LEAD STORY - OLYMPICS: Dads' army gives Beijing athletes proud back-up

ANENDRA SINGH
No matter how tall the Olympians may have grown over the years - both in physical stature and reputation - they still look up to them.
In fact, when people speak in hushed tones about the athletes, they tend to see both groups as very much like two volumes of one book.
It isn't so much that they are flesh and blood that becomes the distinguishing factor, but it's more so the rapport they have developed from even before the Olympians could crawl.
They are the Dads' Army - the fathers of Hawke's Bay Olympians - who accept their shortcomings and have no qualms about letting their wives and partners resort to the ``softly, softly' approach when the need arises.
But while they are of the same genus, their species can be quite far-flung.
Some have the patience of a saint and are akin to support crews of professional cyclists and multisporters - seen but seldom heard.
Some, while equally supportive, prefer to be vocal from the sidelines.
Universally, though, they agree their children are self-motivated.
Rod Gough, the father of pursuit world champion cyclist Westley, of Central Hawke's Bay, says the 20-year-old saw gold at the end of the Olympic rainbow when he won the junior world title in Austria three years ago.
``Three years on he's in Beijing. He's very young for a pursuiter because they tend to mature around 28 or 29 [years old],' Rod says of Westley, who has two junior and senior titles each.
Focused and determined, the panelbeater says Westley puts in the hard yards during training.
``Those who sit indoors when it's raining don't go to Olympics,' he says, recalling his son's determination as a 12-year-old through the eyes of his former Argyll School principal, Ross McLeod (now Twyford School principal).
The youngster was competing in the inter-school crosscountry and was way behind the leader, but did not lose sight of him and pipped him at the line.
He salutes the CHB community, Hub Cycle Centre and mentor Ross Pepper for helping Westley pave his path to success. Swimmer Daniel Bell's father, Murray, says fathers sometimes have to tread cautiously when dealing with children.
``Sometimes you don't get it right. If you tell them something they don't want to be told, then boy you know it,' says the Bay restaurateur who is in Beijing to watch Daniel compete. He recalls how Daniel was the smallest kid on the starting block and reassuring him that some day he would be six-foot-plus like him.
A self-confessed sports nut, Murray is a screamer: ``I know kids can't hear you in the pools, but I still yell.'
A proud father who has framed Hawke's Bay Today's front-page article on Bell's gold medal-winning performances at the junior world champs in Mexico last month and has mounted it on the wall of his restaurants, Murray says if they slept in when he was up in the morning for training, then they copped an earful.
Dan McAleese, the father of Black Stick Shea, coached his son from the time he was an age-group player to national level.
``Shea was physically gifted, but single-minded and different from his mates,' Dan says of the hockey player who was a handy rugby and cricket player, too.
``He left it as late as possible to choose hockey, which was the least financially rewarding,' says the Tamatea Intermediate teacher, who ``never expected' Shea to reach international level.
He sums up Shea's mettle by alluding to what the wife of motor-racing driver Peter Brock said about her husband.
``People were happy to turn up to the V8 race to participate, but Peter always had to be in front.'
Once they calculated the cost of putting him through to Black Sticks and it was about $50,000 from the age of six to NZ Under-18 level.
There's the balancing act with siblings, too, but all in all it's been a great character-building exercise for Shea.
Dan says the Bay hasn't really got behind Shea, including a ``disappointing hockey community', but he salutes Peter Shaw, Greg Nicol, Sam Kelt, Roger Greaney and Shea's granddads and uncles for their support.
The proud dad would have loved to have gone to Beijing but, with daughter Aimee, 26, getting married in November, the family has had to pass this time.
For Gus Meech, whose room at the Mary Doyle rest-home has pictures of equestrian Daniel, says his son avidly watched videos of top riders as a youngster.
A retired orchardist who had a stroke in February, wheelchair-bound Meech went to the 1960 Rome Olympics and was New Zealand equestrian team manager for the 1988 Seoul Games.
``He had a $10 bet with some of his Hastings Boys' High School mates that he'd go to the Olympics,' Gus says. Former Magpie Hepa Paewai coached his talented sons while hockey-playing daughter Caryn was under the wings of wife Kathy until she died in 1997.
The Hastings farmer says mother and daughter always had plans to realise the Olympic dream, so, consequently, the Sydney 2000 Games were hard going for both him and Caryn. While nursing a bad back, Caryn was mentally prepared and was finding the heat in Beijing helped her warm up her 32-year-old diminutive frame much quicker than back home.
``I spoke to her the other night and she said she was raring to go and stick it to the world,' says a jovial Hepa, who watched his daughter perform in Sydney with Murray Bell.
However, the halfback from the halcyon Ranfurly Shield days admits it was a trying time to help Caryn with training when her mother died.
``My input was fitness, but it wasn't easy like rugby. You can't just pick that ball up and chuck it into the bloody net,' says Hepa, who was loud but got better at it with age.
He was indebted to the hockey academy in Otago for grooming Caryn from the time she was an under-14 age-group rep.
It amuses him that Hockey NZ CEO Ramesh Patel talked Paewai into becoming a defender as an under-18 rep, because she wasn't considered quick or skilful enough to be up front but, ironically, is now an aggressive attacker because incumbent Sticks coach Kevin Towns prefers ball carriers.
``She trains with all her brothers now and says to them, `Come on you old buggers, try to keep up with me',' Hepa says with a laugh.
Pat Benson says son William was ``a pretty average little boy and never qualified' for the swimming junior nationals (under-12s).
``His stature started improving when he was about 15-16 [years old] because he was strong and had good work ethics,' says the Bay company director, whose son was dux and head boy of Hastings Boys' High School before heading to Auckland to pursue tertiary education.
Unlike fellow ex-Primo Sundevil swimmer Daniel Bell, Pat believes William lacks flexibility and Bell's aerobic fitness.
``So it's not particularly a physical thing, but a combination of several factors,' he says of late-bloomer William.
Not wanting him to end up in the ``what-if' wasteland of sport, Pat recommended William give it his best shot when his son approached him for advice.
``He's given it his best effort and I'm so proud of him,' he says, adding that William reserves the right to quit tomorrow if he so desires.
Having transported William with his four other children in their family people mover for years around the country, Pat says Bay swimmers were fortunate to have former champion Olympian Jon Winter at Sundevils, because the coach's enthusiasm rubbed off on them.
Describing William akin to an ``awestruck little boy' in Beijing, Pat feels it's ``pretty cool' that his son has taken a photo with American NBA star basketballer James LeBron.
NOTE: The fathers of rowers Emma Twigg and the Evers-Swindell twins, Georgina and Caroline, declined SportToday's request for an interview.