LEAD STORY - SWIMMING: Honour for dedicated Bay swim coach

ANENDRA SINGH
Bert Cotterill is every bit his father's son. Last weekend the 73-year-old Napier Aquahawks foundation member became a life member of Swimming New Zealand, emulating his late father, Joe, who was a member of Wanganui East Club.
Cotterill, a Hawke's Bay-Poverty Bay and Aquahawk life member too, spent more than four decades in Hawke's Bay as a school teacher.
``I keep meeting people in the countryside and they ask me if I lived here. When I say yes, they say I taught them how to swim,' Cotterill tells SportToday.
``I then reply that I must have done a good job because you haven't drowned,' he says.
The stalwart, who now lives in the Bay of Plenty, was passing through Hastings after returning from the funeral of former New Zealand surf lifesaving teammate and elite swim coach Duncan Laing in Dunedin.
``Both Duncan and I represented the country in surf lifesaving when it was a demonstration sport at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956,' says Cotterill, who spent a couple of days this week with bosom pal and fellow iconic swim coach John Beaumont, of Havelock North.
On the way to Hastings he and wife Pam attended Swim NZ's AGM in Lower Hutt last Sunday to be honoured for his 65 years of affiliation with the national body.
``It's been a longtime passion and enjoyment for me and I've had great support, especially from my wife,' he says.
His passion for aquatic sports began at Wanganui East Club when 7-year-old Albert (Only his late mother, Daisy, called him that when he misbehaved.) grabbed every opportunity to tag along with his father.
Rugby and rowing were his other passions but rowing was pushed to the backburner when 18 years of competitive swimming at national level eclipsed it.
In the mid-1950s employment in the Bay beckoned and Cotterill taught at Parkvale, Taradale Intermediate and Colenso High schools.
In 1983 he was behind the move to combine the Kiwi and Natadores swimming clubs to form Napier Aquahawks. His time in the Bay has been unforgettable.
``Swimming is just like one big gigantic family in Hawke's Bay and I've met some wonderful people and swimmers,' he says.
Cotterill, who has served in myriad coaching and administrative roles that have taken him to meetings in Europe and Asia, has coached three swimmers - all from Hawke's Bay - to the Olympics. They are Sandra Whittleston, of Napier, in butterfly to the 1968 Mexico Games; John Coutts, of Hastings, in butterfly to the Montreal Games in 1976; and Sharron Musson, of Napier, in backstroke to the Seoul Games in 1988.
A New Zealand Swimming Federation coaching director's role in 1991 saw him leave the school environment but at the turn of the century Cotterill's attempts to ``retire' turned out to be a false alarm when he left the Bay and found himself in the thick of coaching in Gisborne.
A trustee these days with the New Zealand Swim Trust, Cotterill is enjoying helping paint his daughter's house at Waihi Beach in Bay of Plenty.