Thirteen students will plunge into the NSW Combined High Schools Championship, a record number according to Moree Secondary College swim coach Matt Dean.

“Twenty kids competed in the regional round at Armidale not long ago. Thirteen of them made it through to this round,” he said.

Logan Thrift, Patty Montgomery, Christopher Sim, Nicholas Sim, Vincent Coventry, Patty Zou, Hugh Ross and Brayden Macey will compete in one of the three relays for the 14 year boys, 16 year girls and 17 year plus boys.

Jesse James will compete in two swim events,  Elka Devney in the U16 100 metre breaststroke and Maddy Penfold in the U15 100 metre butterfly.

ALSO ABOUT SWIMMING:

Matt said he was happy with the student’s level of commitment.

“They have trained during Wednesday sport day, and on Friday morning before school with extra swim lessons on Tuesday. I’ve actually heard stories of these kids falling asleep in class, and the teachers have come to me for answers,” Matt laughed.

Swim coach Angela Walker has also made sure none of the swimmers slack off, training a few of them as well. Swimmer Logan has put in five days of training a week in preparation for the event.

“These kids have done all the hard work and training, so they really owe the credit to themselves,” Matt said.

Matt has a strong connection to the water sport, having competed at state-level swims many times.

“For me swimming is life. I am able to share some of the knowledge I drew from my swim coaches with these students,” he said.

The passionate swim coach added it was great to see sports like swimming grow in popularity. He admitted, other sports had the tendency to sideline smaller ones.

“League is the bigger sport at school, which is always great to see kids get active. But I see more and more kids are taking up swimming. “I’ve been here for five years. When I started, there were five students, but we didn’t end up going down to Sydney. Last year, there were eight. It’s really great to see this sport being built from the ground up.” 

For Matt, the training is not just about preparing the students for the upcoming competition, but also about convincing them to continue with the sport afterward.

He thanked the support of the parents, helping the children reach this point.

“They’re the ones driving the kids to training every day. Some of them will even be driving students down to Sydney and helping out with accommodation.”

With the support and training backing these young hopefuls, Matt said it was now time to focus on the big event ahead.

“I am confident in these kids. I’ve even set them times to beat in the race, and promised to buy their lunch. Last time I did that, it turned out to be quite expensive.”

The championships will take place at Sydney International Aquatic Centre at Olympic Park.