order
of the day. With a solid club structure comprising of motivated
swimmers, a quality coaching team, experienced teachers all of
whom are backed by a strong committee, the club expects to
continue the future with confidence.
Killerwhales were recently the 2002 Essex Age Group Champions,
repeating the performance of 2001. Double Age Group Gold
medallist Lee Wightwick at the 2002 Nationals also achieving a
World Record in the schoolboys international meet in France.
The Killerwhales Swim Club has as its headquarters at the Harrow
Lodge Leisure Centre in Hornchurch. The club also utilises a
number of other local swimming pools and has notice board
facilities in each. They are: Central Park Pool at Harold Hill
and The
Campion School.
Although all facilities used are located in the London Borough
of Havering, Killerwhales attracts members from all over East
London and Essex and Loughborough University.
The swimming membership of the club (including the ‘Learn to Swim’
section) currently stands at around three hundred with an age
range from four years through to those in their early twenties.
Most ethnic groups and social classes are represented within the
membership as well as some disability groups and their families.
The demographic make up of the club with regard to ethnic and
disability groups is in line or slightly above that of the
London Borough of Havering as a whole.
The administrative side of the club is run by a voluntary
‘Executive Committee’ comprising of elected members, most of
whom are parents of swimmers who bring with them a wealth of
experience from their varied professional backgrounds.
The coaching staff as led by Issy Joels are all committed ensuring that their swimmers have the
opportunity to achieve their fullest potential.
The ‘Learn to swim’ programme is organised by a ‘voluntary
co-ordinator’ and ‘Head Teacher’, who is a qualified ASA coach
and runs the lower two squads.
The club is also assisted by a ‘Supporters Association’, which
organises fund raising events to raise money and provide help
and support for the club.
A Who's Who within
the club can be seen in Club Structure.
The club regularly features in the sports reports in the local
newspapers and because of its national success, occasionally in
the national press. Essex Radio and Active FM have also featured
swimming in their sports reports with Killerwhales often
credited. Many of its swimmers have competed in televised events
resulting in the name of Killerwhales being named on prime time
TV. The club utilises public notice boards, places newspaper
advertisements and optimises the high profile of its Open Meets.
WEBSITE
The Killerwhales web site can be found at
www.killerwhalessc.co.uk |
