Top Taranaki swim coaches Sue Southgate and Donna Bouzaid hope to translate their success at the Methanex Bell Block Aquatic Centre, to New Plymouth’s Todd Energy Aquatic Centre. The duo, directors of BWF Aquatics, have been appointed swim coaches at the Kawaroa, New Plymouth based facility untill 4th June 2016. They will be replacing Glenn Anderson of Coastal Aquatics. Southgate and Bouzaid say they will continue coaching the Bell Block swimming club alongside the development of the Aquatic Centre programme. They started out at Bell Block in 1999 from scratch and they have had quite a lot of success with our philosophy. Bouzaid, who was a New Zealand swim coach at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, said the move was part of a grand vision to make Taranaki a province strong in swimming, from the pool to the beach. Southgate, who sits on the New Zealand Swim Coaches and Teachers Association board, felt combining swim talent with consistent coaching would mean everyone involved would benefit. Bouzaid was a noted marathon swimmer and swam Cook Strait in 1985. The New Plymouth and Bell Block clubs have similar membership numbers so Bouzaid and Southgate will have about 200 swimmers under their tutelage. The training groups range from mini squads to high-performance swimmers. Bouzaid is a gold-accredited coach with Swim New Zealand and has held a variety of coaching roles, while Southgate is a silver-accredited coach with plenty of international coaching experience on her resume. The pair officially start the new job on June 4th 2013.
