Templeogue Swim Club member Brian Sweeney speaks to William O’Connor after he was named Club Coach of the Year
Brian Sweeney claims Club Coach of the Year prize
Brian Sweeney was named the Active South Dublin Club Coach of the Year in association with The Echo, South Dublin County Council in the Plaza Hotel.
The Templeogue Swim Club member is coach to double Olympian Ellen Walshe and is also the current recipient of the Swim Performance Coach of the Year with Swim Ireland for the second year running.
Brian is Head Coach at Templeogue Swim Club and also coach to Ellen Walshe who participated in the Olympic Games in Paris last summer and smashed eight Irish records at the World Championship in Budapest in November.
He has coached Ellen since she was eleven-years-old and has coached many athletes at all levels to national titles.
Speaking on the success Ireland had in the pool last year, Brian said: “It was a tremendous year for swimming.
“It has been a long time coming.
“All I can say from our perspective and from our little bath in South Dublin is that we are very fortunate to have an impact in the sport and Ellen has kept moving things forward.
“We have a great strong team community based facility and we have a long standing group of coaches that are consistently working in the pool and Ellen is the embodiment of everything the facility does from training lessons at four years of age right to the double Olympian, World championship silver medallist, European Bronze and to cap it all off in December to smash all those records.
“It’s a testament to her and all the team that are behind her from my perspective, it’s a testament to a legacy left in the pool in Templeogue and that was our first performance director in the sport and that was Dave McCullagh.
“Like all the coaches here and people in sport, you are learning all the time, you’re fortunate to be working with young people, trying to stay ahead of the game and learn from young people that we see every day.
“There is a huge team of people supporting in clubs, supporting athletes and the voluntary base in Templeogue, like every club in the region is supported by a huge team of volunteers, parents, committee members which is just tremendous.
“We have about 120 members at our club, we take the kids from the lessons in the facility, and 23 schools use the pool so we have a nice pool of members coming through.
“This year since Ellen has her success, the club has swelled to about 140 and trying to fit them all in is a challenge.
