History of the Club
The Club's beginnings
The Casey Seals had its roots back in 2000 when some members of the North Lodge Neptunes masters club in North Dandenong heard that a new state-of-the-art complex was going to be built next to the Fountain Gate shopping centre.
The split from North Lodge Neptunes
At that time, the North Lodge training sessions were held at the small, privately-owned North Lodge Swimming Academy on Stud Rd. The lanes were narrow, the lane ropes were just ropes, and it certainly did not have the glitz and glamour of modern pools. However, we had exclusive use of the whole pool for our training sessions, and we felt at home there. The North Lodge club was one of the first masters clubs in Australia and had a long and proud history. Many of the members had been with North Lodge for a long time, so there was a strong sense of loyalty to the club and the pool.
However, several members could see that there were opportunities to broaden the membership base to cover other pools in the outer southeastern suburbs. When news of the proposed Casey ARC was heard, they realised that if the club did not spread out to include that pool, another club would form and become strong very quickly. It could even lead to North Lodge struggling to survive.
However, in October 2001, the proposal was rejected by the club, so Greg & Lee Chaplin, Jan Williams and Greg Bailey left North Lodge and set up a new club at Casey ARC.
Selecting the club name, logo and colours
Before the new club could be created, a few things needed to be resolved such as the club name, aims, logo, colours, training arrangements, etc.
The Casey ARC management were very supportive and wanted to have a masters swimming squad or club based at the pool. We therefore felt that it would be a good gesture to acknowledge this somehow. So we decided to include the word "Casey" in the name (this also reflected the surrounding district of Casey) and match the club colours to the Casey ARC colours, resulting in:
| Orange | Dark blue | Light blue |
So we had the colours, and part of the name, but we needed more than just "Casey". We wanted to choose something that swam well and belonged to our part of the world. It quickly came down to a choice between the penguins and seals of Phillip Island, and latter won out.
A club was born - November 2001
The club started in November 2001 when the Casey ARC complex opened and, shortly afterwards in January 2002, the club was incorporated as the Casey Seals Masters Swimming Club.
First Training session
We were fortunate to secure Nigel Krieger as our coach from the start and 5 swimmers were present at the first training session held on Wednesday 21 November 2001, within a few weeks of the Casey ARC opening.
First committee
Initially a "caretaker" committee of Greg Bailey, Jan Williams and Greg & Lee Chaplin was formed to oversee the running of the club until an inaugural AGM could be held to elect the full committee.
The first committee was elected at the AGM held on 20 January 2002 (click here to see the Notice for the meeting).
Membership explosion
Interest in the fledgling club spread rapidly and numbers at training also increased. Within a year, we were getting upto 30 swimmers at training and taking up 5 full lanes (this was before the Casey Tigersharks were training every night at Casey ARC).
This settled back into more manageable numbers a few years later, but the enthusiasm of those early years has certainly not abated.
Talks with the Casey Tiger Sharks
Around 2004, Ben Hiddlestone became the head coach of the Casey Tiger Sharks, the swimming club for age-group & open swimmers at Casey ARC, and immediately we could see the difference in that club. We recognised the benefits of joining with the Tiger Sharks club: benefits of scale for uniforms and equipment, access to coaches, a natural pathway from their squads to ours, etc.
The two clubs held a number of discussions to see if there was a way that this idea could come to fruition. Unfortunately, there were a few too many obstacles at that time and it was agreed not to proceed with the idea.
Major Competitions
The Casey Seals have always promoted pool competitions. They are great fun and the camaraderie makes these events unmissable, even for those who come along just to watch and support their family and friends.
We have grown from having just a handful of swimmers at competitions to becoming the fourth strongest Masters club in Victoria. Have a look at our achievements and results here.
We have attended every Masters Swimming Australia national championships since 2002 and a number of international meets, both here and overseas. The following are a couple of the major events we have attended.
WMG Melbourne 2002
The World Masters Games are a multi-sport event held every 4 years around the world, attracting the top masters athletes from around the world. It lays claim to the biggest sporting event in the world in terms of the number of competitors.
Our young club had a number of competitors in the swimming events in the pool at MSAC and open-water at Hazelwood.
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We also had Jan Williams organising the catering and social events for the Games and Lee Chaplin was on the information desk at the pool.
