DERWENTSIDE Amateur Swimming Club Covid appeal

Aim

As we have been unable to hold any home galas over the last year, we hope this project will help us to recover some of the £20k lost income.

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• DASC: The history! 

Derwentside Amateur Swimming Club have over 90 members. Formerly Stanley Swimming Club, the club was formed in December 1987 to act as the competitive element of the newly created Derwentside Swimming Development Scheme, an extension of the learn to swim programme

In 1987 the club’s first head coach was Paul Remmonds with training taking place at The Burns Pool, Stanley and Belle Vue Swim Centre, Consett. The club’s first major success came when, in 1990, Alison Duffy represented England at the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand, making the 200m Butterfly final. Four years later Vicki Horner(ENG) and Jon Hunter(SCO) competed in Canada.

1996 was a tremendously successful year when the club won both major trophies at N&D championships, followed by Vicki Horner(GB) and Marion Madine(Eire) represented their countries at the Atlanta Olympics. Tragedy struck in late 1996 when the burns Pool was suddenly shut and demolished. Paul Remmonds took up a new post of Head Coach in Glasgow. He was replaced by his assistant David McNulty who had formerly swam for Stanley ASC. David has been the National Lead Coach at British Swimming’s National Centre Bath now for the last  3 Olympic Games cycles.

The next few years were difficult with restricted water time at Consett Pool, then came success with Nicola Jackson breaking many junior and senior British records. She competed in European and World championships and then at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. The following year she was part of the gold medal Ladies 4 x 200m freestyle relay at the World Championships.

After almost 8 years a new pool was finally built, with the help of Lottery funding and Sport England, a 6 lane 25m pool as an extension to the existing Louisa Sports Centre. 

In the meantime Nicola’s younger sister was coming through the rankings.  In 2004, Joanne Jackson represented GB in the Athens Olympics and went on to win gold at the European Short Course Championships in 800m freestyle. The following year she won silver in 400m Freestyle at Europeans with a commonwealth record. In 2006 Joanne achieved double silver for England at Commonwealth Games in 200m freestyle and 4 x 200m relay. Her third Olympics in 2008 brought her a bronze medal in 400m freestyle.

The club has continued to grow and continues to support the swimmers to reach their full potential in able-bodied and para events. We have a fantastic group of parent helpers, renowned for organizing and running our own galas as well as supporting County and Regional competitions including supporting members in teaching, coaching and officiating. 

DASC:  what do we do! 

Our competitive swimmers train under a performance programme with Durham County Council and compete for Derwentside ASC - Swimmers aged from 9 years old can compete locally, regionally and nationally in both individual and team events with the club. The Performance academy is now led by Paul Woodley.  

For many their first experience of competitive swimming is through Junior League, a team event consisting of male and female teams in age groups ranging from 9 years old to 12 years old. The club also run Developmental galas twice a year which give swimmers up to 14 years old the chance to race against swimmers of similar levels in a friendly atmosphere where they can learn the process of competing as an individual and possibly win their first medal! 

As swimmers improve and develop they can move on to other local galas, qualify for County & Regional Championships, National and International events and this year we have swimmers who have qualified for Olympic trials in both able bodied and para swimming events.  

Derwentside gives to Charity

The club also runs a Charity gala in June each year, where all proceeds raised are donated to several charities close to the club. So far, over the last 10 years we have donated in excess of £80,000 to local causes including the Great North Children's foundation, Cystic Fibrosis and the Sands Children's Charity. Unfortunately we were unable to run  the event in 2020 and it is looking like Covid restrictions will prevent us running it in 2021 too. 

What has been happening during Lockdown?

Since the pool closure during in March 2020, our swimmers have been continuing with their land-based programmes including Pilates, core exercises and cardio sessions.  Zoom meetings have been in place to help support the swimmer’s health and wellbeing, including their mental health.  We have had some fun activities such as holding baking competitions, Halloween activities, inspirational talks by Olympic swimmers, Bingo, quizzes and motivational talks from the coaches, these have all been arranged by the Club and have helped to keep the members engaged. 

The coaches have been really impressed at how committed the swimmers have been in working hard to maintain their fitness, but unlike other sports they cannot replace the pool!

The impact of Covid

The Impact of COVID-19 over last 12 months has had a significant impact on everyone. For our Club, Swimmers have been unable to take part in the sport they love. Some of our swimmers would normally train 20 hours a week, before and after school. Our Friday club night swimmers have been out of the water for over a year now. 

Our senior swimmers had qualified for the British Swimming championships which were due to held at the London Aquatic Centre in April 2020. This was also the Olympic trials but was the first event to be cancelled due to Covid. 4 years of work and preparation had gone into them qualifying. 

All our competitive swimmers had worked hard throughout the previous season and many had qualified for the 2020 North East Regional swimming championships, some for their first time. The event due to take place in May 2020 couldn't go ahead either. 

Sadly we have been unable to run any of our own Galas over the last 12 months and as a result we have lost over £20,000 in income. The Club relies on these funds to maintain, purchase and replace, new equipment, as well as supporting the development of the volunteers and coaches. It helps our teachers and coaches, to obtain their qualifications and to attend competitions and development camps. We have also contributed towards the cost of a replacement scoreboard at the Louisa Centre, which we are hoping will be installed soon after our return to the pool.

The revenue is also used to pay for our Strength and Conditioning Coach Andy Bullimore. Andy is an important part of the coaching team, supporting swimmers on land, during training and travelling with them to events. He has been a vital part of Lockdown and has kept all the swimmers engaged with regular zoom sessions and challenges.

Who will you be helping?

Derwentside Asc will be extremely grateful for any donations received, it will help us to continue supporting the group of motivated, committed and talented young swimmers who are the future of our sport. 

Crowd Funding is important to us as Crowdfunder and Sport England have teamed up to make match funding available to help the sport and physical activity sector through this ongoing coronavirus crisis. We have applied for match funding and if we are successful in meeting our target, hopefully Sport England will contribute to our cause. This would really help our club.

Please share our page with everyone you can as we need everyone’s help to get there and we won't secure the additional support if we don't hit our own target so so every little helps!

All of us at Derwentside Asc really appreciate any contribution you can make to ensure the club continues to have a future for our swimmers, volunteers, coaches and the local community.

This is a fantastic opportunity for us to make up the shortfall of funding created by Covid-19 and to give us a great start to our Return to the Pool.

                                Thank you in advance for your support

This project successfully funded on 11th May 2021