Brisbane Olympic swim coach David Lush named ascta coach of the year

  

Swimming Australia: May 5, 2018:  Brisbane Grammar School head swim coach David Lush, the man who guided Emily Seebohm to World Championship gold in Budapest last year, has been named the Australian Swimming Coaches and Teachers Association Coach of the Year in Brisbane tonight.

Lush joins the who’s who of Australian Coaches who have won the ascta award including the late John Carew, Doug Frost, Ian Pope, Denis Cotterell, John Fowlie, Stephan Widmer and last year’s winners Peter Bishop and Craig Jackson.

 

The 35-year-old joins Fowlie as one of the youngest recipients of the prestigious award, presented by ascta president, Tony Shaw in front of almost 300 coaches, Swim Australia teachers and swimmers at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

 

Pope and Widmer, now the head coach with Singapore, were amongst the audience which also included Master coaches Ursula Carlile and Laurie Lawrence and Platinum coaches Leigh Nugent, Vince Raleigh, Pope as well as current Dolphins Head Coach, Jacco Verhaeren.

 

Two members of Australia’s Gold Coast Commonwealth Games swim team, 1500m freestyle gold medallist Jack McLaughlin and six-time Paralympic golden girls Ellie Cole were also in attendance.

 

Lush adopted Seebohm into his coaching group at the Brisbane Grammar School in the lead up to the 2015 Fina World Championships in Kazan when Australia’s longest serving current Dolphin became the first Australian female to win the 100-200m backstroke world title double.

 

Two years later after an indifferent Olympic campaign in Rio and the diagnosis of endometriosis, the Lush-Seebohm combination struck gold again – this time in Budapest and in the 200m backstroke – in a stunning swim late in the meet which also earned Lush the Outstanding Achievement Award earlier in the night.

 

Lush also coached Seebohm to gold medals in the 50m backstroke and 4x100m medley relay at the recently a member of the all-conquering Australian Commonwealth Games swim team with his charges Seebohm and Minna Atherton.

 

Dean Boxall (St Peters Western) won the Australia Age Group Coach of the Year Award for this year’s National Age in Sydney following his outstanding Commonwealth Games with Mitch Larkin, Ariarne Titmus, Clyde Lewis and Jack Cartwright.

 

Robbie Van Der Zant (Yeronga Park) was awarded the Multi Class Coach of the Year Award for his efforts with Paralympian Rowan Crothers.

Cerebral Palsy sufferer, Crothers, a 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, was also a finalist in Rio in 2016 and has continued to improve under Van der Zant’s coaching.

 

He also starred at the Australian Short Course Championships, becoming the first Paralympic swimmer to swim under 50 seconds for 100m freestyle.

He and Van Der Zant now have plans in place for the next two years leading into Tokyo.

 

While Michael Sage (Kawana Waters) the Open Water Coach of the Year after another outstanding season by Rio Olympian Chelsea Gubecka.

Sage has been one of Australia’s leading swim coaches, with a specialist team of Open Water swimmers, led by three-time World Championship team member and 2016 Rio Olympian Guebecka.

 

Sage, himself an Olympic coach in Rio, has been the Director of Coaching at the Kawana Waters Club on the Sunshine Coast in 2013 and brings a wealth of experience as a swimmer and a coach to this program.

 

Ascta life memberships were also presented to coaches Lynn Elliott and Carol Gathercole – wife of the late Master Coach Terry Gathercole.

2018 ascta-Swim Australia Gala Dinner, Awards, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre: Coach of the Year (2017) David Lush. Teacher of the Year: Kerryn Harber. Outstanding Coaching Achievement (2017): David Lush. Open Water Coach of the Year (2017): Michael SageMulti Class Coach of the Year (2017): Robert Van der Zant. Masters Coach of the Year: Age Group Coach of the Year (2018): Dean Boxall. Peter Johnston. Meritorious Service to the Teaching of Swimming in Australia: Kylie Hammond. Outstanding Contribution to Swimming in Australia: Vince Raleigh. Life Members: Lynn Elliott; Carol Gathercole; SwimSAFER Awards: Ripples Leisure Centre; Holsworthy Aquatic Centre; Splash Swim School. Outstanding Community Service Award: Sunny Skye’s Swimming and Parties; Crawchy’s Swim School; The Glennie Aquatic; Nepean Aquatic. Best Swim School for Marketing, Promotion and Customer Service: Superfish Swim School. Best Swim School Innovation: Parafields Gardens Swim School; SwimECO; Seadragonz Swim School

Outstanding Supporters Award: Vorgee; Kids Alive; Dawn Fraser.