World Championships Perth 2008
The FINA Masters World Championships were held at the Challenge Stadium in Perth in April 2008. This attracted a top-class field, including many ex-Olympians and world champions.
Our World Champs team was:
- Cecilia Benedict
- Greg Chaplin
- Ebony Ebenwaldner
- Peter Ebenwaldner
- Ann Gibbs (Hutchings)
- Jan Gooey
- Debbie Morris
- Aurel Wachter
- Malcolm Winder
WMG Sydney Oct 2009
The World Masters Games in Sydney attracted over 32,000 competitors. The Casey Seals team was the biggest we've had for an interstate event with 14 swimmers, as well as families and friends. Raelene also won several medals in athletics events.
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and Turtle Bear
(as an actively participating spectator). |
Open Water Swimming
We've got a proud history of promoting open water swimming, right from the start of the club back in 2001, and have many outstanding achievements:
- The Casey Seals Open Water Swimming Calendar for Victoria has been published annually since 2004, and is now the best source of information about open water swimming events.
- Ebony Ebenwaldner (nee Currell) has won the Lorne Pier to Pub twice.
- Sonia Halsvik, Ann Gibbs (Hutchings) and Ebony Ebenwaldner have won the St Vincent's Hospital Open Water Series.
- Our annual Open Water Award is hotly contested each year.
The Coaches
Nigel Krieger
2001 - 2004
Nigel Krieger was our coach from the club's first training session on 21 November 2001 through to early 2004 and was the North Lodge Neptunes coach when we split to form the Casey Seals.
He was as excited as we were about the new facilities and the new club. He could see the potential of the club, with its fantastic location and training facilities, ensuring a long-term source of new members and keeping the enthusiasm of club members high.
In addition, having an excellent and very affordable gym at Casey ARC meant that Nigel was able to design tailored gym programs for any squad members who asked. He was a qualified fitness trainer himself, and was able to discuss the programs with the gym staff to maximise the benefits for the swimmers.
Stewart Nicoll
2004 - 2005
Stewart Nicoll was coaching the Casey Tigersharks at the time that Nigel finished coaching us.
We had seen Stewart coaching and were impressed with his knowledge and techniques. He wasn't able to start coaching us immediately, but he supplied us programs for our sessions for several weeks until he finished his coaching stint with the Tigersharks and had reorganised his other training sessions (he was also coaching at an exclusive school).
Stewart had an infectiously positive attitude and this revitalised our squad. Unfortunately (for us), he accepted a head coach position with another age-group club which had conflicting training times, so he had to finish coaching us.
Ann Gibbs
2007 & backup coach
Ann Gibbs (aka Ann Hutchings) is one of our members who has taken the Masters Level 1 coaching course and is now an accredited Masters coach. She is one of the club's backup coaches and has shown how important it is for the club to have people that can be asked to coach the squad when the main coach is unavailable.
Gloria Hardy
2009 - 2010
Gloria coached us on Wednesday nights during 2009 and 2010, applying many years of experience as coach, swimming instructor and competitive swimmer (a North Lodge Neptunes member, she holds a large number of Victorian Masters records and an Australian Masters record).
She is a swimming instructor for Casey ARC, taking adult swim classes - we usually direct people to her squad when they ask about adult swimming lessons or those who are not quite ready for our squad training.
Ebony Ebenwaldner
2006 - 2008, 2009 onwards
Ebony took over the job of coach in October 2006 and continued through to June 2008 when she had to resign due to her accepting a role coaching squads at Monash Uni swim club.
Ebony has had a distinguished career as a top-level pool and open water swimmer and has coached age-group squads for many years.
She is one of Australia's top open water swimmers, having twice won the world-famous Lorne Pier to Pub ocean swim (under her maiden name of Ebony Currell) and is usually on the podium after her races.
Ebony has coached at:
- Haileybury Waterlions, one of Victoria's leading swimming clubs
- Oasis Otters in Dandenong, and
- Monash Uni Swim Club, assisting Ross Price.
This experience as a top pool & open-water swimmer and many years as coach has proven to be a fantastic asset to our squad. Her enthusiasm is as great as her swimming and coaching ability, and she knows just how hard we need to be pushed to get the most benefit from training (ranging from a gentle suggestion for some through to a good yell for others).
