Tom Davis, Head Coach of Nelson Bay Swimming Club began coaching at the Tomaree Aquatic Centre on November 1st 2010 having come from the New Zealand high-performance program based in Wellington.
Tom started from scratch at Nelson Bay with only one competitive swimmer registered to the club.
Over the next two years, he began to see the results of his hard work with Taylor Corry winning two silver medals at the London Paralympics and state records/titles to follow through Zayne Morphew-Watson, Riley Mather, Chloe Bell, Ebony Nix and Randal Ingram.
The club has enjoyed huge success at NSW country-level placing regularly in the top five on the medal tally with many country champions.
Tom accredits the success of the club to strong support from the club in supporting its swimmers and the commitment of the swimmers to dedicate themselves to the training required to perform at the highest levels.
Tomaree Aquatic Centre
Over the past decade squad numbers have steadily grown at the Tomaree Aquatic Centre from a handful to now, close to 100. The successes of club members not only locally but nationally and internationally have no doubt contributed to the growth in numbers as has the active promotion of swimming as a key life skill in a beach side town.
The fun, relaxed environment that has been created by coach Tom Davis has given all squad swimmers a place to improve whether they be competitive or purely swimming for fitness.
The squads cater to both competitive and recreational needs and will continue to flourish over the foreseeable future.
Taylor Corry
Taylor Corry came to Nelson Bay Swim Club in November 2010 shortly after the arrival of coach Tom Davis having had success in the 50m events. Settling straight into a program of 10 swimming sessions per week Davis set her sights on the London Paralympics. Qualifying as one of four S14 athletes for the games, she made significant improvements in London and went on to win two Silver medals in the 100 backstroke and 200 freestyle.
Another international medal at the World Champs followed in Montreal 2013 followed by many national titles then a stint at the Swimming Australia program on the Sunshine Coast where she, unfortunately, missed selection for Rio 2016.
Since then she has made the Commonwealth Games team, broken short course world records and most recently won her record 20th national title for a female Para swimmer in Australia.
Taylor’s immediate goal is to make the Tokyo Paralympic team in her best event, the 100 Butterfly and 100 Backstroke. Last weekend she broke the World record in the 100 Butterfly at 2020 Hancock Prospecting Australian Virtual Short Course Championship.
