After a year of hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, the British Swim Coaches Association (BSCA) recently awarded its annual honors for coaches both old and new who have made notable impacts on the sport.
Among the awards, the BSCA, which represents coach members of the UK independently of respective national governing bodies, bestowed the following.
BSCA Coach of the Year
- Dave McNulty, Bath National Centre – Honored for the outstanding performances of the swimmers under his care at Tokyo 2021, most notably the rise to fame of Tom Dean. Dean was a somewhat surprise gold medalist in the men’s 200m free, becoming the first-ever British swimmer to claim Olympic gold in the event.
BSCA Coaching Award of Excellence
- Mel Marshall & Steve Tigg – The BSCA recognizes both these coaches as having played a huge part in the continuing development of Britain as an aquatic force at the international level. Marshall is the coach of breaststroking gold medalist Adam Peaty while Tigg has the most decorated British Olympian Duncan Scott under his tutelage.
BSCA Para Coach of the Year & Para Youth Coach of the Year
- Jacquie Marshall & Andy Sharp – Jacquie Marshall as Director of Swimming at Northampton SC had built up a huge stable of elite Para swimmers which she handed over to her then assistant Andy Sharp, when she became Head of Performance Pathway at British Para Swimming. As Sharp took on the mantle of DoS after Marshall’s departure, he has maintained the standing of the programme and its achievements at elite Para level.
BSCA Youth Coach of the Year Award
- Jamie Main, Head Swim Coach, Deventio eXcel – Main has been instrumental in the development of several key rising swimmers, including Olympian Jacob Whittle, who is among the SwimSwam stealthy six.
BSCA Club Coach of the Year
- Carl Grosvenor, City of Birmingham SC – Grosvenor has helped develop partnerships with numerous Clubs in the Birmingham area, supporting their development, identifying talent and guiding such through the Birmingham Council Training programme into swimmers achieving at National levels and then attaining GB & England Youth, Junior & Senior recognition.
BSCA Coach Educator of the Year
- Russ Barber & Dave Hemmings –
- Barber, former Director of Swimming at the City of Sheffield Swim Squad and GB Olympic Coach, has a wealth of experience in coaching at all levels of the sport and used his extensive list of contacts when setting up the Swim Coach Network (SCN) which provided an almost weekly list of ZOOM presentations and Q&A sessions from prominent swim coaches, sports coaches, sports science practitioners and key figures from across the globe.
- As a Performance Coach at the Loughborough National Centre, Hemmings is recognized for helping provide knowledge to coaches and swimmers of all levels during the pandemic when pools were not accessible.
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