John Clarke - Director of Swimming

John joined WAQ in October 2008. Formally head coach at Fishguard Flyers Swimming Club in Wales, John was originally employed as Head Age Group Coach, but has now also taken on the role of Director of Swimming.

Back in Wales, John and his wife Ann transformed the Fishguard Club from an after school, 2 hours a week club with 26 members, to a club of over 120 boasting county, regional and national swimmers. All this was achieved as an unpaid volunteer alongside his full time job as a Paramedic Station Officer.

Johns own sporting background is on the Rugby fields of England - having played at club and county level. Towards the end of his playing days John started on the coaching trail as Youth Rugby Manager at Westcombe Park RFC in South London. After 3 retirements from rugby, he took up road running in an attempt to keep fit and competed in many 10k runs, half marathons and 4 London Marathons.

Swimming started to take over back in 1999, when the family moved from London to Wales. Welsh swimming was just starting to reorganise and "I just seemed to get caught up in it" John remembers. "My eldest daughter, Emma, was a good swimmer but there was no where for her to swim - so we just had to get stuck in!" 

Since that time John has progressed through the British coaching qualifications and now holds the ASA Club Coach award. Most of his poolside experience has come through the progression of his other daughter, Jayne, who has been ranked number 1 in the UK in 50m Free(for her age). Jayne was in the Welsh Development Squad, and John spent many hours on deck with Martyn Woodroffe¹ and Stuart McNarry²  attending camps and meets absorbing information.

Of coming to New Zealand, John says " I saw it as a great opportunity to use my experiences and develop my skills. West Auckland has an enviable reputation and my job is to ensure we build on that and develop the clubs younger swimmers". 

¹ Martyn Woodroffe - Welsh National Coaching Co-ordinator.

² Stuart McNarry - Welsh Talent ID Coach.

Squads: Elite

Simon Mayne - High Performance Coach

Simon joined West Auckland Aquatics in 2002, originally from Islington, North London now resides in the Auckland suburb of Mt Albert. He began coaching Basketball in 1988 having played semi-professional in the English National League. Having worked through the various coaching levels he attained Advanced Coach status and coached to District level. Simon represented England in Basketball at Under 16 level and his district, Bedfordshire. 

In 1996 Simon began teaching swimming to a variety of levels whilst studying for a B. Ed. Honours in Physical Education(Major Swimming) at De Montfort University in the UK. He spent s even years Basketball coaching at all levels up to County and three years teaching Phys Ed in various schools in NZ and the UK. Currently Eleven years coaching and teaching Swimming. He has completed the requirements for the New Zealand Swimming 'Performance Coach Award'.

Last year (2007) Simon was named Head Coach for World Blind Champs in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Head Coach for IPC Oceania Games in Darwin. At Youth level he was Sprint Coach for NZ team at Trans Tasman held at 3 venues (Sydney, Gosford & Canberra) and also Sprint Coach for the NZ team at Australian Youth Olympics held in Sydney. At Junior level in New Zealand he was named Coach of the Year.

In 2006 he was Head Coach for IPC World Championships in Durban. Simon was asked to coach at the inaugural SNZ Age Camp in Palmerston North. He was named New Zealand Age Group Coach of the Year and received the Waitakere Sports Award for Coaching Swimming.

In 2005 Simon was named both New Zealand Junior and Age Group Coach of the Year following on from his first National Award for Junior Coach of the Year in 2004.