"My main drive has come from the frustration of living here and having to swim under Wellington," says the national operations manager of Oil Intel (Total) who moved to Hawke's Bay from Auckland with his family a year ago.
"They say we haven't met the criteria [for affiliation] but the criteria seems to change all the time."
The 46-year-old father of a daughter, Bianca, 11, who won seven gold medals and silver in Wellington, says what exactly is lacking in the club's submissions falls in a grey area.
"As far as their constitution goes it should have been documented in an AGM or special general meeting to introduce the criteria that is required."
Van Zyl says the parents took their children down to the National Aquatic Centre in Kilbirnie for the meeting on February 17-19 when they paid for their trips, accommodation as well as costs associated with their coach, former Bay Olympian Daniel Bell.
Those costs would have been subsidised had HBPB granted Trojan an affiliation because that would have enabled the re-established Bay club to apply for grants pertaining to coach's fees, lane fees, swim camps and other such associated costs.
The other clubs who took their contingent to Rotorua were Napier Aquahawks (16 swimmers/14 medals), Greendale (9/2), Sundevils (17/0).
He believes HBPB has a vested interest in keeping Trojan out to ensure the financial pie to be shared among Hastings/Napier clubs will not become even more fragmented.
"My view is that the chairman of Hawke's Bay Poverty Bay [Keith Bone, of Napier], for example, is aligned to the Sundevils.
"One of the other committee members is aligned to Aquahawks so, as a result, the more people who come into the mix the less money will be available for other clubs," he says, claiming the other affiliated clubs have not had to fill out Swimming NZ registration templates to be registered.
Some of the requirements on the template are so "ridiculous" that he suspects not even HBPB will be able to meet them, never mind its affiliates but Trojan are in the throes of endeavouring to deliver.
Van Zyl says the club had submitted documents to HBPB administrator Sue Hewitt, of Waipukurau, from the time the Trojan was simultaneously re-establishing in October last year to present documents as well as answer any questions pertaining to affiliation to expedite the process.
"Some of the responses I've got from her [Hewitt], as one of the committee members had put it, was belligerent," says Van Zyl.
It is a club swim coach John Beaumont first established in the 1980s but it went into recess when he retired.
In a flurry of exchanges with HBPB leading to this week, Van Zyl says Hewitt requested financial information but the club also is keen to have representation at the HBPB management committee scheduled early this month.
"We are fine because any costs we incur are covered by the parents so we went back saying we didn't see any relevance in that part because we have just re-established so we are already living hand to mouth. Not having grants means we can't get on the front foot."
Van Zyl says the club is registered, has a bank account and has a nine-member committee in place.
Hewitt, he says, has knocked back attempts to attend the HBPB committee meeting because "the HBPB board is a board and not a committee. As with most boards, meetings are not open to the public".
He then forwarded her a "heading" from their last meeting in September where, in the minutes, it stated it was a management committee meeting for HBPB.
"I pointed out to her that the board is there for governance and, as per their own minutes, this is a committee meeting, therefore, we should be entitled to attend but I haven't received a response from her since."
Bell has a rapport with the Raumati coach so swimming under the Wellington club's banner became an avenue to ensure the youngsters were not deprived of competition.
"Because of the frustration of not being affiliated and, therefore, our swimmers not being able to compete he's then approached them [Raumati] to have our kids registered with them so they can compete as a member of an affiliated club."
He is still waiting for a date from Hewitt on the HBPB board committee meeting.
Van Zyl believes granting Trojan affiliation will lead to an exodus of swimmers from the other three clubs to Bell's stable.
"Those 45 [Trojan] swimmers have either swum at Sundevils, Greendale or Aquahawks.
"They have left those clubs because they weren't happy there and joined Trojan," he says, revealing he took his daughter, Bianca, 11, out of Greendale and Aquahawks last year.
His unhappiness stems from the way the clubs were run as well as the coaching.
"We've moved to Daniel because he's the best coach in the region, in our opinion but, I think, his results speak for themselves. Those stats don't lie."
